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37Signals Breaks Free of Rigid Work Culture
By: Don E. Sears
2009-11-06
Article Rating:    / 6
There are 5 user comments on this IT Management story.
You don't have to be locked in a cubicle for 60 hours a week to complete your technological work or to be successful. 37Signals, a Web software company that makes organizational apps like Basecamp, Ta-da List and Backpack, thrives by helping workers find more freedom with their time and recharge daily as they see fit while focusing on getting things done.With 3 million customers and only 16 employees, 37Signals
seems to have found a nice balance for its employees and its owners; at least,
that's the impression one takes from a recent article written in Inc. by one of 37Signals' founders,
Jason Fried.
Want to work at home? Cool. Want to come in to the office? No problem. Want to
take a few hours off in the middle of the day to goof off and look at Internet
videos or read? Please do it; it's encouraged, Fried said. He doesn't believe
in treating employees like children.
Oh, and he detests meetings, so the company doesn't really have them. There is
group chat software they use (Campfire, 37Signals' own application) through
which people can post questions, make suggestions and "meet" as
needed.
Meetings are "a huge waste of time, and they're costly. It's not 1 hour;
it's 10, because you pulled 10 people away from their real work. Plus, they chop
your day into small bits, so you have only 20 minutes of free time here or 45
minutes there," Fried wrote in the Inc. article.
If an issue is urgent, it will be addressed, as Fried, his partners and his
employees are generally working moment to moment, something that Fried suggests
keeps him grounded and keeps the company focused on its customers and their
needsthough Fried is not afraid to tell
his customers that they are probably not going to get everything they ask for.
Here's Fried's take on his day:
"I might work from home for a week
and then get bored of that, so I will spend the next week at the office. I live
about two miles from my office... I usually get to work between 10 a.m. and 11 a.m. Of the 16 people at
the company, eight of us live here in Chicago. Employees come to
the office if and when they feel like it, or else they work from home. I don't
believe in the 40-hour workweek, so we cut all that BS about being somewhere
for a certain number of hours. I have no idea how many hours my employees workI just know they get the work done."
After his midday recharging by reading nonfiction books and drinking tea, Fried
said he usually finds another productive spurt in the late afternoon, then in
the evening after dinner, where he puts in a few more hours.
How does this unorthodox work culture get employees to connect with each other?
Beyond collaborating on daily projects, the company has two paid vacations
where they all get a chance to be together.
It sounds idyllic, but it isn't clear how well this would work for many larger
businesses in enterprise technology and elsewhere. It's difficult to imagine
that this work environment would work for everyone. But isn't it nice to hear from
a business owner willing to shake up the day-to-day so everyone can focus on
getting work done, rather than feel they are chained to their chairs?
When products are near launch at 37Signals things get hectic, admitted Fried,
but he and his team are not rattled. This culture appears to work very well for
the kind of business they are in ... They build products that they want to use,
and they make them simple. It's refreshing to hear that simplicity translates
over into the daily lives of workers.
| | Reader Comments: 37Signals Breaks Free of Rigid Work Culture | | >>> Post your comment now!
| | I am in a large company...I actually work like this, too. I'm in a very large company, but a very small workgroup. We work exactly this way and get a LOT done! I am very... Posted At: 11-10-09 By: Anonymous | | | | | | I am in a large company...I actually work like this, too. I'm in a very large company, but a very small workgroup. We work exactly this way and get a LOT done! I am very... Posted At: 11-10-09 By: JohnB | | | | | | A user comment on this articleYou would think a larger, more structured organization would actually be more organized and rigid in what they expect their employees to accomplish.... Posted At: 11-10-09 By: Anonymous | | | | | | Sending a MessageI see more to the viability of the message being sent than to the practical workability of the way they do things at 37Signals. The industrial-age... Posted At: 11-10-09 By: DaveH | | | | | | Its good to be smallGreat for 16 people but hard to do with 10K in the place I work. We have pretty flexible schedules but when you have to work within the context of... Posted At: 11-10-09 By: Anonymous | | | | | | >>> Post your comment now! | | | | | |
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