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Fired? Why cooperatives might be your next career choice in tech

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Re: Fired? Why cooperatives might be your next career choice in tech

#31

Post by fimdomeio »

stareatgoats wrote: post #18

> Decision-making in cooperatives can be very daunting for beginners. Having 13 years+ of experience in cooperatives I can tell you that it is daunting even for old-timers. We started off with most decisions being made in weekly meeting (that sometimes dragged on for most of the day), and ended up with having monthly meetings for the large decisions, but weekly meetings in smaller groups instead. In short, meetings e…

My personal theory (I don't think it is very popular amongst my fellow coops) is that co-ops need well defined hierarchies that have the power to take a lot of decisions and the dutty to report on the decisions taken and the resoning behind it but with that also well defined rules to make sure power changes hands via democratic processes every x amount of years.

Re: Fired? Why cooperatives might be your next career choice in tech

#32

Post by ranguna »

fimdomeio wrote: post #27

I'm currently part of the administration of a co-op. It's in Portugal and it's a Multisectorial co-op, meaning instead of being focused on one type of activity we do anything as long as we have a member with that skillset. We are an agregation of freelancers and small businesses that go from small scale farming, to web development or architecture. The coop serves as a way to have a lot of the nice things of a bigger…

Hello!

Mind sharing the co-op name?

I'm living in Portugal right now and I'm thinking about switching careers, so I might give that a look.

Re: Fired? Why cooperatives might be your next career choice in tech

#33

Post by Shoue »

mypastself wrote: post #13

It’s high time I stopped reading Medium articles shared here. I got the distinct feeling I was being sold something while reading it, and the last paragraph confirmed it. It’s filled with vague, corporatey platitudes about ego and altruism, and there’s almost nothing in it about how this concept applies specifically to tech . The supposed “cons” sound like the ad equivalents of leading questions: > The relationships…

> I got the distinct feeling I was being sold something while reading it, and the last paragraph confirmed it.

You mean the last paragraph where they _volunteer_ to have coaching sessions with people? "Selling" usually implies an exchange of money or an expectation of something in return, but there's no product here – the author is offering their time for free to help others start or join cooperatives. Is it fair to dismiss that as "being sold" something?

Re: Fired? Why cooperatives might be your next career choice in tech

#34

Post by replygirl »

fimdomeio wrote: post #31
stareatgoats wrote: post #18

> Decision-making in cooperatives can be very daunting for beginners. Having 13 years+ of experience in cooperatives I can tell you that it is daunting even for old-timers. We started off with most decisions being made in weekly meeting (that sometimes dragged on for most of the day), and ended up with having monthly meetings for the large decisions, but weekly meetings in smaller groups instead. In short, meetings e…

My personal theory (I don't think it is very popular amongst my fellow coops) is that co-ops need well defined hierarchies that have the power to take a lot of decisions and the dutty to report on the decisions taken and the resoning behind it but with that also well defined rules to make sure power changes hands via democratic processes every x amount of years.

check out sociocracy

Re: Fired? Why cooperatives might be your next career choice in tech

#35

Post by sitkack »

fimdomeio wrote: post #27

I'm currently part of the administration of a co-op. It's in Portugal and it's a Multisectorial co-op, meaning instead of being focused on one type of activity we do anything as long as we have a member with that skillset. We are an agregation of freelancers and small businesses that go from small scale farming, to web development or architecture. The coop serves as a way to have a lot of the nice things of a bigger…

That is neat, so do members barter between each other? Or would that hurt accounting into supporting the central structure, or does it support direct barter?

Re: Fired? Why cooperatives might be your next career choice in tech

#36

Post by mypastself »

Shoue wrote: post #33
mypastself wrote: post #13

It’s high time I stopped reading Medium articles shared here. I got the distinct feeling I was being sold something while reading it, and the last paragraph confirmed it. It’s filled with vague, corporatey platitudes about ego and altruism, and there’s almost nothing in it about how this concept applies specifically to tech . The supposed “cons” sound like the ad equivalents of leading questions: > The relationships…

> I got the distinct feeling I was being sold something while reading it, and the last paragraph confirmed it. You mean the last paragraph where they _volunteer_ to have coaching sessions with people? "Selling" usually implies an exchange of money or an expectation of something in return, but there's no product here – the author is offering their time for free to help others start or join cooperatives. Is it fair to…

I think so. Plenty of companies offer product samples or free services upfront. But even if you think the author has no specific “sales” goal with the article, self-promotion still seems to be its main objective.

Re: Fired? Why cooperatives might be your next career choice in tech

#37

Post by karmakurtisaani »

stareatgoats wrote: post #18

> Decision-making in cooperatives can be very daunting for beginners. Having 13 years+ of experience in cooperatives I can tell you that it is daunting even for old-timers. We started off with most decisions being made in weekly meeting (that sometimes dragged on for most of the day), and ended up with having monthly meetings for the large decisions, but weekly meetings in smaller groups instead. In short, meetings e…

Does it have to always involve everyone? Why not vote for the CEO or board of directors once every couple of years?

Re: Fired? Why cooperatives might be your next career choice in tech

#38

Post by lifeisstillgood »

Weirdly most large companies are surprisingly similar to co-ops. No, seriously bear with me.

hierarchies replace meetings - but there are still awful interminable meetings because agreement still needs to be reached because work is too complex to allow for total command and control because management will screw it up

salaries are held down for the good of the organism (try outbidding one line of business for a really good person or team and see if that's allowed)

the failure point is equitable sharing but if you took all fortune 500 companies and allocated shares to employees it would be hard to tell the difference. Especially as the managers would be up for election - you tend to get that when your employees own the company.

Re: Fired? Why cooperatives might be your next career choice in tech

#39

Post by Fnoord »

mypastself wrote: post #13

It’s high time I stopped reading Medium articles shared here. I got the distinct feeling I was being sold something while reading it, and the last paragraph confirmed it. It’s filled with vague, corporatey platitudes about ego and altruism, and there’s almost nothing in it about how this concept applies specifically to tech . The supposed “cons” sound like the ad equivalents of leading questions: > The relationships…

If it brings you any salvation: thanks to your post I did not bother clicking the link.

Re: Fired? Why cooperatives might be your next career choice in tech

#40

Post by fimdomeio »

willbudd wrote: post #9

I've been interested in forming this kind of organizational structure for a while. However, I have doubts about how to ensure sufficient levels of trust between individuals involved, given the different dynamics in terms of monetary compensation and "hiring processes" compared to traditional top-down companies. In that light, I wonder if perhaps a better alternative is for each individual to remain independent as the…

Trust is built over time. Specially on the trenches when dealing with difficult situations. The initial parts of a coop, need a little bit of trust but mostly people that can align their self interest with a collective interest.
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