Why work doesn't happen at work

Watched this interesting TED talk by Jason Fried of 37Signals fame, author of Rework (which I am in the process of reading). He is one of the guys who is not afraid to say out loud what he thinks, even if it is against the conventional wisdom.

My intention with this post is not to explain or transcribe what he said in his TED talk, but to evaluate what I have been doing so far as a manager and a business owner in managing a team and getting work done and also to explore what I can do differently based on his observations.

First, I wish to place it on the record that though I am a big fan of his work and his style of doing things, I do not think it should be followed blindly. I am more of an copy and adapt person who would like to experiment and take on things that are more in line with my style and level of comfort.

Basically Fried says that for each person there is a time of a day or a place where they are usually productive. And that time may not necessarily be between traditional office hours and the place may not be the office. It may be some other place, their homes, a coffee shop, etc. And the fact that people are consistently getting disturbed in office, by office gossip, a co worker tapping them on the shoulder to clarify something, a ringing phone and worst of all, by managers, whom he identifies as people who have nothing particular to do so they keep disturbing the people who do the work.

I can identify with some of the things. And quite honestly I might be guilty of checking up on my guys from time to time. But let me put things in perspective.

First of all, let me say that for starters we are not very strict on working hours. It is true that our guys come to work around the same time and leave office around a particular time, but we are not clock watchers. We are not promoters of burning mid night oil. We do work our butts off at times, but that is when the push comes to the shove. Otherwise, we plan to have each guy work a decent amount of hours a day.

Then we are open to remote working. If there is something that needs to be done, and it’s gonna take the guy more than what he can do before he needs to go off, I usually give them the option to finish the task from home, if that is possible. Secondly, we already tried allowing one of our guys work a week a month from home. While we may not go for full time tele-workers any time soon, once a guy puts in some time in the office and we are familiar with each others work, we are certainly open to allowing them to work from home partially, if the need arises. But we want to have them in one place, specially at start of projects since we value one to one collaboration at initial stages.

One thing that we do not have is private offices for each person. I personally believe that coding is a team effort, although a person writes his or her code individually, there is much collaboration that needs to go on. So the risk of them getting disturbed by one another is there. But what I have observed is, that though they spend time socializing, when they need to concentrate they usually put their headsets on (headsets are given by us) and play some music and get on with their task. So apart from me who sails to the room from time to time, and tap them on their shoulders to ask how things are going, they manage fine without getting disturbed.

One thing that I want to point out about me checking up on them is that it is not done with the intention of managing them, but more with a intention of collaboration. If they are stuck with something, and are lost with ideas, I can, maybe, bring in a fresh perspective and offer a solution. Not to boast, I have unstuck the guys when they are stuck, quite a few times.

And finally I must say that we are very much interested in developing ‘whole’ software engineers. We try to develop if there are any areas that they are weak in. The idea is to develop them so that they become fully fledged ‘software engineers’ who are conversant not only with technology, but in general areas as well.

While our strategies are not as radical as those Jason Fried suggests, we sure are taking the cues from his philosophy where it fits our way of doing things.

Hiring from previous employers

When I started out my company I has this un-written principle, where I said I was not going to hire from the companies that I previously worked at. Since I was still in very good terms with the management of those companies I didn’t want to create any frictions in those relationships by getting their people.

But as we grow as a team and as we are constantly on the look out for the best and the brightest, there is going to be a time when some of those people in those companies, who were there when you used to work there, are going to apply for advertised openings in my company. Some may apply knowing who I am, but some are simply responding to a job advertisement that is publicly posted.

I am facing such a dilemma now. I have a position that I had advertised and one of the top candidates that had applied is from one of my previous employers. This is a guy who has joined his current company (my previous employer) after I left that place. But I know him from another previous employer, where both of us used to work.

Since I never approached him directly and enticed him to join us, I really see no issue as such. I don’t think there is an ethical conflict as I never head hunted him. He applied to us. If I don’t recruit him, chances are, that he may move to another company.

And he and I never worked at his current place of employment at the same time. I just know him from his previous place of employment, where we both used to work.

But if I do hire him, I am going to be frowned upon by the company where he works now. I can still drop by that company and and chat up my old friends when I pass that way. But that will have to come to an end, if I do get this guy. Because afterwards, if I drop by that way, they may think that I have come to steal their employees.

I am searching for a solution that would allow me to still hire the best people out there while maintaining a good relation with my previous bosses. Any ideas or suggestions on this regard are gladly accepted.

What makes a company a great company?

This is something that I have been thinking a lot about lately. I am in the process of building a company, and I want to build a great one at that. And I am going to be honest. I am clueless on how to go about it, technically.

