

The Curse of a New Building - aycangulez
http://steveblank.com/2009/05/15/supermac-war-story-11-the-curse-of-a-new-building/

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terra_t
A friend of mine who has created several successful non-profit organizations
adds a "no buildings" clause to the bylaws of every new organization he
creates.

He believes that once non-profit organizations accumulate some capital, the
first thing they do is build a big new building, and that's the beginning of a
downhill slide.

~~~
aycangulez
Unfortunately, the same mentality applies to universities, too. They love to
build new buildings instead of hiring the best faculty.

~~~
djcapelis
Might have something to do with the fact that university donors love to build
new buildings instead of just giving the university money to be spent on HR.
(And then the university doesn't have a guaranteed funding source for a top
professor? Yikes!)

Endowed chairs work a bit better, but those usually don't go towards _new_
recruitment.

~~~
unwind
Isn't that, in turn, perhaps because oftentimes donors then get to _name_ the
building? At least this seems common in the US, but that's just an observation
from the outside.

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gamble
It was the money ("our sales skyrocketed") that changed the company culture,
not the building. It isn't hard to maintain an atmosphere of egality and
shared sacrifice when there's no money to go around. Once the company is flush
with profits, the founders are looking at a big payoff, and management is
drawing full salaries, telling employees to continue on as if nothing as
changed will eventually lead to discontent. Building a new office probably
seemed like the easiest way to address all the complaints that had arisen
after the company ceased being a startup, and became a success.

~~~
donaq
Wouldn't explaining the reasons for not moving while using the money instead
for generous employee bonuses solve that problem?

~~~
abalashov
In the short term ... but how to tap psychologically into new hires who never
went through that experience, and whose initial perceptions and expectations
need to be set?

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watmough
My old company did the opposite of this. As they expanded, they built worse
and worse office environments. I started out in a nice 10x10 cube, and ended
up in a 5x5 low-walled cube, on an 'expansion floor'.

After I quit, the primary building tenant moved to a new building, and the
company I had had worked for became primary. This auspicious event was marked
by the building cafeteria (fairly decent as these things go) shutting down, so
not even hot food was available.

So yeah, not all companies get better digs as they expand.

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Deestan
On the other hand, I wouldn't want to work long hours in a cramped, smelly
cubicle on a second-hand half-broken chair when the company is wading in cash.

"Good programmers are not motivated by material needs" and yada yada, but we
_really_ don't like feeling exploited.

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stretchwithme
Very true. Just moving everybody into their own offices can destroy
interaction. Its as bad as communicating solely by email.

~~~
mkramlich
... and reduce interruptions and non-productive idle chit-chat.

That said, I think that in the future, at least in software development, more
and more developers are going to be working from home or coffee shops, because
it has so many advantages over the commute-office-cubicle-corporate-meeting
culture. Company spends less on office space. Developers get interrupted less
and so can stay in productivity zones longer. Employees spend less time and
money on non-productive & never-ending activities (commuting) and experience
less health risk (car accidents) and cause less air & noise pollution
(driving). I also suspect (though not 100% positive) it will put downward
pressure on the number of middle managers needed, and thus save companies even
more. Employees still need to be "managed" but if all the worker bees are
remote than there is less cover and opportunity for managers to create
makework and timesinks solely to help justify their own jobs.

~~~
mitjak
I personally still find it easier to focus on work and eliminate distractions
when I'm at the office. That, and the ability to quickly discuss a problem
with colleague or bounce a solution off him or her exposing flaws is great. No
high typing speed can replace live human interaction, IMO.

~~~
mkramlich
isolation isn't about high typing speed I think as much as about high thinking
speed -- shrinking the think-act-check loop, and maximizing the freshness of
short term memory. and cutting out unnecessary stimulation and tangents. i
think if you're stuck, yes, communicating with other folks can help get
unstuck. but that can be done with IM, video chat, email, phone, screen
sharing, pastebin, etc. There's advantages to live bodies in an office,
definitely, but lots of disads too.

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joshu
Can someone explain "tiltup" ?

~~~
dws
It's a style of building that was very popular doing the boom in Silicon
Valley during the 80's and early 90's. Construction crews would pour the walls
into molds, let them dry, and then literally tilt them up and put a roof on
them.

It was weird to drive through parts of the Silicon Valley (e.g., North 1st
St.) finding buildings had been tilted up in what had been flat land the week
before.

Quite a few of those buildings are empty now.

