Another day, another blogger fight
How about this? How about you all STOP talking about doing work and actually do it. I’d like to see all of the talkers innovate something.
Oh and work life balance:
It is difficult even when not in a startup. In today’s economy, I don’t think any company not operating like a startup can really survive. It has to be all hands, all people on deck at all times. I can’t remember the last time I actually didn’t order my lunch in and eat at my desk. Weeks.
It’s a difficult time in all businesses, and doubling down is the default and norm now.
That isn’t to say you shouldn’t have a life (I only do work at home on weekends, and not as much as I used to), but it is going to be a tough year.
Remember, blog-fighting IS Mike’s business. What is TechCrunch but one long opinion column? It’s Loic and everyone else that’s silly to get involved with someone who doesn’t care about being right, but will never admit their wrong – as long as it gets page views.
As for the work-life balance thing: a lot of the “start ups” I’ve known behave in far more irresponsible ways financially than most dour, dull corporations. Things like proper expense management and justification of items like business travel often don’t exist in VC-funded start ups – or at least, didn’t until the VCs started waking up to the fact they had to get returns a couple of months ago.
And don’t get me started on the “if you build it they will come” mentality of Web 2.0 start ups, who often have no clear revenue stream beyond either “and then we’ll sell to Google” or “and then we’ll run ads”.
Ethan, doubling down may be the norm but there’s a couple of dangers there:
1) By doing so, it becomes the norm and therefore standard practice instead of companies going ‘here’s the workload, we need x amount of employees’.
1b) When the recession is over, everyone is still expected to do all the hours.
2) Working crazy hours may be OK for people without families but the family guys like to play with children.