Review of It Doesn't Have to Be Crazy at Work

Your workplace doesn’t have to be crazy. You can run a “calm company” if you avoid stressful policies.

Fried and Hansson, co-founders of the project management software firm Basecamp, recognize that many people believe that “it’s crazy at work” because they sacrifice their personal time to work 60 to 80 hours a week. That has become their new normal. With today’s technology, the authors believe, people should work less, not more. Yet, technology means people often have no uninterrupted time to focus and concentrate.

The authors’ company Basecamp instituted policies designed to create a calm workplace. It has, Fried and Hansson boast, no rush jobs, no late nights, and no artificial goals or deadlines. Its 54 employees work 40-hour weeks in 30 cities. “Companies spend their employees’ time and attention as if there were an infinite supply of both – as if they cost nothing,” the authors write. “Yet employees’ time and attention are among the scarcest resources we have.”