
The unforgivable heresy of Sheryl Sandberg - bdking
http://www.itworld.com/career/268468/unforgivable-heresy-sheryl-sandberg
======
fourspace
This guy seems to imply that folks at Google, Facebook, etc. are worried about
losing their jobs if they don't stay late. In my 5 years at Google, I never
once experienced that fear. I learned a long time ago that my life with my
wife and kids were far more important than anything at work, so I left the
office around 5-6 almost every day. No one ever said a word to me about it,
and it never obstructed my ability to earn more money over time and rise
through the company. There were plenty of my colleagues who did the same.

What fuels the people that stay late isn't fear, it's a culture that
celebrates putting in long hours. It's a poor proxy for productivity, but
people (especially those in their early twenties) seem to equate long hours
with getting lots of shit done. Of course that's not actually true in many
cases, but that's beside the point. Like everything else, you get what you
celebrate, and in this case you get people basically living at the office.

When you add in free meals, laundry, haircuts, and all other manner of perks,
you get people who make the (totally rational) decision that being at work is
easier than fending for yourself at home. The moment this translates into a
perception that "that guy is working his ass off", you get staying late as a
part of your company culture.

PS - Many of these folks working until 10pm also don't get into the office
until 11am. I sincerely doubt that's when Sheryl Sandberg arrives.

~~~
why-el
I completely agree. I am still young, and I am now interning for the first
time in my life. I am probably the only employee who works more than 8 hours,
sometimes 10. I am always the second to last to leave, and that only because I
don't have door-locking privileges. I do this because I love my work, what can
I say, I am being paid to learn. Who would want to leave that? (Of course once
you have kids that's an entirely different story.)

~~~
stfu
Thats the beauty of being young and having relatively little responsibilities
outside of work. To get what you want you can just wait until everybody else
is going to give up.

------
ubervero
It's just classic workplace envy. The primitive instinct of hate that humans
feel when they see colleagues (or, worse, bosses) walking out, apparently done
for the day, while they are stuck at work, instead. These people makes us feel
as losers, and we react by despising them.

