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37Signals Breaks Free of Rigid Work Culture
By: Don E. Sears
2009-11-06
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You don't have to be locked in a cubicle for 60 hours a week to complete your technological work or to be successful. 37Signals, a Web software company that makes organizational apps like Basecamp, Ta-da List and Backpack, thrives by helping workers find more freedom with their time and recharge daily as they see fit while focusing on getting things done.
With 3 million customers and only 16 employees, 37Signalsseems to have found a nice balance for its employees and its owners; at least,that's the impression one takes from a recent article written in Inc. by one of 37Signals' founders,Jason Fried.
Want to work at home? Cool. Want to come in to the office? No problem. Want totake a few hours off in the middle of the day to goof off and look at Internetvideos or read? Please do it; it's encouraged, Fried said. He doesn't believein treating employees like children.
Oh, and he detests meetings, so the company doesn't really have them. There isgroup chat software they use (Campfire, 37Signals' own application) throughwhich people can post questions, make suggestions and "meet" asneeded.
Meetings are "a huge waste of time, and they're costly. It's not 1 hour;it's 10, because you pulled 10 people away from their real work. Plus, they chopyour day into small bits, so you have only 20 minutes of free time here or 45minutes there," Fried wrote in the Inc. article.
If an issue is urgent, it will be addressed, as Fried, his partners and hisemployees are generally working moment to moment, something that Fried suggestskeeps him grounded and keeps the company focused on its customers and theirneeds—though Fried is not afraid to tellhis customers that they are probably not going to get everything they ask for.
Here's Fried's take on his day:
"I might work from home for a weekand then get bored of that, so I will spend the next week at the office. I liveabout two miles from my office... I usually get to work between 10 a.m. and 11 a.m. Of the 16 people atthe company, eight of us live here in Chicago. Employees come tothe office if and when they feel like it, or else they work from home. I don'tbelieve in the 40-hour workweek, so we cut all that BS about being somewherefor a certain number of hours. I have no idea how many hours my employees work—I just know they get the work done."
After his midday recharging by reading nonfiction books and drinking tea, Friedsaid he usually finds another productive spurt in the late afternoon, then inthe evening after dinner, where he puts in a few more hours.
How does this unorthodox work culture get employees to connect with each other?Beyond collaborating on daily projects, the company has two paid vacationswhere they all get a chance to be together.
It sounds idyllic, but it isn't clear how well this would work for many largerbusinesses in enterprise technology and elsewhere. It's difficult to imaginethat this work environment would work for everyone. But isn't it nice to hear froma business owner willing to shake up the day-to-day so everyone can focus ongetting work done, rather than feel they are chained to their chairs?
When products are near launch at 37Signals things get hectic, admitted Fried,but he and his team are not rattled. This culture appears to work very well forthe kind of business they are in ... They build products that they want to use,and they make them simple. It's refreshing to hear that simplicity translatesover into the daily lives of workers.
© 2009 Ziff Davis Enterprise, Inc.
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