Sounds great. Are there any other company that have similar values?
How to run a calm workplace: review of Basecamp's book
31–38 of 38 posts
Re: How to run a calm workplace: review of Basecamp's book
#32I found it interesting (just started reading it, so this is near the beginning) that they have no employees in the SF Bay Area. Since I assume they are using Ruby and RoR (heh), it seems like there must be some filtering function removing the many talented developers expert in their stack from their recruiting pool. It could be as simple as salary (maybe they aren't willing to pay "market-rate" for SV) or it could be…
What percentage of the world's technologists and designers live in SV? I don't know what it is but I bet it's overwhelmingly more everywhere else combined. Through that lens you can see how Basecamp ended up with 30 or so who don't live in SV.
(Disclosure: I work at Basecamp and don't live in SV.)
Re: How to run a calm workplace: review of Basecamp's book
#33I read the book and I enjoyed it. It still feels like a recruitment tool for Basecamp in the same way all "self help" books just seem to describe what the author does well, rather than how to deal own with personal difficulties. If you happen to have a company like theirs (<100 employees, ability to work remotely, profitable), this book will help better align your team's efforts and create a good work environment. If…
Management books have never been written for the people who are working at various companies. They're written for managers, usually higher level ones who have the power to actually change things, or those starting new companies. A tremendous amount of damage has been done by the management books written in the 1980s, whose influence lingers to this day. The way companies work certainly won't change for as long as every management book out there starts with "employees actually don't want money, they want recognition" and "you don't work for the customer, you work for your investors" and such things. So it is quite refreshing to see a book that apparently (I've not read it yet) puts forward the idea that if you don't make your company into some endurance game optimized to be as negative an experience as possible for employees, the whole world at least isn't guaranteed to implode.
Re: How to run a calm workplace: review of Basecamp's book
#34I read the book and I enjoyed it. It still feels like a recruitment tool for Basecamp in the same way all "self help" books just seem to describe what the author does well, rather than how to deal own with personal difficulties. If you happen to have a company like theirs (<100 employees, ability to work remotely, profitable), this book will help better align your team's efforts and create a good work environment. If…
I read RE:WORK when I was working for a large consulting firm supporting an even larger government client. While it doesn't do much to solve your current situation, it certainly helps you re-evaluate your basic assumptions about how you would like to work and what is possible in your work. I definitely began thinking about my projects differently.
Similarly, with REMOTE, I don't think I would've considered working remotely as a good option for me before reading the book, but here I am doing remote work and loving it.
The book is in my "To Read" queue but typically while aspirational I do find them helpful even if it is just to motivate you as a team lead or developer to carve out a calm niche for your team within a larger environment.
Re: How to run a calm workplace: review of Basecamp's book
#35Sounds like a lovely target for private equity. If you own a company that can afford to do this and want an out, ping me to ghostwrite your self help no-seller and we can get the jackals circling.
That is morally reprehensible and very smart. Find all the companies that have such great margins that they can treat their employees well and gut them for temporary gains. What about the opposite? Find companies that are massively over staffed and duplicate their product with 100x less people?
Missed my calling, apparently. But that's the calculation they make. Could see a lot of tech companies that raised insane valuations with institutional money whose revenues are otherwise respectable but don't justify those valuations, get picked up as distressed assets by PE firms during the next crash.
You need revenue to justify perks, so perks could be a tell. Hmm, glassdoor should have some data on this...
Re: How to run a calm workplace: review of Basecamp's book
#36Earlier quoted context omitted.
That is morally reprehensible and very smart. Find all the companies that have such great margins that they can treat their employees well and gut them for temporary gains. What about the opposite? Find companies that are massively over staffed and duplicate their product with 100x less people?
Missed my calling, apparently. But that's the calculation they make. Could see a lot of tech companies that raised insane valuations with institutional money whose revenues are otherwise respectable but don't justify those valuations, get picked up as distressed assets by PE firms during the next crash. You need revenue to justify perks, so perks could be a tell. Hmm, glassdoor should have some data on this...
Brewing 2nd and 3rd order signals. Machine learning, innocuous public information sources ...
Re: How to run a calm workplace: review of Basecamp's book
#37I read the book and I enjoyed it. It still feels like a recruitment tool for Basecamp in the same way all "self help" books just seem to describe what the author does well, rather than how to deal own with personal difficulties. If you happen to have a company like theirs (<100 employees, ability to work remotely, profitable), this book will help better align your team's efforts and create a good work environment. If…
I used to work for a VC funded startup that was full on Silicon Valley (HBO) style nuts. Wacky group living. CEO that thought he was reincarnated Steve Jobs. Just insane amounts of what I can only describe as "thrashing" as people tried to figure out what to work on, etc. I'm now working at an enterprise software company in the marketing group and it's "calm" in the sense that Basecamp uses the term. Everyone's a pro…
Who do you work for? I'm done with crazy.
Re: How to run a calm workplace: review of Basecamp's book
#38I read the book and I enjoyed it. It still feels like a recruitment tool for Basecamp in the same way all "self help" books just seem to describe what the author does well, rather than how to deal own with personal difficulties. If you happen to have a company like theirs (<100 employees, ability to work remotely, profitable), this book will help better align your team's efforts and create a good work environment. If…
It's useful to step back and realize that some of the things Basecamp advocates are privileges, not strategies. In other words, they've been blessed with enough success that they can choose the path they're on. OF COURSE there's a feedback loop—remote work helps them be more successful, without a doubt. But, the trade-offs Basecamp makes are not always available to other businesses, and do not offer the same clear up…
I don’t think this is fair to say because they have been writing like this for nearly 20 years. Getting Real and their blog predate Basecamp.