Building a better workplace
Not only do they make one of the best project management applications on the web, but it looks like 37signals is a great place to work as well.
A recent post on the Signal vs. Noise blog outlines some of the experiments that the company is undertaking in order to make create the optimal work environment. Included among the experiments going on right now:
- Shorter work weeks
- Funding people’s passions
- Discretionary spending accounts
These experiments are important not only because they will increase company morale, but because they encompass values — such as sharing, trust, and personal reflection — that have often been overlooked in the corporate environment.
While the changes are not directly related to efficiency and productivity (both of which are the impetus behind most shifts in corporate culture) the overall effect of the experiments will be to make employees more passionate about their work and the company.
One of the first things that stood out when reading the post was 37signals commitment to sharing: funding employees’ passions was not done in the spirit of simply making people happy, but because these passions led to increased learning which could then be shared with both other employees and customers.
What was most striking to me, was the essential shift in looking at employees as responsible stakeholders rather than simply workers:
If there’s a problem, we’ll let the person know. We’d rather trust people to make reasonable spending decisions than assume people will abuse the privilege by default.
Trust, a key value in our everyday personal relationships, has often been ignored in the corporate environment. The issue of abuse of privileges only comes when people feel as though they don’t deserve the privilege. By trusting people to be responsible constituents of a company (or any other group), we encourage those same people to feel invested in the success of the group.
I’m looking forward to seeing what else 37signals comes up with in order to make their workplace one of the best in the world. In the meantime, I’ll keep a lookout for more news on the results of their experiments. I’m pretty confident they’ll turn out well.