Sad. Sad. Sad. This is macho BS, dressed in a cool start-up suit. No one is productive doing that year around.
Did I say 'year', I meant week.
How Google's Marissa Mayer Prevents Burnout
21–30 of 124 posts
Re: How Google's Marissa Mayer Prevents Burnout
#22Is this article trolling? Sure seems like it.
This business week article has some more supporting information about the Google folks asking permission to do family events... http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2012-04-12/how-to-avoid...
Re: How Google's Marissa Mayer Prevents Burnout
#23The paragraph When Mayer suspects an employee might burn out, she asks them to find their rhythm. They've come back with, "I need to be home for Tuesday night dinners," or "I need to be on time for my daughter's soccer games." really bothers me. If employee burnout is a regular thing inside your organization, that's a serious issue that needs solving. But to have to ask permission to spend time with your family is ri…
This really bothered me too. Maybe they just didn't phrase it well, but the sentence "Grant your employees one must-have freedom" is horrible. If you're considering freedoms something that have to be granted to you by your employer, or worse, if you're an employer who thinks that way, there's already something terribly, terribly wrong.
Re: How Google's Marissa Mayer Prevents Burnout
#24Even assuming she was not commuting to work (sleeping at the office), that leaves 5.4 hours a day for eating, sleeping, shitting, showering, brushing your teeth etc. Nobody can do it for more than a week or two.
There are a very few people who can, or can come close. They can make life miserable for people who work for them, merely by being an example.
In an NPR interview with the woman who wrote Why Women Can't Have It All, the woman said that Hilary Clinton limits her time in the office for precisely that reason, so that people don't stay in the office merely because Clinton is there.
Edit: The quote is in the audio linked from here: The Impossible Juggling Act: Motherhood And Work, http://www.npr.org/2012/06/21/155498926/the-impossible-juggl...
Re: How Google's Marissa Mayer Prevents Burnout
#25Wow - I feel heroic when I work late one day a week and my kid's events are automatically non-negotiable. Guess I shoudl be glad I'm not working at Google and still making a good living - can it last?
Re: How Google's Marissa Mayer Prevents Burnout
#26Maybe it's because I'm not at a company like Google, but all articles like this seem to do two things: 1) Make everyone who doesn't put in 130 hours a week at work feel like they're not Working Hard Enough 2) Legitimize unpaid overtime/ worker exploitation It seems that the quantity of "time spent at work" is emphasized over the quality of actual work done. I'd be curious what her work quality was over 130 hours, esp…
2) Legitimize unpaid overtime/ worker exploitation
I'm pretty sure most people understand that the only people who are going to even come close to what she's talking about here are A. founders, and B. early employees with significant equity stakes. IOW, people who stand to benefit to an extreme degree, if the company succeeds. In that case, it might actually make sense to work those kind of crazy hours, since the possible payoff means financial independence and the chance to live out some of one's dreams.
Now a company that's routinely asking non-founder employees with no equity to work more than ~40 hours a week on a regular basis... yeah, that's just not necessary.
Re: How Google's Marissa Mayer Prevents Burnout
#27Satire?
Re: How Google's Marissa Mayer Prevents Burnout
#28I love google, but I am calling bs on this.
+1, this reads more like corporate branding on how cool can early googlers be more than anything else. I'm pretty happy for her if she manages 130 hours a week, but this doesn't work for everyone... if any.
I don't really care in the debate of working your ass off or staying sane and mentally fresh to be productive, but Google pushing this fact is just plain sad.
What are we supposed to react? Just awe in admiration at the necessary self-destruction we're supposed to imitate?
Plus I was at the talk and it was sadly sadly corporate. If there is one thing I remember about Marissa Mayer is that she does the whole corporate PR / tough questions avoiding thing very well. In my mind this is what makes her so successful..
sad sad sad
Re: How Google's Marissa Mayer Prevents Burnout
#29Clearly exaggeration on her part about her hours. No one works 130 hours a week consistently, it is just physically not possible. This article is about everything wrong with corporate work environments.
1) Productivity is equivalent to time spent in the office. 2) Pressure your employees to work more than they should - No one should ever have to "ask" to get a weekday night off to have dinner with their family. 3) Managing resentment? If you are spending your time trying to manage your resentment to your job, you probably aren't being productive because you dislike the job. Nothing spells out bad productivity like disliking what you are doing.
Re: How Google's Marissa Mayer Prevents Burnout
#30> "Overwork doesn't burn people out per se, but it's doing that without knowing the things that replenish you." If you're working 130 hours a week, and sleeping a healthy 56 hours a week, that leaves you with negative 18 hours a week for replenishing yourself. Not even including showering, eating, etc. I'm sorry, but merely having dinner with your family on Tuesday nights is not what it takes to replenish yourself. I…
For me, "replenishing" activities come in larger hour chunks, but less often than daily. I point this out to reinforce the pp and tfa, knowing your limits and what you need is vital.
So is a regular or even constant monitor of it. Lives and people change, so what worked for me last year, is not really the same as what is working for me now. If you are in a high time demand situation, it is prudent to keep up with yourself on this, so you can change when needed, and work with your employer to help ensure the best satisfaction for all.