5 ms·

Here's some free perks that a startup can provide: remote work, flexible hours, no to open-plans, freedom to use any software/OS the developer wants to.

by nawitus 13y ago

jaggederest 13y ago
That's exactly what I was thinking - "Hmm, strange, somehow I manage to do all those things for myself without having my employer involved." The advantages small companies have are about flexibility, not about doing chores. If I wanted to be coddled I'd work for google.
labaraka 13y ago
Individual offices are far from free.
- gaius 13y ago
  And there are costs too if everyone's on their own OS and language, in integration and testing and support if the one guy who wrote some critical piece of code in FORTRAN77 on OpenVMS decides to leave...
  - bovermyer 13y ago
    I don't think nawitus intended for his statement to refer to his actual work - just the work environment. As an example - everybody writes PHP, but some do it on OS X, some on Ubuntu, some on Win8, etc.
    - nawitus 13y ago
      Yep.
tptacek 13y ago
None of those perks are free. Some of them are extremely expensive.
jonnathanson 13y ago
"no to open-plans" And best of luck to small startups looking for affordable and scalable office space without open floor plans, especially in the Bay Area. I'm as opposed to open plans as anyone. But they're usually a necessary evil for a company trying to keep its burn rate under control. Doubly so for a company trying to keep burn under control while simultaneously growing quickly.
- nawitus 13y ago
  That's a good point if the startup is located in Bay Area.
  - eli 13y ago
    I think that's a good point most places. Acquiring enough office space to get everyone an office is never going to be free.
    - jaggederest 13y ago
      I really don't understand why a company under cash constraints that's doing digital work would have a physical office anyway. Consider it as a perk - how many thousands of dollars a month do people spend on office space? Would the employees be happier taking that money as salary and working remotely? I'd bet so.
      - eli 13y ago
        I thought that too when we started our company, but my co-founders convinced me we needed a space. They were right. The company (and certainly the culture) is better because we mostly all work near each other, and see each other, and can overhear problems other people are having. I suppose the math might be different if I were paying SF rents. YMMV.
        nawitus 13y ago
        You don't know if it's better, since you can't compare the two alternatives.
tdfx 13y ago
Flexible hours mixed with remote work are the top ones for me. I typically do my best work before I shower and get dressed for the day, or from 7-11pm at night. The hours when I would be required to be at an office (9-5) are literally a dead zone of productivity for me. I'm actually working at the office today and I haven't accomplished a single tangible thing due to interruptions, informal chats, and meetings. Between that and watching the nicest, sunniest hours of the day out of a small window, it's really killing my motivation.
teh_klev 13y ago
Flexible hours, yep fair enough. But the others... well... - remote work - I agree, it's a nice to have, but if you're joining a startup you're a new team member, you need to be in the same office to get used to each other, up to speed etc (unless of course you're all BFF). Trust me, been there done that and still tackling that problem, it's not as simple as it sounds, especially for new starts. Perhaps after 6 to 12 months we'll consider 2-3 work from home days if you've never done this before. [Disclosure: I work remotely - ~600miles from HQ - and have done for my company for almost 11 years] - open-plans - until the startup gets seed A money forget open plans, even with seed A it'll be the founders/senior devs who'll be on first come, first served for that office with a door. As a new employee you'll be open plan until your company can afford such luxuries. The best I got at a startup was after second round funding (the kind that affords 20-30 employees new Kinnarps desks, chairs, a proper phone system and a proper server room) and moved into an office with three other staff. - freedom to use any software/OS the developer wants to - well, what can I say. Your startup has a goal which is definitely not worrying about you wasting time making the stuff you wrote on some obscure distro work with their environment. Forget that one. Everyone needs to be singing from the same hymn book with their dev envs and not wasting time wondering why some crap doesn't work on your machine but does on the standardised platform. Otherwise it adds to the burnrate, suck it up you'll use the tools/OS you're told to....and yes been there before and spent days with a guy who wouldn't use anything but Slackware getting some crap for a demo to work that was targeted at CentOS. None of the above are free, except perhaps flexible hours. Where I work we're pretty flexible for school runs, medical appts, or hell, you just fancy a lie in for an extra couple of hours (provided you let someone know)....as long as the work gets done, and you didn't have anything on your calendar involving a client or other team member that is mission critical then we can flex hours.
- deleted 13y ago
  [deleted]

