Hey Raena

Seeing as it’s Eight Hour/Labour Day tomorrow, this latest stroke of ‘genius’ from Jason Calacanis is perfectly timed.

Fire people who are not workaholics…. come on folks, this is startup life, it’s not a game. go work at the post office or stabucks if you want balance in your life. For realz.”

Having received a few dozen reamings from the rest of the world (small selection: a, b,c, d) he amends this to:

Fire people who are not workaholics. don’t love their work… come on folks, this is startup life, it’s not a game. don’t work at a startup if you’re not into it–go work at the post office or stabucks if you’re not into it you want balance in your life. For realz.

Nice backpedal, for realz. He adds:

This got me to thinking, why are folks so upset with this concept of working really hard? (…) Truth be told, I’ve never asked anyone to work harder than I do, and I work seven days a week.

See, according to Jason, ‘working really hard’, ‘loving your work’ and ‘workaholism’ seem to equate to the same thing. And there’s a horrible undertone (or even an outright statement) in some of the comments supportive of Calacanis’ stance, that people seeking balance at work are slackers.

And that’s dead wrong — there’s heaps of published proof that it’s the direct opposite, that inflexibility and overwork actually wreck people’s lives. Conversely, organisations who afford time for personal learning, family time and flexible work arrangements experience huge gains in productivity, staff retention, and reduced absenteeism. The proof is everywhere you look, but for a bit of currency there’s a great response to Jason’s post from 37 signals about how working less hours and taking an interest in staffers’ lives makes for a better all-around experience.

On Monday those of us in Victoria and Tasmania get a day off to commemorate the efforts of workers to demand better conditions and a reasonable working day. It’s a fine time to have a day off work and spare a moment to remember some of the issues that face employees today — like the attitudes of the Jason Calacanises of the world, and how we still need to fight against people like him.