Great piece in The Guardian this morning by Jemima Kiss. It’s all about Slack and the culture behind the company.
Reading through the piece it struck me how similar the cultures of Advertising Agencies and Tech Start-Ups are. And how similar bits need to change — namely the dudely hierarchical nonsense driven by outdated motives.
And it’s reassuring to see lots of the things that they’ve done and are doing at Slack are similar to things we’ve got going on at Wieden+Kennedy in London.
The piece is really worth a read, there’s tons of great stuff on diversity, openness, collaboration and culture. But I’ve pulled out a few quotes that relate to the work-life drum I’m lightly beating at the moment:
Those ideals inform how management makes decisions every day, from prioritizing broken code (craftsmanship) to making sure everyone leaves work on time (thriving).
So the important hard work bit — making the product — is still a priority. But I’m guessing they feel, like we do, that people who’ve left on time (and have a life) are better at doing the work thing.
“Just because your ass is on a seat doesn’t mean you’re working. If you’re brain dead after 6pm, go home. You can work like that for only so long.”
Couldn’t agree more.
Slack’s director of customer experience, points out that Slack’s “work hard and go home” culture is also better for women. “It allows them to say, ‘I can do this job. I can emulate the founders in the way I work and not get punished for it. And I can take care of my family.’ When people come here, we expect them to have a life.”
In other words: Work hard. Go Home.
But the most important thing the article does is make me like the people behind Slack. The fact that they work this way, makes me want to get behind their platform even more. They’re designing organisation-shaping software from the point of view of an organisation I’d like business to be shaped-by.
Originally published at crackunit.com.
