

Working late, responsibly - Isofarro
http://dan.carley.co/blog/2014/05/21/working-late-responsibly/

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davidu
Just to provide a counter-point, some people ebb and flow in their energy and
ability to produce high-quality work. Some people prefer working odd hours.
They siesta during the day. Some people go on three-day benders doing amazing
things, and then crash for a day. And that's their preference. They just get
into the zone in different ways.

I think that if you want to hire the best people and let them do the best
work, you should work around the schedule that works best for them and judge
them on their work product and that of their peers.

As an aside, in the venture-backed, growth-focused startup world I work in, I
doubt there is a single high-performing successful company that operates with
the mentality that OP suggests people adopt. It's just too hard when the focus
is to grow insanely fast. It's not for everyone, and it has serious
consequences to work/life satisfaction, but it's a choice a lot of people on
YC have made, or make... I'm fatter, with more gray hair, and more stressed
than I would be working at a larger company with more reasonable hours and
stress. But I enjoy what I do, feel it has purpose, get paid well to do my
job, and get paid even more if we do something incredible. So I keep doing it
because despite the downsides, I feel quite privileged. :-)

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btrombley
As articles like this attest, there is a deep resentment on HN with the idea
that success requires long hours and slavish commitment to work. But then
every article about a successful company bolsters the sense that success
requires exactly that kind of sacrifice. As Michael Bloomberg put it in his
autobiography, Bloomberg succeeded "because we worked harder."

It's nice to read about the exception like 37Signals, but Apple, Google,
Facebook, Dropbox, etc. are not known as places where work-life balance is a
priority (and they have done more than anyone technologically to make work
ubiquitous). Those mega-successful companies are also the entire reason the VC
model (including YC) works, which can be an uncomfortable truth if you work at
a venture-backed startup.

Worker productivity has been steadily rising over the last half century, and
yet people aren't working less, as originally predicted. You can view that as
an indictment of American consumer culture, or you can view it as evidence
that we're motivated by something else.

Just my observations.

~~~
x0x0
Perhaps it's evidence that -- at least at many companies I've worked for --
time in office is used as a proxy for productivity. And in some it matters
more!

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cwal37
In my current position I can't have work email easily accessible on my phone.
I have a security token on my keychain that changes every 30 seconds or so, as
well as 2 additional passwords I need to remember. This is enough to deter me
from checking my work email outside of work 95% of the time. I used to be the
person sending emails from bed at 3am.

I go hiking in the Smokies almost every weekend, and I enjoy the fact that my
post-hike tranquility won't be interrupted by work emails that inevitably
hijack my brain even if they aren't pressing.

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__abc
What the hell do you do?

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cwal37
Hahaha, nothing crazy. I work at a national lab. I'm like a hybrid policy
analyst/economist/environmental scientist/programmer focused on energy.

There are definitely people at this lab and presumably next door at the Y-12
complex for whom this level of security is more relevant.

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josephjrobison
"Ultimately you should remember that downtime is precious. It’s not healthy to
be in front of a computer, let alone working, all day and night. You might not
be doing other people harm but you may be doing harm to yourself."

This is spot on - screen fatigue is real - and spending 8 hours in front of a
screen at work and then maybe 3-4 at home is not natural for the human mind or
eyes in my opinion. I sleep much better if I shut everything off by 8 or 9 pm
for an 11:30 bed time.

~~~
pwython
That's why they invented justgetflux.com -- now you can work longer at night!

~~~
mister_m
You're still being assaulted by a refresh rate. This is what causes eye
fatigue. Flux will not prevent computer vision syndrome. We've got to take
care of our eyes.

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lnanek2
Really don't agree with this. Sometimes I work 18 hours a day, sometimes just
5 and then I go home and take a nap. Sometimes I'm remote for a week,
sometimes remote just one day a week. I really don't need my work hobbled by
having to queue up anything noticeable for official office hours just to lie
to my coworkers that I'm not actually working when I am. Tell each new hire
what they are responsible for and what they aren't, don't tell your current
workers to hide what they are doing and get in their way just to tell it in
some weird passive indirect way.

