09.26.07
Working in CA
A culture shock really. The offices are spacious and pleasant. Instead of a shabby desk crammed in a corner I have a lovely u-shaped arrangement with ridiculously large screens and a high-tech chair. The kitchen is crammed with all kinds of food – two dozen kinds of cereal, half dozen varieties of tea, two coffee machines, the fridge is jammed with bottled water and various juices and drinks. Every day random piles of sandwiches and boxed salads are ordered in. Around the office bowls overflow with fruit and snacks. You could live here quite comfortably with tasty supplies to keep you going for several weeks.
When you’ve come from the Dickensian conditions of the typical Irish office – and I’ve worked in more than one startup – this takes some getting used to. I expressed my surprise to the boss on the burden this luxury must place on the burn rate. He brushed it off. Apparently this is how companies in the Valley must treat their workers or they simply won’t turn up. Oh and even though this start up is under pressure to deliver a product in the coming weeks, there is no feverish slaving going on. The atmosphere is calm, focused but relaxed. People are busy but coming in and going home at reasonable hours.
On the one hand I wonder where we went wrong. On the other I suppose this accounts for some of the enthusiasm foreign investors have for Ireland. Our wages might be high but our productivity and cost of maintenance is low. Are we the Chinese of Europe?
SK said,
September 27, 2007 at 6:28 am
Part of the reason (a big part) for the nice kitchen and comfy surroundings is that they expect you to be there for 50-60 hours a week (and often more).
It has been said to me by a number of people I know who work for Google in Dublin that they provide excellent services to their staff, on the understanding that that allows them to spend more time in work.
leon said,
September 27, 2007 at 8:26 am
Contrary to notions of ourselves, the most productive works per hour in the EU are the french, their problem being they only work 30 hours a week.
Viva la francais, vive la difference.
(Keep tell myself 2 more years, then I move to a some old barn in the belle, sod what the kids think, they’ll soon learn to dress elegantly and arrogantly toke on a cig whilst sitting outside a cafe rather than like looking american highschool hookers outside macdees slurping from a can of celtic cider).
Tomaltach said,
September 27, 2007 at 9:13 am
Sarah,
You wrote that “Our wages might be high but our productivity and cost of maintenance is low“. I’m not sure if that’s the case. Our GDP per hour worked exceeds the US average according to figures from the National Competitiveness Council. Our productivity was poor pre-Tiger but made huge gains during the 90s. The trouble is that productivity growth seems to have levelled off, so yes unless that changes we will slip backwards. I’m not sure either that our cost of maintenance is low. Property and utility prices are very high in Ireland. (Overall though my understanding is that the so called loaded labour rate of cost is still higher in the Valley than in Ireland). Many of the newer offices in Ireland are much better but I think a contributary factor is that in Ireland is that business just rank employee environment very low. This has always been the case. I think it reflects a different culture and view of the employee than is the case in American firms. American firms for example always want to keep Trade Unionism out of the picture if at all possible. One way they do this is by treating employees better. I have noticed in Ireland that the big foreign firms always have higher standards for their employees than have their Irish counterparts. (Of course there are exceptions). I have worked for Swedish, Candian, American and Irish corporations. In terms of how employee concerns and environment (leave aside pay for the moment) were ranked by management, the Irish firms come bottom in my experience.
Treasa said,
September 27, 2007 at 12:47 pm
Re the 50-60 hours per week, didn’t Sarah just say there was no evidence of slave-driving with workers keeping reasonable hours.
I think a 30-hour week is plenty. Most people only work six hours a day anyway. The rest of the time is spent messing around.
The worst employers in my experience are the English. They still have the whip-cracking mentality and treat employees as schookids who should be grateful to have a job.
What is the Californian outfit setting out to do Sarah?
Ciaran Buckley said,
September 27, 2007 at 2:44 pm
In Microsoft Ireland the coffee was free, but you paid for the Coke (coca-cola not blow). In Redmond you got free coke, but paid for the coffee. It’s all relative. Redmond workers that I brought back to Ireland said that they would pay to have US co-workers who could discuss GAA, theatre and C++ in a single conversation. And who swore like sailors. Even when discussing theatre and C++.
So, um, how did you end up in California working for a tech startup? And as the mammy/bishop said to the working mother “where are the kids?”
