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Hire people who give a shit

alexw.substack.com

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Re: Hire people who give a shit

#31

Post by balfirevic »

> In no world can you be working 5 hours a day and be giving a shit, and so the conclusion is that very little meaningful work gets done at Google

Even working “only” 5 hours/day, not including weekends, would make work the single most time-consuming item in my life (excluding sleep).

Re: Hire people who give a shit

#32

Post by Laakeri »

One useful piece of advice that I have received is that there are tradeoffs in giving shit at work. This article mentions downsides of not giving a shit, but doesn't mention downsides of giving too much shit, that is, getting too emotionally attached to the work you are doing. Especially in big companies projects get cancelled or requirements change or managers assign work that doesn't even make sense, and if you are emotionally attached to your work when this happens it can cause interpersonal issues, low morale or unhappiness in general.

Re: Hire people who give a shit

#33

Post by TedDoesntTalk »

tyingq wrote: post #4

I agree with the gist of hiring people that care about their craft, but asking them to care about the company is harder. That really requires some sort of reciprocal "company cares about you" , and that's hard to guarantee. Especially when you're hiring the generation that saw their parents lose out on the things like pensions vs 401k, layoffs as regular events, etc.

> I agree with the gist of hiring people that care about their craft, but asking them to care about the company is harder.

Exactly! Pride in one’s work is what you want. Hiring people who care about your company when, for most people, it’s another notch in their belt, means that your hiring pool is severely constrained and you’ll pass over many people who take pride in their work (and who would therefore benefit your company tremendously).

Stop pretending your company is anything more than a capitalist endeavor that pays people for their time.

Re: Hire people who give a shit

#34

Post by monster_group »

The author is setting up himself for a lot of disappointment. I am not sure why he expects employee number n*100 who gets 0.1% equity (if at all) to give a shit about his company (that he himself most likely has a huge stake in). Also, it's comical he cites one of the most successful companies in the world (Google) and criticizes their work culture. That culture clearly works for Google since they are wildly successful.

Re: Hire people who give a shit

#35

Post by prox »

tyingq wrote: post #4

I agree with the gist of hiring people that care about their craft, but asking them to care about the company is harder. That really requires some sort of reciprocal "company cares about you" , and that's hard to guarantee. Especially when you're hiring the generation that saw their parents lose out on the things like pensions vs 401k, layoffs as regular events, etc.

Too many times you give your all and when there is a bump you get flushed down the toilet, it’s not trust inspiring. Luckily I did found companies who cared, but it’s a minority. The best advice I can give is : make your company human. Give and take, be there for eachother, care. Sounds simple, but in my experience not many companies tick these boxes.

Re: Hire people who give a shit

#36

Post by ryan-duve »

I agree with the second criteria but not the first. People with passion about something might bring that passion to work. In my experience, they're more likely to bring something they're already passionate about to work and make the rest of us passionate about it as well.

Trying to find candidates that are passionate about the company before they join doesn't seem right. If we're only aware of how the company appears from the outside (press releases, company website) how are we supposed to have a real attachment to what the company truly is? Best case scenario is them being attached to how the company markets itself, which isn't a great approximation. That said, there might be something here I can latch onto into the form of:

1. Hire people passionate about something.

2. Promote people passionate about the company.

However, I still see some problems with the above. I would need time to chew on it before basing any personnel decisions around it.

Re: Hire people who give a shit

#38

Post by iExploder »

burade wrote: post #5

1-why would anyone (other than you) give a shit about your company? 2-intellectual work does not translate to how many hours you put in.

expecting someone to "give a shit" is realistic when % ownership and profit sharing is thrown into the pot...

even this however does not guarantee people will give a shit, a sane person however might...

Re: Hire people who give a shit

#40

Post by csdtx »

Is this that dude who made a company that rehires cheap labor in the third world for $5/day to help with classification while his team sits back and gets all the benefits?

https://twitter.com/alexandr_wang/status/1332059634606112768

The guy wants his company to be more of a cult than a value producing service. Makes sense.

People who care do put in more of their effort and get better results, but you have to give them an incentive for them to care. If your company fails, they get fired. But if your company grows and becomes 10x more profitable, their wages don't move. That's a great recipe for people doing the absolute minimum to not get fired.

This guy wants people who care more about him and his company than for themselves. "Ask not what your company can do for you – ask what you can do for your company"

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