Hello, Every readers!
When writer and researcher Brie Wolfson thinks back on her time working at Stripe, the thing that stands out to her is that people really cared about the work. Cared enough to do multiple passes on a piece of copy that wasn't working, or pull long nights sprinting toward a launch. Cared so much that they knew pieces of company documentation by heart, and that nobody wanted to be the first person to leave the office, even on Friday.
It's the kind of culture that Silicon Valley was once known for—a culture that, Brie argues, seems to have fallen by the wayside. There are reasons for that, of course—the current state of the world is making it challenging to give 110% to anything, let alone work. But Brie can't help feeling that something vital is being lost: a way of working that is, yes, extremely challenging—but also deeply meaningful for everyone involved.
Enjoyed this piece? Pair it with Sam Gerstenzang's Operating Well: What I Learned at Stripe for another perspective.
In my first five years out of college, I worked at five different companies. The allure of Silicon Valley pulled me in, but after a handful of pretty meh jobs, I was starting to wonder what all the fuss was about.
Then, in 2015, I joined a random little payments startup in San Francisco called Stripe where things felt different.
The office was pretty quiet—people were cranking. Conference room whiteboards looked like something you’d draw in a cartoon about a convoluted math proof (those, I soon learned, were the payments flows that we all eventually came to know by heart). We were encouraged to write everything down and then share it to a Google Group that anyone at the company could subscribe to and read, whether it was a meaningful strategy document, personal musings on a topic, or a mundane email exchange.
The mission of the company, they told us, was to “increase the GDP of the internet.”It was a little abstract, but we believed in it enough to recite it with pride. At meal times, people sat with whomever was around instead of pinging their cliques. Everyone stayed for dinner every night—in part because there was work to do, in part because chef Tony was cooking up something delicious, but mostly because there was no way I was going home before my neighbor was. Conversations often found their way to a whitepaper or book someone had recently read or posted in our inspiration Slack channel (I was surprised to learn that talking about the latest novel I was reading seemed as interesting as the whitepapers, even to the engineers).
When writing emails to customers, we were told not to use phrases like “thank you for your patience” (too presumptuous) or “as mentioned earlier” (passive aggressive). Sending meeting notes was a privilege, not a chore (documentation for the win). My colleagues chimed in on my work—because I asked them to, and because it made the work better, not because they didn’t trust me. Once, the CFO called me after sending out notes from a “postmortem” I ran to remind me that we should use the word “retrospective” instead (it’s more reflective of what we were doing and a lot less morbid). My work was meticulously but warmly critiqued by my peers and leaders alike, and my work got better and better because of it. You couldn’t get through a single day without hearing the operating principles cited multiple times in the run of work. Employees could recite content from iconic company documents verbatim —sometimes years after they were originally published.
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The culture stopped because the equity-sharing culture of Silicon Valley leaders stopped. It used to be that equity was a very large part of a compensation package, partly because startups didn't have cash, but mostly to incentivize employees to work hard to achieve the company's success, knowing they'd share in that success.
Employees would be given very generous equity packages and as a result, many of the bottom line employees from the early days of the .com boom hit it big, with 6 or 7 figure payouts when the company was bought out or hit unicorn status. So they were highly motivated to work those 15+ hour days.
But the equity culture has changed for two reasons. The first is that the cash flow has significantly increased in the valley. After the first generation of millionaires and billionaires started up VC firms to find more unicorns, they began pumping their wealth into their investments. No longer strapped for cash, startups could afford to pay salary instead of equity.
However, this isn't the main problem, as there's nothing stopping a company from paying salary *and* equity. The real problem is that every founder in the valley now has dreams of being the next Jobs, the next Zuck, the next Bezos. Equity is hoarded for the founder, cofounders, and maybe a tiny handful of first gen employees. When I first moved to SV about 8 years ago, the first startup I worked at offered 15000 options vesting over two years. That's already a significant decline from the hay-day of high equity startups. My most recent startup offered me 5000 options vesting over several years. The next one will probably offer 1000 options over 10 years.
Usually when you bring this up to a modern valley CEO, they'll say something along the lines of "you should care more about the mission than about getting rich", which is a horrible attitude to have to attempt to gaslight your employees. They *do* care about the mission or they wouldn't have taken the job. There's still high demand for tech workers out here, none of us are desperate to just take whatever comes our way. We're able to be picky. If we chose your company, we want to be there.
