tech-company, employees, hoursSmall businesses, and tech startups in particular, are notorious for the hours expected of founders and employees. Developers in particular are often expected to do whatever it takes to hit a launch date. But then on the other hand, developers are also known for keeping hours that others might consider “unusual.”
From what I’ve seen of the world, I get the impression that the classic 9-5 day job is starting to be a thing of the past, with more and more companies starting to offer full dinner services on-location.
As a small business owner, what hours can I reasonably expect of employees? And on top of that, what sort of structure should those hours be enforced with?
I wouldn’t want to be too strict about it, of course, but these are the options I can think of:
I don’t really expect a magic combination, but what pros and cons are there to each structure? Perhaps different jobs have different ideals?
You’re focusing on the wrong thing, the right question is how do you hire great motivated people and convince them to work for you a long time. Management tactics where you put strict rules in place tend to drive away top people, especially in technology, meaning you’ll just turn the screws on the people that can’t find something better.
Figure out how to find the best people, then make it as easy as possible for them to work no matter where they are without requiring they do so. Fire anyone who doesn’t meet expectations. If you set the standard high, don’t surround good people with bad (and punish them with crazy hours/requirements/etc because of the bad people), and make work enjoyable you’ll have a lot more success than if you tightly control everything.
Ending the 40-Hour Work Week
If you really think about the things that you need to make yourself happy—housing, security, opportunities for your kids—anthropologists have been identifying these things. It’s not that hard for us to provide those things,” he said. “The amount of resources we need to do that, the amount of work that actually needs to go into that is pretty small. I’m guessing less than 1% at the moment. So the idea that everyone needs to work frantically to meet people’s needs is just not true.
Larry Page, Google Co-Founder (2014)
I would say this myself, though guessing that off the cuff such a comment would be seen as just my opinion. I've worked 120+ hour plus weeks and 30'ish hour weeks, and my experience is that you find a way to use the time you have best when you have less time.
As for dealing with employees, the answer will vary so much by role and the culture of a company that there is no single correct answer in my opinion. For example, in Japan, it's still very common for staff to work until the boss leaves; see "How to Convey That You Are Working Hard Without Pulling All-Nighters."
So, my answer is that if you have a culture that works for you, hire staff that works for your needs, be consistent, and if someone has needs that do not conflict with your needs or the staffs needs, be flexible as long as they are consistent.
I would start by asking the question “Who am I hiring?”.
Always focus on the people you are targeting. Both as customers, but also as employes. If you hire young newly graduates, then they probably don’t mind working late. That’s what they are used to from university.
If you hire a bit more experienced people that are starting to create family, then the will value their family very high, which they should.
If you hire very experienced employees, they can do the same task often faster and with more experience as newly graduates. But they may wan’t more flexible time.
If you, as most people, hire a great mixture. I would suggest finding a balance in the middle.
Since you ask the question, you probably don’t have that much experience in these matters. I think you need a lot of experience, if you want to make hours very flexible. Its much easier to loosen up, than to tighten things that are to loose. I have experienced staff being sloppy, because the structure was unclear. When I hear and read of companies being very flexible and giving employees a lot of freedom, the companies are often run by very experienced people, that have used years to understand employer motivation and habits. Do you have this experience? Do you have a very clear vision of how to give this freedom to your employee? If not, start with something conservative and build up experience and then be more flexible.
Hope you can use my experience and advice.
All content is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.