Insights From a Calm Company: My Review of It Doesn't Have to Be Crazy at Work
Imagine a company where:
You're encouraged to only work 40 hours a week
There are no goals - at all
There is no long-term planning (all plans only go out to six weeks)
No one can see anyone else's calendar
That may sound like a fantasy (or a failure of a company), but those are some of the principles behind the successful project management software company Basecamp. The cofounders of Basecamp, Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson, wrote the book It Doesn't Have to Crazy At Work to share the insights that they have found while running their company. These insights are often completely at odds with 'traditional' management advice, which makes the book a fascinating read.
The key word behind the company is 'calm'. From the book's introduction: "For nearly 20 years we've been working at making Basecamp a calm company. One that isn't fueled by stress, or ASAP, or rushing, or late nights, or all-night crunches, or impossible promises, or high turnover, or consistently missed deadlines, or projects that never seem to end." Sounds like a dream, doesn't it?
Some of my favorite quotes from the book:
"A great work ethic isn't about working whenever you're called upon. It's about doing what you say you're going to do, putting in a fair day's work, respecting the work, respecting the customer, respecting coworkers, not wasting time, not creating unnecessary work for other people, and not being a bottleneck. Work ethic is about being a fundamentally good person that others can count on and enjoy working with."
"What's our market share? Don't know, don't care. It's irrelevant. Do we have enough customers paying us enough money to cover our costs and generate a profit? Yes. Is that number increasing every year? Yes. That's good enough for us."
"At most companies, work-life balance is a sham. Not because there shouldn't be a balance, but because work always seems to end up putting its fat finger on the scale. Life just lifts. That's not balance."
One nice touch is that various examples of famous people that also prioritized calm are sprinkled throughout the book. For example, "Britsh naturalist Charles Darwin published 19 books, including "On the Origin of Species", while working just 4.5 hours a day."
If the insights I've shared from the book so far make you think "Hell Yeah!" then I definitely recommend checking out the full book.