Here's some free perks that a startup can provide: remote work, flexible hours, no to open-plans, freedom to use any software/OS the developer wants to.

by nawitus 13y ago

Here's some free perks that a startup can provide: remote work, flexible hours, no to open-plans, freedom to use any software/OS the developer wants to.

jaggederest 13y ago

That's exactly what I was thinking - "Hmm, strange, somehow I manage to do all those things for myself without having my employer involved." The advantages small companies have are about flexibility, not about doing chores. If I wanted to be coddled I'd work for google.

labaraka 13y ago

Individual offices are far from free.

gaius 13y ago
And there are costs too if everyone's on their own OS and language, in integration and testing and support if the one guy who wrote some critical piece of code in FORTRAN77 on OpenVMS decides to leave...
- bovermyer 13y ago
  I don't think nawitus intended for his statement to refer to his actual work - just the work environment. As an example - everybody writes PHP, but some do it on OS X, some on Ubuntu, some on Win8, etc.
  - nawitus 13y ago
    Yep.

tptacek 13y ago

None of those perks are free. Some of them are extremely expensive.

jonnathanson 13y ago

"no to open-plans" And best of luck to small startups looking for affordable and scalable office space without open floor plans, especially in the Bay Area. I'm as opposed to open plans as anyone. But they're usually a necessary evil for a company trying to keep its burn rate under control. Doubly so for a company trying to keep burn under control while simultaneously growing quickly.

nawitus 13y ago
That's a good point if the startup is located in Bay Area.
- eli 13y ago
  I think that's a good point most places. Acquiring enough office space to get everyone an office is never going to be free.
  - jaggederest 13y ago
    I really don't understand why a company under cash constraints that's doing digital work would have a physical office anyway. Consider it as a perk - how many thousands of dollars a month do people spend on office space? Would the employees be happier taking that money as salary and working remotely? I'd bet so.
    - eli 13y ago
      I thought that too when we started our company, but my co-founders convinced me we needed a space. They were right. The company (and certainly the culture) is better because we mostly all work near each other, and see each other, and can overhear problems other people are having. I suppose the math might be different if I were paying SF rents. YMMV.
      - nawitus 13y ago
        You don't know if it's better, since you can't compare the two alternatives.

tdfx 13y ago

Flexible hours mixed with remote work are the top ones for me. I typically do my best work before I shower and get dressed for the day, or from 7-11pm at night. The hours when I would be required to be at an office (9-5) are literally a dead zone of productivity for me. I'm actually working at the office today and I haven't accomplished a single tangible thing due to interruptions, informal chats, and meetings. Between that and watching the nicest, sunniest hours of the day out of a small window, it's really killing my motivation.

teh_klev 13y ago

Flexible hours, yep fair enough. But the others... well... - remote work - I agree, it's a nice to have, but if you're joining a startup you're a new team member, you need to be in the same office to get used to each other, up to speed etc (unless of course you're all BFF). Trust me, been there done that and still tackling that problem, it's not as simple as it sounds, especially for new starts. Perhaps after 6 to 12 months we'll consider 2-3 work from home days if you've never done this before. [Disclosure: I work remotely - ~600miles from HQ - and have done for my company for almost 11 years] - open-plans - until the startup gets seed A money forget open plans, even with seed A it'll be the founders/senior devs who'll be on first come, first served for that office with a door. As a new employee you'll be open plan until your company can afford such luxuries. The best I got at a startup was after second round funding (the kind that affords 20-30 employees new Kinnarps desks, chairs, a proper phone system and a proper server room) and moved into an office with three other staff. - freedom to use any software/OS the developer wants to - well, what can I say. Your startup has a goal which is definitely not worrying about you wasting time making the stuff you wrote on some obscure distro work with their environment. Forget that one. Everyone needs to be singing from the same hymn book with their dev envs and not wasting time wondering why some crap doesn't work on your machine but does on the standardised platform. Otherwise it adds to the burnrate, suck it up you'll use the tools/OS you're told to....and yes been there before and spent days with a guy who wouldn't use anything but Slackware getting some crap for a demo to work that was targeted at CentOS. None of the above are free, except perhaps flexible hours. Where I work we're pretty flexible for school runs, medical appts, or hell, you just fancy a lie in for an extra couple of hours (provided you let someone know)....as long as the work gets done, and you didn't have anything on your calendar involving a client or other team member that is mission critical then we can flex hours.

deleted 13y ago
[deleted]