Sandberg is obviously right, both in leaving the office according to her
personal priorities and criticizing the practice of sending late emails to
show off workaholism like it was a quality. It's very naive to think she works
less just because she leaves at 5:30. She's probably just more efficient,
better in setting priorities: and that's the best quality for a startup
person. Plus, I'm pretty sure that she'll pick up the phone even at 4am, if
necessary.

~~~
j45
This is a great point.

There will always be people who are jealous that you work harder than them
(Take it easy buddy!), or less than them (Must be nice!).

It's veiled resentment. Avoid these vampires full of so much doubt they
believe it's insurmountable and look to bring others down to their belief, to
justify their own belief that doubts are impossible to overcome.

Innovation and creativity resides in possibility, not doubt. I like having a
healthy doubt balanced with healthy dose of possibility.

------
jonnathanson
We need to divorce ourselves from the industrial, factory-floor approach to
management that has dominated American office culture since the dawn of the
20th cetury. Almost all of our long-held beliefs about management originated
in theories developed to manage workers on an assembly line. And many (most?)
of them no longer apply. For instance, the rigid belief in "butts in seats"
and "face time" as reasonable proxies for productivity is grounded in the days
when there really _was_ a direct, perfect correlation between attendance at a
set place and time and job performance.

On a primitive factory floor, the worker who puts in the most time making
widgets really _is_ producing better results than the worker who appears on
and off the floor sporadically. There's no way to produce results unless
you're working X machine, and X machine is in a fixed location, and it
operates between Y and Z hours of the day. And the end product doesn't differ
per worker. Everything's deterministic and can be measured precisely. So, in
this scenario, a worker is only as good as he is present and 100% utilized.
Nothing else matters.

Knowledge work doesn't function that way. And yet, we still have this desire
to manage it as though it does. Kudos to someone like Sandberg for being able
to point this out. Yeah, she's in a position to say it now. No, most of us
aren't. But at least someone in her position is finally calling it out, and
using the bully pulpit afforded to her by her high-status role to do so.

------
rodp
My basketball coach once said that a team that spends 12 hours each day
practicing will lose the championship to a team that only has one hour of
practice a day. "We all love this sport", he said, "and we could all practice
all day long, which is fine, but if you want to win the championship, you have
to be smart and pace yourself". To me, this lesson applies to any organisation
that values long term results.

------
nhughes
With Sandberg's announcement of her schedule there is an opportunity to
overhaul the incumbent overworking philosophy. I think writers who align
should propagate what's right and healthy about this rather than dismissing
the notion in its infancy.

The more support (or perceived support) there is for balance, the more likely
it is to be tolerated.

I'm not sure top software engineers are worried. Despite a rough economy and
the poetic justice of hubris, most software engineers can probably afford to
set their own hours, to a reasonable extent. If it isn't tolerated they can
start their own company, perhaps with a relatively better work-life balance
for themselves and their employees.

------
crusso
> Because no one who's putting in 50 or 60+ hours because they're afraid not
> to > is going to stick out their neck and demand their lives back from the
> tech > jobs that consume them or the venture capitalists who get wealthy on
> the backs > of overworked and stressed-out technology employees.

Well, okay, this guy has quite an ax to grind.

I've spent lots of time in the start-up world. The people I've seen who rise
the quickest and achieve the greatest financial heights put in long, hard
hours. They put in long, hard hours as interns, as junior programmers, as mid-
level programmers, and on up to CTOs or CEOs. Yes, they work "smart" too. But
we're talking here about putting in the hours.

It is very true that you don't want to work so hard that you're burning
yourself out. It's also very true that everyone has a different number of
hours at a given type of work beyond which your returns gradually (or even
rapidly) diminish. But don't be deluded by the use of Sheryl Sandberg's CEO's
prerogative to create her own schedule.

Hard work tends to pay off. I'm not saying everyone can or should put in 80
hour work weeks, but when you're young and starting out -- figure out what
your limits are. Push yourself. See how your body and your mind respond to
throwing yourself into your work. Learn your craft.

You're reading YCombinator. You're probably here because you want to be an
entrepreneur. Ignore sour grapes articles like the one from that itworld
author. That guy would have you start off with an attitude that (here come the
down votes) is for losers and people who would prefer to spend their time
railing at those dirty Haves rather than doing their best to avoid being a
Have Not. That kind of class warfare rhetoric never gets you anywhere unless
you're in entertainment, the media, or politics.

------
pbreit
1) Major disconnect in the article: he's talking about silicon valley and
calls the economy "shaky" while most are wondering if there's a bubble and
having a horrendous time filling open positions.

2) There's a lot you can do out of the office and it's probably better to
diversify your working environment anyway.

------
momoro
I recall reading in another article, I believe the New Yorker profile of her,
that she also begins around 5:30.

The article assumes she is starting work at nine, whereas if she is in fact
starting at 5 or 6, she is still working at least ten hour days.

------
j45
Anyone who works mode than 50 hours a week needs to track everything they do
for a few weeks. Pay attention to how we slow down the more consecutive weeks
we work 50 or more hours.

I did something in my 20's: regular ongoing stints of 60 to 70+++ hour weeks,
sometimes for a few years straight. Worked 7 days a week regularly, zero
vacations (except being within a 3 hour flight of home no longer for a day or
two at a time).

I'd hate to say I wasn't productive. But, the long hours blurred the lines
between productivity and efficiency, looking back. I am a productivity nut who
wants to remain effective.

I found a clear rested mind sees much simpler and eloquent solutions to
things. It's easier and better able to find and connect the dots between
things. I'd catch myself once in a while wondering why I didn't see something
obviously simpler when I was doing longer hours. Maybe it's a side effect of
just wanting to ship, ship, ship.

Learning to get 70 hours worth done in 40 or 50 hours by truly working my tail
off when I was working, helped me learn to relax, rest and recover truly in my
time away from the keyboard.

Changing my routine to sleep lots, especially during the design phase where
creativity was beneficial. Coding became hammer and nails, and interestingly
something more easily delegated. I still had to do burns, but they were far
less perpetual and way more focused. I can still do it for a few months at a
time but then I need some down time.

Lately, my routine more evolves around balance between all the things I love
to do, and leaving room to discover new things. I don't need a ton of time to
my self, but starting with taking one guilt free hour a day, instead of an
hour of procrastination, or one guilt-free day off a week instead of wasting a
day doing nothing at a keyboard did more to fill up the tank than anything.
Listening to my body needing a walk and some fresh air got me back and focused
much quicker instead of trying to ride it out.

Don't believe the hype. Very few understand the software development world and
think more effort is more output. The folks with the money buying the time of
others will always want people without money to work a ton because they stand
to benefit from it. Ironically more money folks than you'd expect take more
than enough time off once they arrive to truly remain focussed. This is
especially too often true in consulting, partnerships, and investments. After
you have a track record this can change, or you can just get a ton done in a
little amount of time.

When we do something 40 to 50 hours a week we will be making connections not
only with ideas, but with people. We randomly come up with ideas just by
having the perspective of being away from the keyboard.

Being in a perpetual cycle of shipping releases for personal and client
projects has taught me time away from the keyboard is just as important as
time at the keyboard to help me stay in one mindset: always be shipping.

~~~
ChrisNorstrom
Whenever I step away from the keyboard, that's when solutions to the problem
flood my brain. When I'm outside in the backyard walking around, listening the
wind in the trees, drinking iced tea, it hits me. Then I go inside, code up
the solution, and when I get stuck, visit the backyard again. It's a cycle
that never fails to create solutions for problems. I find it almost magical
how stepping away from the keyboard and relaxing helps me work and get things
done. Same with sleep, I'll think about a hard design problem right before bed
time, then wake up with a solution almost burned into my mind, run to my desk
and draw it out. These are the things that taught me the importance of
relaxation and breaks. So NO, I will NOT follow the "work more, work harder,
bust your ass" so our social-media-analytics/project-management/mobile-ad-
network startup can become successful.

~~~
j45
Totally agreed, well put!

I like how you have a wrench to throw into your routine to go outside and come
back in. I try to take walks regularly and maybe I'll have to make that a more
conscious thing.

Any thoughts to share about when you take a break to relax, how you let
yourself do it when you think you should be doing work? I find breaking down
this habit with as many approaches is possible is key.

------
ZanderEarth32
The idea of working more than 40 hours a weeks makes me glad I am an hourly
employee rather than on salary. I don't have a choice but to work only 40
hours a week, or my company has to pay me over time. I come in at my time, do
my work for my 8 hours and leave 8 hours later. No one can judge me when I
leave the office. It helps create that work/life divide.

------
shortlived
Are companies really so fixated on having you "in the office"? I leave
everyday at 4pm to have dinner with the family and then usually I work a bit
from home later in the night. I'm sure I work over 40 hours but I don't mind
because I can see my family at normal hours.

------
zeruch
I did the grind-train for several years, and in bursts it could be quite
useful, but when at my last $FIRM it turned into a never-ending march towards
and beyond burnt out, I started pondering options. I don't think I could do
that kind of run ever again.