So, the approach that I am taking is to build a company that I want to get up and come to work everyday. And the hope is what works for me would be at least good enough for the others as well. And if there is a disjoint on that front, I will have to tackle it as things pop up.

So what would be the things that would work for me?

• I want to have a great pay

This is something that everyone wants, I guess. After a certain point in life and career pay may no longer entice you, and if the company is a crap hole it isn't going to hold people together as well. But a decent pay is a basic necessity. And I think we are doing more than good on this front. We have set salary scales but it seems they are above the market rates. And I know this for a fact from what people ask for, in terms of a salary at interviews. We've so far managed to exceed their expectations.

• I want a great team

This one is really important and it is why it matters to see if your new hires are a cultural fit to your organization. But still it is something that you cannot scientifically quantify still. People need to click. And they need to be able to put up with one another. And if there are frictions among team members, then it is going to effect the work of that team most and then the whole company as a whole. So we are paying great attention to figure out the cultural fit of new employees.

• I want to work in a great office

If I were working for a company, I want to work in a great office with a great atmosphere. I used to work in a place which was a bit of a drag. The place was not modernized for a while and the furniture and the equipment was ancient. The sad part is, the place could have been livened up with a bit of fresh paint and few tweaks but the way that company was run, it was hard to make any suggestions for improvements. I got tired of the place very fast and it was a drag to get my self off the bed to get to work. I don't want to run a office like that. So the office atmosphere, the look and the feel, the creature comforts are high on my list. We are getting them fast developer rigs and at some point will get them all dual monitors.

Improving the facilities in the office is high on our agenda. We want to spend, even our whole profit in improving the facilities. We serve lunch on the house. Right now we are fetching it from a nearby place, but as we grow, we will look into getting a caterer serve a gourmet meal in house.

And I am a big fan of spaces with natural lighting. And luckily the new office of ours is in placed with windows on East and West. So at all times through out the day we have plenty of natural light. And the we also have enough space, even more than we need right now. So we are in an airy, well lit up office.

• I want to work with latest technologies

Keeping themselves up to date with the evolving technology space is foremost in any software engineers mind. The last thing anyone wants to do is to get stuck with a project that is not getting upgraded to a new technology. But we are in luck. We have a very few projects that we are stuck with maintaining and even those few, the project owners are extremely flexible to proposals of upgrades.

We get enough new projects, which we always do on the latest technology available, to keep everyone on the edges of their learning curves. As a policy, we would always do any new project with the latest technology stack available. It is usually up to us to propose the technology stack and architecture on a new project.

• I want to have a great boss. 

This one is directly on me. I read a saying which read: "people join companies and leave their bosses". And I don't want the reason for a persons leaving to be - ME. And I've personally had some great ones and actually ones that I left, the sole reason being the boss. So I have a pretty good idea of what a good boss should be like. And since this time around, I am my own boss and I have a owners stake in what I am building, I have all the more reasons to be a good boss.

Of course you can be 'liked' but not be effective from the point of view of the company. So the trick is to be a good boss in all fronts. That is what I am striving to be.

Conclusion
The above were things that I came up with on the top of my head. I think creating a great company is an on going process. And I would like to see the company outlast me. Culture is of paramount importance in this aspect. This is something I hope to write about in the future.

We moved to our new office

I have blogged about us getting a new office. And since last Thursday, we've been there.

We have a small office warming function. We didn't invite a lot of people, just had the team and family. We had a small religious blessing at the start and then we kicked off our work. We were all settled in and work started smoothly for all of us, except for me. I didn't have my desk in place. I had ordered a desk but it only turned up in the evening of the day of the move. So I kicked off the work on a couch.

The place is pretty cool. I think the guys like it in here as well. There is plenty of space, a far cry from the 10*14 home office that we were all sharing previously. And one luxury that I got is an office of my own. I am a big fan of shared workspaces, but there are certain things that I need to do, which need some privacy. For starters it was odd to conduct an interview in our previous office as the candidates felt a bit nervous to face an interview when there were other people working in the room. Also, I think being in the same room prevented the team members from talking to me privately, if they so required.

Though I am in a separate room I try to spend as much time as possible with the team. And I maintain an open door policy even if it means that I have to go on without AC.

We also wanted to serve lunch for the team. So far, we have managed to get that done. But still it is being done as a daily order. Hopefully, we will find a caterer soon who is willing to deliver lunch for a small team.

One thing I dont like about this place is the traffic. From 12.30 pm till about 3.00 pm the road in front get's jam packed. The reason being the popular schools around this area. And this it next to impossible to go and come, specially in a car.

We are still getting things set up around the office even now. It will be a while to get the place fully done up. But above all, right now the place is a bit too big for us. So I am keen to get the place filled with more people, with more great people!