The fact is that humans aren't one dimensional. We care about multiple missions. The mission of the company, sure. But also the mission of raising our kids. The mission of the volunteer causes we're involved in. The mission of other companies we've invested in. It's about work-life balance. At the end of the day, I care about work but I also care about life. If you want me to tip the scale towards work, you have to offer something more than just a noble mission. My life is full of noble missions.
Plus one hand washes the other. If you do take good care of me, that will come back to you, not just because I'll pull the extra hours, but because I'll be able to do so at lower stress levels. I'll be able to afford extra childcare so I don't have to worry that staying late at work means no one is watching my kid. I'll be able to pitch in on the weekend knowing my spouse is able to relax because we have enough to live off one income or that the house got paid off by a big equity payout.
For some reason, this still needs to be said to every generation of new CEOs: happy employees are productive employees.
Let me share in the financial success of the company and I will make sure the company is successful.
@adventuring-sloth This hits the nail on the directly on the head. What you are willing to do as the "owner" of a company versus an employee is very different and it should be.
I see nothing but red flags in this post, unfortunately. It's clear that you love to be in the office, collaborating in person, and that much of the value you get from work happens in that environment. However, commitment to a job doesn't mean 15+ hour days and being told you can't take a vacation because your team needs you. That's a backwards value system, IMO, as one's personal relationships and time away from the office are just as important as working hard.
Stripe has a very chaos-driven culture and that trickles down to everyone in the org, and convinces employees they need to work harder/longer/more in order to combat that. That is probably the real issue that needs to be addressed (it's not even a secret as everyone spouts that proudly as.
There is no value in burnout. (Even if you love the long hours and all-around work focus)
There is no value in sacrificing personal one's personal life and relationships for a company (and yes, they get sacrificed if 15-hour days are the norm). And yes, your company would replace you in a heartbeat if they needed to.
It's better for everyone, if you work hard for the time you've set aside to work hard. And then, stepping away when it's time to recharge.
@teriminute I think I get what the author is trying to say.
Unfortunately, not all of us will experience a comradery of this level because it's a unique occurrence that mostly doesn't happen because it wasn't the right time, right place, right team and right manager.
I've experienced it once as well. It never felt that I was working. We were a team of 20 people, doing something cool, travelling the world and conquering competitors all whilst making good money and not having toxicity in a workplace. It never led to burnout but eventually the org changed, culture breaks IMO after a certain # of employees and its hard to be on the same page with the wonderful set of folks that came initially with the same vision.
Hard work and sacrifice for the company doesn't always equal burnout, its a myth of this decade. Its when it is toxic and involuntary.
Unfortunately, places like that are more rare that unicorns. I was just lucky enough to experience it at the right time before it broke too.
Intense work builds connection, community, and fulfillment there's no denying that. I've been through the pre-IPO do-or-die insanity. The ship-at-all-costs, Sunday launch war rooms. It sucked, but through those experiences I made some incredible connections. These kinds of work opportunities should be available for those who want them.
But then I burned out. I wanted to be around more for my partner and kid. And friendships built on reliving shared PTSD aren't the only thing I want in my life. So I left and joined a slower-paced company.
I learned that you don't have to kill yourself 10-12 hours a day to build something cool. You can have high standards and still move at a sustainable pace. You can still meet and connect with awesome people. And you can also make room for life outside of work. Consider the connection, community, and fulfillment people attain through "a jog or a drink with friends". Doing good, impactful work and prioritizing your health and relationships are not mutually exclusive exercises.
The radical shifts in ways of working took away a convenient work community and has forced us to confront questions like: Who are we really? What do we want? What makes us happy? Many in the working world are now more fortunate than ever to be able to answer that question with more autonomy than ever before.
I think it's time to realize that while "it's really, really cool to devote yourself fully to your work" it's also really, really cool to look at work as a means to an end and build a well-rounded lifestyle, filled with other professional or personal pursuits that you can devote yourself to.
@hstan.bus This times 1000. This essay is advocating plutocratic dystopia.
What if you could love your work AND take your vacation? That would be cool.
Wow. This is impossible for anyone with a family. Also if Stripe hadn’t been successful woukd it be worth it? I dont think the equity amount was disclosed, but a healthy amount would tend towards a rosier picture.
