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The trouble with this is that he suggests all these things that are imitations of what big companies do. How about doing something that there's no way a compan

The trouble with this is that he suggests all these things that are imitations of what big companies do. How about doing something that there's no way a company like google would do? - Close the company. Maybe your company just isn't open for two weeks in December or nobody has to work on Fridays during the summer. Nobody feels like they're falling behind and everybody gets a break from each other. - REALLY flexible working arrangements. There was a story on HN about a small broadcaster that allowed an employee to go surfing whenever the waves were really great. Maybe somebody is really into Phish and gets a day off every time Phish plays a show within 500 miles or gets time off to go to March Madness if their favorite team gets in. -Real choice in offices. Small companies often move several times in their early history. Look for opportunities to involve employees in office decision-making and let them arrange and decorate their own work areas. -Real support of their outside lives. This one is two-fold: 1) make sure your employees have time to have lives outside of work, and 2) support those activities. Sponsor the your employee's kid's boy scout troop or let your employees use the office for gaming after hours. (Don't be creepy about it if they don't want company involvement, though.)

ericmsimons 13y ago
Great point. Perks that only startups can provide + parity with big co's perks = super attractive job offers.
_delirium 13y ago
> nobody has to work on Fridays during the summer Not sure if you're already meaning to refer to it implicitly, but fwiw 37Signals does this. They work 5-day workweeks October-May, and 4-day workweeks May-October.
- minimax 13y ago
  Makes even more sense when you consider that 37 signals is located in Chicago where winters are brutal (yay polar vortex) and summers are awesome.
vonmoltke 13y ago
> - Close the company. Maybe your company just isn't open for two weeks in December or nobody has to work on Fridays during the summer. Nobody feels like they're falling behind and everybody gets a break from each other. TI, Raytheon, Lockheed, Northrop, and Boeing[1] close from Christmas Eve through New Years day, and virtually everyone takes the 3 or 4 days off that are required to round it out to two full weeks. A long-time TI employee I used to work with told me TI started doing this for overhead reasons. TI has a large number of fabs, assembly areas, and buildings that are basically high ceiling, wide open flex space. These areas all have to be heated or cooled as a whole, and the cost isn't much different if you have 2000 people in the building or 200. Somebody in corporate figured out that the company could actually save money by just giving everyone the days off and shutting down all the equipment instead of trying to get things done short-staffed. As a bonus, they figured they could sell it as a perk of working for TI. [1] I think

ericmsimons 13y ago

Great point. Perks that only startups can provide + parity with big co's perks = super attractive job offers.

_delirium 13y ago

> nobody has to work on Fridays during the summer Not sure if you're already meaning to refer to it implicitly, but fwiw 37Signals does this. They work 5-day workweeks October-May, and 4-day workweeks May-October.

minimax 13y ago
Makes even more sense when you consider that 37 signals is located in Chicago where winters are brutal (yay polar vortex) and summers are awesome.

vonmoltke 13y ago

> - Close the company. Maybe your company just isn't open for two weeks in December or nobody has to work on Fridays during the summer. Nobody feels like they're falling behind and everybody gets a break from each other. TI, Raytheon, Lockheed, Northrop, and Boeing[1] close from Christmas Eve through New Years day, and virtually everyone takes the 3 or 4 days off that are required to round it out to two full weeks. A long-time TI employee I used to work with told me TI started doing this for overhead reasons. TI has a large number of fabs, assembly areas, and buildings that are basically high ceiling, wide open flex space. These areas all have to be heated or cooled as a whole, and the cost isn't much different if you have 2000 people in the building or 200. Somebody in corporate figured out that the company could actually save money by just giving everyone the days off and shutting down all the equipment instead of trying to get things done short-staffed. As a bonus, they figured they could sell it as a perk of working for TI. [1] I think