shoe sales vs programming
big difference in type of people needed and what those people need to be happy and productive.
Office comparison: 37signals vs Zappos
51–60 of 73 posts
Re: Office comparison: 37signals vs Zappos
#52summary: too much flair vs not enough
(Office Space movie reference. Hilarious must see.)
Re: Office comparison: 37signals vs Zappos
#53Summary: "Look how different these offices are. But wait, it turns out the way offices look doesn't matter."
Re: Office comparison: 37signals vs Zappos
#54Earlier quoted context omitted.
They were, you're right. The office will change over time as we settle in. It's already a lot more lively than those pictures showed. We have plants and fresh flowers and art and books and some other things starting to make their way into the space. Time takes care of the personality.
I really like that 37S chose actual chalkboards.
I can't write on a chalkboard or be in the same room as one that is being written on. The sound and feel of them gives me a perpetual shiver and extremely strong physical reaction.
The chalkboards would be a significant hindrance to my productivity. I much prefer a whiteboard for this reason.
Re: Office comparison: 37signals vs Zappos
#55Zappos workspace is bad from programmer point of view. Open space with lot of crap, phones on tables. May be this workspace is good for communication, someone could feel more happy in this workspace and so on but it's terrible for hacking. It looks like this envirement encourage interraptions. 37s office much better for productive work.
You say that, but Zappos' offices look more like most hacker personal spaces I've seen (just replace streamers with cables and turn the lights right down..) I know more geeks who live in a mess than those who adopt a stylistic, minimal approach. But maybe I know too many Unix nerds.. ;-)
You are confusing gamers with programmers
Re: Office comparison: 37signals vs Zappos
#5637signals' office seems to say, "You're in, you're out." Fried has, on multiple occasions, suggested that offices are the downfall of work. You're more productive in your natural environment. Their office seems to reflect that: You come in to work, quickly and efficiently, and then you leave and head home to get your real work done. In contrast, Zappos' office seems to say, "You're already home." [edit] It's also wor…
Like at the my home, at work my desk is clean, and only has things I require to do work and if I have something else, like tea equipment it sits in the office kitchen not on my desk. I might be a personal preference, but I would hate to collect all kinds of crap on my work desk.
37S is also a smaller company, so I would say that people there regard the whole office as their 'home' or house, not just their workspace. It's designed in a away that you can use the office like your home. You have separated rooms for different tasks and people working there are more like a family sharing a house not like a group of people sharing a space and having their own small private place. Like a family, you don't decorate your common areas (hopefully) by what whatever anybody wants, but more having some style, while allowing personal items in some places.
Re: Office comparison: 37signals vs Zappos
#57Apples to Oranges. Zappos is a support oriented culture whereas folks at 37s need a lot of quite time. I can't imagine Jamis Buck writing all his awesome maze algorithms while surrounded by balloons and tents everywhere.
This is the whole point. A support/service culture requires constant communication. (And a cheery environment. If you've ever entered a phone support center, you know the cloud of dread, dullness and desparation that's normally there).
37signals needs serenity and calm to be able to think.
Re: Office comparison: 37signals vs Zappos
#5837signals office is similar to left-brain: ordered, clean, and structured.
Zappos office is right-brain oriented: a bunch of spontaneous stuff everywhere.
What this actually means is that Zappos overload and "shutdown" right brain, making left brain talk to people (verbal communication is the left brain's job).
37signals overload the left brain, making right brain hack software and come up with out-of-the-box solutions to problems.
Re: Office comparison: 37signals vs Zappos
#59I wouldn't want to work in Zappos's office. It just doesn't look appealing to me at all. On the other hand, the 37s offices feel cool . The Zappos offices are Office Space-like cubicles covered in random crap. The 37s offices send a very different message; if you're going to work in an office (hopefully, not all the time), I'd much rather be in that environment. I think it comes down to this: the style of the 37s off…
Agreed. It looks like you can't work at zappos without at least 15 pieces of flair. You want to have flair, don't you?
Re: Office comparison: 37signals vs Zappos
#60Something tells me that if someone at 37signals put up a huge green and blue tent around their desk, they wouldn’t get a high-five in the hallway. The unspoken message to 37signals employees is this: “Don’t touch. Don’t put your stamp on this office.”
Or maybe the 37signals employees had the good taste to pass on turning their workspace into a kindergarten classroom when given the option.