I'm old enough that I want to say stuff like: well some people have families and such, essentially "get off my lawn", but everything in this blog rings true to me.
When I was young, I essentially had 2 jobs at one place. There were the billing hours that kept us in business and the after-hours stuff were I really learned stuff. I was single and I spent many hours arguing/practicing/learning from my peers. This was not like the situation described at github. If I consider the billing hours and the other stuff, I generally worked more than 40 hours. But the "other stuff" was fun, it was me geeking out. When I was not on assignment I did more of the "other stuff."
Right now I have a bit of flexibility. I don't force myself to work at a particular time, I find I do much better work if I do so when I feel like doing it. I still have several jobs. I have my full-time job, where I have to work hours. While I'm compensated like I'm full time, I am not 100% scheduled. This gives me time to write, work on the side, watch topgear.
That is an interesting challenge. How can a consulting company that bills by the hour not force a schedule? It turns out if you are a body shop, you've unnecessarily coupled your organization to the implementation of the customer. While that may be common, that doesn't make the "right" or "best", it's just the shit companies do.
I hope you guys manage to find the right size that lets you keep this culture. If you just try to do good stuff and enjoy yourself that's great. If someone wants to sell the company or make lots of $$, woe be it to the employee.
When I was young, I essentially had 2 jobs at one place. There were the billing hours that kept us in business and the after-hours stuff were I really learned stuff. I was single and I spent many hours arguing/practicing/learning from my peers. This was not like the situation described at github. If I consider the billing hours and the other stuff, I generally worked more than 40 hours. But the "other stuff" was fun, it was me geeking out. When I was not on assignment I did more of the "other stuff."
Right now I have a bit of flexibility. I don't force myself to work at a particular time, I find I do much better work if I do so when I feel like doing it. I still have several jobs. I have my full-time job, where I have to work hours. While I'm compensated like I'm full time, I am not 100% scheduled. This gives me time to write, work on the side, watch topgear.
That is an interesting challenge. How can a consulting company that bills by the hour not force a schedule? It turns out if you are a body shop, you've unnecessarily coupled your organization to the implementation of the customer. While that may be common, that doesn't make the "right" or "best", it's just the shit companies do.
I hope you guys manage to find the right size that lets you keep this culture. If you just try to do good stuff and enjoy yourself that's great. If someone wants to sell the company or make lots of $$, woe be it to the employee.
Congratulations on having a great environment.