

A Day At Asana - jackstah
http://blog.asana.com/2011/12/a-day-at-asana/

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moocow01
This makes me laugh and also burt a little inside. It reminds me of a pitch
for joining a senior citizen community the way it flows. "At first you'll
start your day with a good friend doing arts and crafts and then hey look how
the time flies, its time for a delicious meal prepared by your friendly Chef
Pierre" The real kicker is the 7 o'clock dinner time at the end - I'd have to
cross out a few of the last lines and rewrite my own. "And now its 5 o'clock.
You gather your stuff together and skip out the door to the dismay of
management to reclaim the rest of your sanity." I suppose I wouldn't last
long.

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robert_mygengo
Reading this makes me feel treated like a kid. As if Asana staff will be
leaning over my shoulder the whole day like creepy startup Jesuses.

Plus Donnie and Kim, peeking round the door, desperately fishing for
compliments on their cooking :)

I get it, you're all _lovely_. But this is too much.

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latchkey
That is a really nice selling pitch for the culture there.

What isn't said is "we expect you to stay at work till 9pm+ because you don't
start coding until 2pm, when the food coma has worn off."

;-)

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kingofspain
_That is a really nice selling pitch for the culture there._

I thought almost the opposite. I mean it is isn't the worst I've ever seen by
a long stretch but the fact that you'll be there past 7pm on day one left me a
bit cold. They didn't mention a start time so I'll assume around 9ish (I'm
sure they'd have have made a point of saying "stroll in at 10 or 11 with a
donut" or somesuch otherwise).

Maybe I'm not made of the right stuff in that I don't want my whole life to
revolve around work. Then again, I'm easily replaced by someone who is
_hungrier_ and more of a _team player_.

~~~
ktsmith
I felt the same way. On most days I've already had lunch and am back to work
by 12:30. At 7pm I would be cleaning up from having dinner with my family and
be heading off to have a light saber battle or play trains with my son. I
worked a job where I spent most of my life at the office when I was in my
early 20's and it nearly destroyed every non work relationship I had. Stepping
away from work and my co-workers at lunch gives me an opportunity to clear my
head, get away from the work and think/concentrate on other things. Don't get
me wrong, I like the people I work with, but I have no desire to spend my
every waking moment with them.

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malux85
Hi Guys! Wow this is amazing! I wish I could sleep here LOL! No, no, I don't
mind lunches with you to discuss business ... because I have been working hard
all morning, and my lunch-times should be about squeezing some more creatives
out of me .. oh, and we can all "occasionally" laugh at a cat video too, what
a bunch of jokers my bosses are!

I dont mind staying late every single night! In fact, I've put some of these
needles in my arm so that you can take my blood if you like! PLEASE TAKE MY
BLOOD!

WE'RE HAPPY HERE, I SWEAR! OH GOD I'M SO HAPPY

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boopboop
I'm disappointed to see such harsh, judgmental attitudes with regards to this
close-knit and supportive company culture. With the countless stories of poor
management and toxic work environments, we should applaud and encourage
companies that do their best to respect employees. Why such hostility?

~~~
moocow01
I'm sure people will interpret this article which is essentially a job ad in
many different ways but here is my take away from it...

In my opinion, 2 of the most prevalent contributors to a toxic work
environment in tech are micromanagement and long hours. Now in regards to this
ad...

Micromanagement - To me this reeks of micromanagement. Firstly they depict an
environment where you seemingly have a step by step plan as to how you need to
go about your day. They even have a culture to manage and work you during your
lunch break... "we all eat together; this is another opportunity to keep up to
date on what is happening outside your team". Also, the "talking to a pre-
schooler" tone of the ad doesn't help either - saying thing like "grab your
buddy" are not how you address a professional.

Long hours - So at lunch you essentially are at a work meeting with food and
then at 7 you have dinner which based upon how lunch goes is probably also a
work meeting. And not only that when a company serves you dinner it usually is
because they are expecting that you are staying to do some work later. So just
by the ad you have no real breaks and are working 9-8 (11 hours) and probably
more after dinner.

Now I'm not trying to say you are wrong - just the way that I personally
interpret this, it epitomizes many of the things wrong with many tech
companies. I'm glad that they are upfront though - most employers mention this
kind of stuff after you've taken the offer.

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grayrest
Are the Asana guys still cranking on lunascript?

~~~
lightcatcher
AFAIK, they are no longer working on Lunascript (the language) but still use
the Luna framework in their app.

source: [http://www.quora.com/Why-is-Asana-developing-their-own-
progr...](http://www.quora.com/Why-is-Asana-developing-their-own-programming-
language-Lunascript/answer/Jack-Stahl)

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ajryan
Twee

