

Hiring for Happiness - tylerdiaz
http://www.scribd.com/doc/44636259/Hiring-for-Happiness

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j_baker
This all looks excellent. I'm not sure about the debt management part though.

First of all, something about your math just isn't right:

"All employees who want to sign up to the programwill have a percentage of
their debt paid off each fortnight. So instead of getting$70,000/year they
might get $23,000/ year and be debt-free in the next 4 years."

Why would I spend a total of $188k to pay off an average of $24k in student
loans in 4 years? I mean, I know that interest rates are a bitch and all, but
that's a bit much. Plus, I don't know where you guys are located, but
$23k/year in San Francisco isn't a whole lot. I understand that these are
probably all hypothetical numbers, but you might want to choose numbers that
are a little bit less scary.

Another thing:

"If groups of employees live, work and party together our hope is that they
will love their entirelifestyle, not just their work."

...I don't think it's necessary to be _that_ intimate with my coworkers. In
fact, it could arguably be _bad_ to encourage people to be that close. A
workplace needs some level of conflict to discourage groupthink, and it's much
easier to disagree with someone you're paid to do a job with than someone
who's your best friend and roommate.

~~~
tempest67
I agree with j_baker -- I was thinking that this document was kind of nice
until I got to the part where everyone has to take a holiday together. No
matter how you tweak this, what it means is that the company is impinging on
the employee's personal life and leisure time.

Another thing to remember is that there's a difference between personal and
work relationships. You can (and should!) have great work relationships with
people who you have little in common with, personally.

"Forced fun" is always as bad as it sounds.

~~~
richardburton
Definitely agree with these points. I will make it more clear that these would
be optional things that the company put on rather than mandatory corporate
events. I would hate those.

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studer
"My hope is that our employees never, ever feel patronized, belittled or
small."

Anyone applying to your company after having read that pile of patronizing
crap are probably genetically incapable of feeling patronized or belittled.

(Seriously, I don't think I know a single highly qualified person who wouldn't
quit the same day if you showed up and told them that this is how the company
will be run from now on, and half of them would punch you in the face on the
way out.)

~~~
richardburton
Studer. How do you run your company? Or are you an employee? I put this online
for feedback and help.

~~~
biot
It sounds like one way to make money working there would be for debt-free
employees to assume some debt at less than 5% interest so that the higher real
wage and 5% top-up payments kick in. There are some interesting ideas here
with the exception of section 4 which sounds like a cult. Not everyone wants
their workplace to function like a commune.

~~~
richardburton
Very good point. Need to work on the numbers more carefully but I hope you
agree with the intention. Section 4 is definitely the least carefully thought
out but probably the most well-intentioned. Right now Happy feels a bit like a
commune as lots of students come to our Tiki House and enjoy our parties and
help with the project. I guess I'd just love to maintain that vibe if at all
possible.

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richardburton
Tyler thanks a lot for submitting this! A bit of background: I've written this
for my Human Resources class at UCSB and as a way to think about how I want to
grow my new company, Happy.

<http://www.thisishappy.com>

~~~
arkitaip
This really reminds me of Zappos's Culture and the great stuff that Tony Hsieh
and others have been working on for the past years.

I strongly recommend Delivering Happiness by Hsieh to anyone who is interested
in this type of approach to employee care. Very inspiring stuff.
[http://www.amazon.com/Delivering-Happiness-Profits-
Passion-P...](http://www.amazon.com/Delivering-Happiness-Profits-Passion-
Purpose/dp/0446563048/)

~~~
richardburton
Absolutely. My inspiration all along has been Tony Hsieh. Such an incredible
entrepreneur. I am just adding a few more ideas I have about creating a happy
company culture.

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bjonathan
Direct link to the PDF for Scribd Haters:
<http://dl.dropbox.com/u/2577298/Hiring-for-Happiness.pdf>

~~~
richardburton
Thanks for that.

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rdl
I think most talented employees care about freedom and flexibility, including
freedom to not have to worry about things which are necessary but not
interesting.

Being forced to do something which isn't a major benefit to the company would
be close to a deal breaker (e.g. filing TPS reports), regardless of salary,
unless you had other options. Whereas doing something unpleasant which is
clearly important (coming in on christmas morning to fix a security problem)
is painful, but much more acceptable.

Really, what seems to work the best is to offer "sensible defaults" for most
things, and then let employees make their own choices if they wish. Stuff like
offering a budget to buy your own desktop/laptop/phone, but "a lot of people
like the 15" MBP HD, and we have a couple already configured if you'd like
that". Having social events on the weekends, after work, etc. where employees
are invited, but certainly not mandatory. (for this, informal usually works
better, especially if some people are clueful enough to try to build links
across departments, like the engineers also inviting people from sales).

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paolomaffei
I'm in LOVE with this paper. Can't wait to make my company more like that.

~~~
richardburton
Awesome Paolo. I'm just starting with this venture too so I'd love to hear how
it goes for you. What idea/startup/company are you working on at the moment?

~~~
paolomaffei
I currenty own a consulting web agency that also has its own revenue websites
(what's the correct name for those? lot of smallish site that have revenues
with either ads, subscription or e-commerce). Just as Google nowadays doesn't
have a single idea but rather a lot of projects I believe this is a model that
can work in a company that's doing 1/2 consulting and 1/2 its own smallish
projects. There's just 4 of us now but we're always looking for people,
especially if they recognize themselves in a document like this one.

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exit
_He argued that the following 4 things were paramount:

-Perceived Control

-Perceived Progress

-..._

hilarious

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mkramlich
i applaud you for trying to be innovative about how to run companies, and hire
and keep people.

~~~
richardburton
Thanks mkramlich. I am just putting a few ideas out there for criticism to see
if they could work so that when I have the revenues to support them I can make
it happen.

