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We work a 4-day week and just raised $4.75m (2012)

ryancarson.com

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Re: We work a 4-day week and just raised $4.75m (2012)

#104
post #25
post #5

I worked at StreetEasy for 3 years (helping lead the dev team and writing lots of code) when it was a fast growing startup and we didn't work a 4 day week, but we worked normal business hours (9-5,10-6'ish) and never ever worked weekends - unless you felt like working on some code. One of the co-founders there had the opinion that we were in it for the long haul, not for the sprint, so why burn out early. This seemed…

Congrats on your company's success! However, I'm surprised that you single out a 40-hour work week as though it's something exceptional. Isn't that the standard? I would never consider joining a company that expected me to work weekends. I hope that's not as common as you imply.

In many companies, it isn't required. But, if you don't do it , you won't get a promotion nor seen as a "team player"

Re: We work a 4-day week and just raised $4.75m (2012)

#105
post #20

Congratulation! This is how it should be done. And I have a question.... All professors of management and organizations understand that work week should be defined differently for knowledge workers. And that most the important quality of knowledge workers is initiative. So if you have 80 hours work week and all innovation or initiative is dismissed, that can mean two things: 1) you are not "knowledge worker" but just…

I've mentioned one experience before. In the past 13 years, I've been at two large companies and three startups. The large companies never required seven-day work weeks on a regular basis, crunches yes (a couple of times a year), regularly no. Of the three startups:

- one was in the 40-50 hour week normal expectation, no serious spikes due to the way we worked over a 2 year period. - one was 40-50 hours per week with regular (every 2-3 month spikes) - one was completely insane and expected 60+ hour weeks (it was saner pre-"coming out party", but barely). This company had no concept of planning, if things were behind, the solution was more meetings rather than cutting features. Senior management on the team was more apt to either not be around or play ping pong while engineers worked away. Technically, it was the most diverse project I ever worked on, but the most poorly run...that was a reflection on immediate management. Launch was 60+ hour weeks plus I got the fun of doing ops since I knew most of the system.

That third company taught me a lot, probably most directly, the value of work life balance and, especially as a lead, pushing back on poor planning and management. My goal as an engineer has always been to deliver and provide end user delight, but that needs to be balanced with balance for myself.

Re: We work a 4-day week and just raised $4.75m (2012)

#107

Anyone have thoughts on how 4-day work week compares to a 5-day-but-shorter-days work week (discussed a bit yesterday at https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6912645 )?

I work for Treehouse. The 4-day work week is amazing and I feel it'd be very hard to go back to 5 days a week. What do I do on my Fridays? If I have errands, they get run. I usually pop-in and off my computer. Sometimes I actually am working, but I'm "playing". I'm a data scientist and I love my job. I love working on my tools and I love trying new methods. So I might be improving my D3.js skills. Or learning Python…

Think I could pick your brain about working remotely for Treehouse sometime? My email is nathan @ [my HN username] .com

Re: We work a 4-day week and just raised $4.75m (2012)

#108

Supposedly an old post (but I can't find the date year on hte post). Are Treehouse still hiring?

Yup. Developers and Designers.

Could I chat with you about Treehouse sometime? My email is nathan @ [HN username].com

Re: We work a 4-day week and just raised $4.75m (2012)

#109
Ryan, why did Treehouse choose fewer days over fewer hours per day as a way to reduce total hours worked? Anecdotal data says most information workers find it hard to actually get more than 6 hours of work a day, so that would suggest a 9-6 day not being optimal. Just wondering what made you choose one approach over another.

Re: We work a 4-day week and just raised $4.75m (2012)

#110
post #20

Congratulation! This is how it should be done. And I have a question.... All professors of management and organizations understand that work week should be defined differently for knowledge workers. And that most the important quality of knowledge workers is initiative. So if you have 80 hours work week and all innovation or initiative is dismissed, that can mean two things: 1) you are not "knowledge worker" but just…

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