@joshspilker Exactly. She doesn't mention equity which is the real driver (even if she doesn't realize it). Without it, everything she talks about is pointless.
As a disabled person who was always fired from cultures like this for "not being able to keep up," it's worth remembering who was excluded and discriminated against in order to allow that culture to thrive. It's good tech has gotten even just a little bit more inclusive and flexible.
Wow, that was so messed up. I'm sorry you had to go through that. Cried more than a few times? Cancelled your vacation? Would not leave before someone else did?
Masochistic, you nailed it.
Living to work sounds like a nightmare. Pressurised into not taking PTO, pressurised into working late continuously and at scale is to the detriment of your health, your colleagues, your future colleagues and all their families.
Get a life, then get a job that allows you to live your life. On your deathbed, will you still be so fond and gooey about 2015 when you worked like a slave for some job?
This article conflates caring with prioritizing work and especially hours of work over every thing. The assertion seems to be that the only way to build great products is to block out everything in life. Then I guess by extension any parent should not aspire to contribute to building great products and only young college grads who can have dinner together every day should attempt it. I was hoping for a more thoughtful piece that digs deeper into working methods and specific things that stripes culture rewards to build great product. This unfortunate is just surface level conjecture
Damn loved this one
I thoroughly enjoyed this. Great writing!
I've worked a little too hard and burnt out a few times, but it still feels great to work with a team that cares.
Thanks for putting that feeling to words.
ps: What's your favorite Stripe Press book?
I've worked on a team like this and I find it hard to untangle whether I truly miss the work we did or the bonds we forged. An intense work culture is one of the only opportunities you have post-college to make super strong friendships forged under pressure. That us-against-the-world feeling made me feel really connected in those weird early/mid-20s transition years.
I think we did genuinely inspire each other to do better work but I can't remember why we thought that particular work was so important to begin with. My sense is that many companies cultivate these intense bonded cultures to generate buy-in on work that otherwise isn't very intrinsically motivating. Once a company is more established that culture is less necessary.
Now I'm older my life is much more well-rounded and balanced but to be honest, I don't think I wanted that in my 20s. What I really craved was the sense of purpose and connection I'd always had through school and work was the only obvious outlet for that.
This essay perfectly illustrates one of the key pieces of the fundamental rot at the center of SV. Sure it's excellent if people are excited about their work and the work culture encourages high standards. And if there's a big crisis or a major launch there can be times when at least some folks have to put it some long days.
But if you cite everyone staying at work for dinner and the culture of it being absolutely terrible to go home before your neighbor at work as examples of the outcome of great company culture you're doing it wrong. You're part of the problem. You're advocating poisonous company culture and an oligarchic society. Your deep, physical, negative reaction to that message demonstrates only how deeply you've internalized dystopia as the end goal.
You did the work only because you were given equity - as someone else has pointed out in the comments. Expecting people to work for a salary and caring about "oh no! My API is letting people down!" is unrealistic.
If you're earning a salary and working like this, it's time to discover your true passion and build something for yourself.
Also: The list of "great" companies this author has listed are cults. Amazon? Apple? lol!
HEY
THANK YOU FOR SHARING SUC GREAT ARTICLE LOVED IT
Great article - reminds me of the type of people who worked with me at companies like Sun Microsystems and nVidia back in the '90s and early-aughts. Everyone seemed to care not only about what they did, and how that was perceived, many would help out others who were getting "stuck" or had issues of keeping up. Many of us would come in at 5 or 6am and stay until midnight; we also had our share of all-nighters.
Of course, back in the days of Blackberries we could stay "connected" all the time; in fact, Sun Micro was the first "virtual" company in that they had, in addition to their dozen or so campuses around SilVal, many drop-off centers where all you had to do was sign in with your "smart card" and pick up right where you left off. As the Supply Chain Director, I could be in Colorado one day and Scotland or Penang the next. Made no difference.
It was an especially heady time for me because I left "heavy manufacturing" in the NYC area to try my hand at high-tech out west. Even in the early 90's, I was an "old man" by then-SilVal standards at age 40. Learned many valuable lessons from my younger direct reports and I've always blessed the decision that I made in the early 1970's to learn about computer hardware and software and programming, even when most of my contemporaries were saying that computing wasn't going to be a thing...how wrong they were.