4 ms·

I would be highly suprised if you had consulted all your staff on such issues, generally such a thing may be discussed early on when policy is set, but it's unl

I would be highly suprised if you had consulted all your staff on such issues, generally such a thing may be discussed early on when policy is set, but it's unlikely to be reviewed after some staff churn but I'll take your word on it. Regardless, he's aruging for something that's going against the grain, so he doesn't need to actually give a balanced approach. We already know the advantages and hopefully the disadvantages or working set hours, so we don't need to hear it, we just need a strong argument for his point of view. You don't generally route for the other side in a debate, so the complaints are misplaced. Also it's not surprising as an employer you feel set hours are the right approach for you. I'm not making a judgment on you, but it's very common for employers to make leaving at 5 O'clock very awkward and they never seem to have a problem asking employees to do work out of hours, while generally being very quiet about policy to get that time back. Over the short term, abusing your employees in such a way comes with no disadvantages, so the employers love it. Long term, the same employees will probably become disheartened, but we live in a society where we'd rather replace those employees and charge on ahead. If you do any of these things, you're the type of employer the article is arguing against, if not, then your morale is probably fine which is the real undertone of such articles.

ColinWright 13y ago
We did consult all our staff, with only 25 it wasn't hard. There were differences of opinion, but a balance was found. Further, we have no churn - as I write this, no one has left in the last 11 years. We are explicit about out-of-hours work, because sometimes we have engineers in the field working in very different time zones. In those cases the staff decide among themselves who will be providing support, and the company policies about recompense are clear. The compensation policies were agreed by all affected staff, and they seem genuinely content. We take this seriously, not least because it would be possible to abuse our position.
- ownagefool 13y ago
  Well I'm not super suprised if you actually treat your employees right that you don't have a lot of staff churn. Removing abusing your employees, pay them resonably well, and give them something to do, and you've probably removed 90% of the reasons people move company, especially considering most employees know it probably won't be the case if they move elsewhere. Truly well done if that's the case, it's a shame that such a thing seems to be the exception from my experience. :)
  - onemorepassword 13y ago
    > such a thing seems to be the exception from my experience Here's an interesting thing: from my experience (and I've worked for many companies over 25+ years) this is not a rare exception. However, such a culture absolutely requires mature, responsible, reliable and honest employees. Maintaining such a culture requires everyone's active effort, not just that of the boss. Companies select for that, those qualities often carries more weight than skill or experience. Time and time I've seen people bitching about their work environment in a way which immediately sets of alarms about that person. I wouldn't hire them, and I'm guessing neither would ColinWright. Don't take this personally, I don't know you or your experience, but I think many people who complain about good employers being rare should take a look in the mirror.
    - ownagefool 13y ago
      I'm not taking it personally, it was a good comment, but i think you could be off slightly. It really depends how you're finding jobs, where you're working and how many companies you've worked for, your personality, etc. You're from a different generation from me and you have much more experience, so hopefully you're right. On the other hand, I think it's possible that things have changed and the people out there who'll attempt to exploit youth could be more common. Personally I've been offered jobs by people I know who'll treat me right, that's an option I didn't have when I was 20, but it's a different story now I'm _almost_ 30. It's probably a bit of both either way though. :)

ColinWright 13y ago

We did consult all our staff, with only 25 it wasn't hard. There were differences of opinion, but a balance was found. Further, we have no churn - as I write this, no one has left in the last 11 years. We are explicit about out-of-hours work, because sometimes we have engineers in the field working in very different time zones. In those cases the staff decide among themselves who will be providing support, and the company policies about recompense are clear. The compensation policies were agreed by all affected staff, and they seem genuinely content. We take this seriously, not least because it would be possible to abuse our position.

ownagefool 13y ago
Well I'm not super suprised if you actually treat your employees right that you don't have a lot of staff churn. Removing abusing your employees, pay them resonably well, and give them something to do, and you've probably removed 90% of the reasons people move company, especially considering most employees know it probably won't be the case if they move elsewhere. Truly well done if that's the case, it's a shame that such a thing seems to be the exception from my experience. :)
- onemorepassword 13y ago
  > such a thing seems to be the exception from my experience Here's an interesting thing: from my experience (and I've worked for many companies over 25+ years) this is not a rare exception. However, such a culture absolutely requires mature, responsible, reliable and honest employees. Maintaining such a culture requires everyone's active effort, not just that of the boss. Companies select for that, those qualities often carries more weight than skill or experience. Time and time I've seen people bitching about their work environment in a way which immediately sets of alarms about that person. I wouldn't hire them, and I'm guessing neither would ColinWright. Don't take this personally, I don't know you or your experience, but I think many people who complain about good employers being rare should take a look in the mirror.
  - ownagefool 13y ago
    I'm not taking it personally, it was a good comment, but i think you could be off slightly. It really depends how you're finding jobs, where you're working and how many companies you've worked for, your personality, etc. You're from a different generation from me and you have much more experience, so hopefully you're right. On the other hand, I think it's possible that things have changed and the people out there who'll attempt to exploit youth could be more common. Personally I've been offered jobs by people I know who'll treat me right, that's an option I didn't have when I was 20, but it's a different story now I'm _almost_ 30. It's probably a bit of both either way though. :)