Susan Dominus, writing for the NYT Magazine, writes about the importance of team culture over policy. The focus of the article is to illustrate the point that even when companies tout flexibility through corporate policy, it can take time for team members to feel comfortable allowing their personal life to encroach upon the boundaries of their professional life. The article is a good one (part of an interesting series titled, “THE WORK ISSUE: REIMAGINING THE OFFICE”). Dominus states that making…
All posts in work
Interesting insight into what Basecamp offers their employees. If you’ve worked for a SaaS company or are familiar with the industry, a lot of the benefits have become common. Free equipment, on-premise snacks and drinks, perhaps a gym allowance, in-house massages. All the books from Amazon you can ask for. Shares! What’s clear in this article is that Basecamp offers quite a few more benefits than many established SaaS companies do. It’s certainly more than most startups. I’ve had the blessing…
Are we making the best choices for communication? Or are current trends reducing our ability to do work that requires our full attention?
A review of Cal Newport's Deep Work, one of the best books I've read in some time.
Sitting all day is bad for humans, this we know. But is standing any better?
Allison Wagner touches on an aspect of our industry that is problematic. She gives it a clever title: the two year itch: > Some people seek professional growth where the grass appears greener and the chairs more ergonomic. Just a generation ago, many of our parents worked for the same organization for their entire working life. My dad worked for himself for many years, but he eventually sold his business and started working for another company. And he's still there. How many people under 40 do…
Laura Shenck shares a personal anecdote about the issues she faced regarding job titles. Her story includes applying for a role that was titled one way, then being tested in a manner befitting a role of another type. Why do we seem to struggle so much with titles in our industry? I suspect it's due partly to the rapid pace at which the Internet has evolved, the underlying technologies, tools, and frameworks shifting constantly so that those who build things for the web are ever learning. While…
John Herman has some astute observations about Slack and how it's changing office culture. As people migrate to it from other options, there's no denying it feels better. But that may not necessarily be healthy. As Mr. Herman states > But the thing about Slack that gives you that low dread of unstoppable acceleration is how fully it encompasses how you talk to coworkers … And the problem with this: > Slack allows, in the most extreme cases, for a full performance of work—the clocking in, the…