Sarah said,
September 27, 2007 at 4:39 pm
I asked the boss about it last night. He said stocking up the office with lots of nice things means the employees stay in the office for lunch and don’t waste half an hour walking in and out to town.
I’m out here because its friends who starting up and I’m giving them a dig out with some writing. Funny thing about software is I’ve never had to actually understand how it works in order to write about it
Oh I’m only here for a few days – kids with Daddy at home.
Dan Sullivan said,
September 27, 2007 at 9:26 pm
I worked for large US software company in Ireland and later on spent 18 months in Boston as a result and the contrasting in working environment, age profile and working day was remarkable.
Gordon Davies said,
September 27, 2007 at 9:39 pm
1. The French do not work a 30 hour week. The legal working week is 35 hours. Middle management do not have a limit on their working hours, but benefit from 22 days additional leave per year. the French are the most productive workers in the world, on an hourly basis. The consequence of this is that those who can’t stand the pace are excluded from all work – which is why unemployment is so high.
In many ways France, for all it’s faults, is an example to folllow… a post modern, post industrial society that stiil ranks as one of the most succesful in the world.
2. Ireland suffers still from the “English disease”. Business continues to be run by incompetent management on the lookout for short term gain. This runs over into the managent of public affairs… a FF government that has untold ressources at its disposal but who have failed to even provide minimal services to the inhabitants of Ireland. Their one success, the creation of a new Ascendancy, non residant, non-tax paying but generous in their financial support of certain leading lights of FF..
Sarah said,
September 27, 2007 at 11:29 pm
hmm I don’t know about the love affair with French productivity. My friend Paul http://www.darrach.net/ is astonished at the empty Airbus factory on Saturday mornings even though they are years behind schedule…
Tomaltach said,
September 28, 2007 at 6:30 am
OECD figures for 2005/6 show that if worker productivity (GDP per hour worked) is 100 in the US, the following are some comparative EU figures:
UK 83
Germany 91
France 101
Norway 131
Ireland 104
Obviously Norway’s figure is distorted because they litteraly struck oil. But still, this shows that France is at least as productive as the US. The trouble for France (and most of Europe’s big economies) is that their Labour productivity growth was above that of the US between 1980 and 1995. But the growth in productivity in Europe declined thereafter and fell behind that of the US during the Clinton boom. This means that France and US could be seen as neck and neck but France seems to be slowing down.
Ireland of course bucked the european trend with the Celtic Tiger, but that’s another day’s work.
Tym said,
September 28, 2007 at 10:55 am
That disease is no joke. Ask anyone who has worked at the Sun or Mail newspaper group in Ireland for their views on English lout employers.
Must be no writers in California. What’s new and innovative about the software?
Sarah said,
September 28, 2007 at 1:39 pm
It’s in stealth mode so I cannot say
When it launches I’ll post here about it. It’s pretty cool though.
pete said,
September 28, 2007 at 10:53 pm
My emplyer has just moved their (our?) Global HQ from Santa Clara to San Jose. Is that a step up or a step down?
Sarah said,
October 1, 2007 at 12:31 pm
hmmm not sure. San Jose is further away from SFO so theoretically a step down BUT San Jose a bigger place than Santa Clara. I’ll ask about the coolness factor..standby…
Primal Sneeze said,
October 1, 2007 at 6:14 pm
I had a colleague once seconded from the US to Ireland for a year. On Friday’s he’d order in buns, doughnuts, and so on for his team … who totally ignored the free feast for weeks until they realised it was for them, not expected visitors/customers.
Graham said,
October 2, 2007 at 2:48 pm
Working in a hardware store during a J1 in Southern California, we were supplied with a feast of donuts on saturdays and free coffee every day. If we worked on sundays we’d get a free lunch, a decent one at that.
The strange thing was that everyone stuck rigidly to their job and didn’t seem to be able to adapt to different positions. I remember the whole store were upset that one girl on the cashiers desk had somehow managed to ‘destroy’ the credit card machine and they were predicting ‘massive lines’ because all credit card transactions would have to be done the old fashioned way. It took about 1 min to take the credit card machine apart and remove the paper jam (yes, thats all it was…) and we were back to normal. I was called to the managers office and commended on my initiative and my cleverness. We laughed about it for hours at home. Perhaps that was just Southern California though.