Startups and Work Attitudes
There has been quite the kerfuffle on various blogs and mailing lists about various approaches to work. It appears to have mostly started off as an exchange between 37signals and Jason Calacanis, but it spread to various nasty exchanges on some mailing lists as well as other posts like this one from my friends at Jackson Fish.
At some point I made the following post on the Seattle Tech Startups mailing list (edited slightly)-
Not every startup is the same.
Not every person is the same.
Some people are not at all suited for any startup. They thrive with a certain stability only a big company will give. Not that you can necessarily be complacent at a big company, but there is a stability there that no startup will ever have.
Some people just love to work. They will thrive in a startup that has that culture.
Some people take a more balanced approach towards live and work. They probably bring useful things to the table beyond lots of hours.
What is important to realize is that every startup will have a culture. And people who don’t fit with it will probably be miserable. If your startup has a “go to coffee twice a day and every chat is over a long lunch” culture, the guy who just wants to sit and crank out code all day will be frustrated with their colleagues. And they will be frustrated with that guy (who doesn’t spend as much time getting in sync with everyone else).
At the same time, if you have a culture where people just crank on stuff all the time, the person who takes the different approach will not be appreciated very much either.
Go figure.
Some businesses will be a better fit for one or the other. Its probably hard to get a new release out every week or two on the more relaxed/thoughtful plan. If you are in a market that requires that (because the competition is going to do that and will beat you if you don’t) you had better figure out how to make that your company culture or else go for a different market.
Other markets have very different expectations. They won’t go for a quick to market but unpolished product and they don’t want new releases (and thus change and more training) all the time anyway.
Fit your culture to your business (or vice versa). Fit your people to your culture. Don’t try to force a fit where its not going to happen because its not going to work.
And be understanding that one size doesn’t fit all. Stop calling people slave-drivers because they enjoy the driven culture and build a business that fits that, and start calling other people lazy because they aren’t putting in 80 hour work weeks. Each has its place.