

To startup founders from an unknown startup employee - giis
http://www.giis.co.in/do.html

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inafield
Personal background: I work in a company with ~80 employees owned by a company
that totals around 300 employees that was just bought by a company that is...
big.

While there are some good points, many of the points seem lacking in
experience and understanding of how business works.

* Don't be a manager/supervisor

These are a necessary evil when you reach certain sizes. Not everybody can
manage. Somebody has to handle the politics of clients/investors/whoever. Not
everyone can code/draw/test/sell/whatever.

* Provide interest free loans...

Maybe this is a country/cultural specific issue, but this is a bad idea
because it changes the relationship between the employer and the employee as
well as can create favorites among employees. It's one thing to ask for an
advance on your paycheck, but a loan is a really bad idea. Banks offer loans
and lines of credit for a reason.

* Each employee must run his/her own open source project regardless of company work

It is generally bad form to tell employees what they should do in their free
time. We have a lives outside of work and whether it's an open source project,
community work, or raising our families. Ever heard of burnout? Everyone needs
a creative break.

* Don't hire anyone who just supervises team members

Sometimes this is a necessary evil. See comment about managers above.

* Make sure work is fun.

It's a job, we're paid to work. Employers shouldn't make it unenjoyable, but
it's not their job to entertain.

* Don't peek into employee desktop/laptop & spies their actives.

Why not? Do you have something to hide?

* When employee quits ,don't disable his/her email account ASAP :P

This is a common practice and a very important security issue, especially if
you signed an employment agreement as well as an NDA regarding the terms of
access to company property. When you quit, you forfeit all access to company
property. "Your" email address is actually on loan to you from the company.

 _Edit: formatting_

~~~
giis
I agree with few points and here is reply for the rest.

On loans, its a personal issue i faced, when i quit my MNC job and joined a
start-up. Banks (at-least in india) won't provide loans for employee working
on startups. Its very hard to get them.

* It is generally bad form to tell employees what they should do in their free time. We have a lives outside of work and whether it's an open source project, community work, or raising our families. Ever heard of burnout? Everyone needs a creative break.

Yes,i agree with it, you can't force employee to spend their time with open
source project. But it has some great advantage - First of all such employee,
won't be involved in politics. They will alway try to improve themselves
rather than comparing their team-members.And also it adds value to their
resumes.

* Why not? Do you have something to hide?

Its very inconvenient/annoying, when employee at their free time browsing
youtube/facebook,playing a online-game of chess,when someone often comes and
looks into their desktop.It will create kind of false impression, as if this
employee never works. I bet at some-point, the employee would have given 200%
at his task. but something might have gone wrong, then he will be told to work
hard rather than surfing the net. That's not good. We never go and see what
founder does with his desktop/laptop :P

* This is a common practice and a very important security issue

I agree with this, you can remove his email-id from dl so that he can't
send/receive mails , but don't block the account.Give him couple of days , so
that he download/retrieve any income tax or payslip related documents. How can
you suddenly won't trust an employee, just because he resigned ? Or at-least
confirm with him before blocking the access.

Yes manager are necessary evil,that can be avoid,if employee head count is
less than 50 i think.

~~~
inafield
_First of all such employee, won't be involved in politics. They will alway
try to improve themselves rather than comparing their team-members.And also it
adds value to their resumes._

Regardless of extra-curricular activities there will always be politics. You
cannot "parent" this out of people except by example from the top down and
good hiring practices. It may be a good practice, but it is a personal
practice -- it should not be enforced by an employer because it is an invasion
into private life. Something like Google's 20% time is a great idea but
difficult to get working and keep up.

 _Employee browsing the internet on company computer._

Best way to protect against false impressions is to not engage in questionable
activities while at work on company time. If an employee doesn't play chess,
browse facebook, or watch youtube while at work, they won't have any problems.

 _We never go and see what founder does with his desktop/laptop_

If the founder wants to goof up, then fine -- but he is not the employee.
Employees are the employees and they are responsible for their actions.
Founders are not responsible to the employees. It is not mature to argue that
"we never go see what the founder does".

 _I agree with this, you can remove his email-id from dl so that he can't
send/receive mails , but don't block the account.Give him couple of days , so
that he download/retrieve any income tax or payslip related documents. How can
you suddenly won't trust an employee, just because he resigned ? Or at-least
confirm with him before blocking the access._

None of that is necessary to send/receive income tax slips -- it should all be
handed to the employee upon termination. Also, you CANNOT trust any employee
who is not in your pay because they are free to work for a competitor. I work
with co-workers who have horror stories of what ex-employees have done.

Also, keeping an email account open may be forgotten to be closed by the IT
department and may also provide access to other parts of the corporate network
which may allow for the ex-employee to sell secrets to competitors.

Shutting down email access is just best business and IT security practices
common throughout the entire world. It is _bad_ form to not shut it down.

------
grey-area
You really should proofread or ask someone to proofread your text before
publishing something like this, particularly as it purports to impart wisdom.
There is misplaced punctuation littered all over the place, as if a bomb
exploded amongst your sentences, and it is full of spelling and grammatical
errors. Presumably English is not your first language, for which I can make
allowances, but I can't take anything with this level of errors and lack of
attention to detail seriously. Even just using spaces after punctuation
consistently would help a lot.

~~~
giis
thanks for the suggestion. Yes,its true,English is not my first language. I'll
try to find someone to proofread the text hereafter, before sharing them. I
used to take short notes while working on a start-up, i just shared those
notes. I'll add spaces to make bit more readable.Thanks.

