Un article très intéressant (une interview, plus exactement) de Jason Fried, cofondateur et PDG de 37signals. Celui-ci donne son avis sur les entreprises, et c’est un refrain que je n’ai pas du tout l’habitude d’entendre : il n’est pas du tout pour les entreprises qui se vendent alors qu’elles ne font aucun bénéfice (cf Instagram par exemple), il ne voit pas dans l’augmentation du nombre d’employé une chose forcément positive ; il dit notamment qu’il préfère continuer à avoir une entreprise d’une trentaine d’employés, même s’il pourrait très bien financièrement en avoir plusieurs centaines, et il explique pourquoi il trouve ça correct de en faire travailler ses employés que 4 jours par semaine. C’est le genre de chose qu’on n’entend pas souvent !

Morceaux choisis :

People were like, “I have stuff to get done, it’s Thursday, so I’m gonna work Friday and just get it done. But we actually preferred that they didn’t. There are very few things that can’t wait till Monday.

We’re about being in business for the long haul and keeping the team together over the long haul. I would never trade a short-term burst for a long-term decline in morale. That happens a lot in the tech business: They burn people out and get someone else. I like the people who work here too much. I don’t want them to burn out. Lots of startups burn people out with 60, 70, 80 hours of work per week. They know that both the people or the company will flame out or be bought or whatever, and they don’t care, they just burn their resources. It’s like drilling for as much oil as you possibly can. You can look at people the same way.

La diatribe contre les startups mises en avant chez TechCrunch :

Look at what the top stories are, and they’re all about raising money, how many employees they have, and these are metrics that don’t matter. What matters is: Are you profitable? Are you building something great? Are you taking care of your people? Are you treating your customers well? In the coverage of our industry as a whole, you’ll rarely see stories about treating customers well, about people building a sustainable business. TechCrunch to me is the great place to look to see the sickness in our industry right now.

Bref : allez lire cet interview. C’est ici.