The Seven-day Weekend
by Ricardo Semler · first published 2003
79% recommend21% neutral
Why HN recommends it
Semler's account of running Semco with self-management, open discussion of pay, and flexible work shows how to design a company around employee freedom. Suits people drawn to 37signals-style ideas.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
"Ricardo Semler's favorite question is "Why?" Why do people routinely bring work home on the weekends but never go to the movies on a Monday afternoon? Why do we need to sit at the same desk every day? Why do we have to fill out time sheets or need an HR department to file them? Why are we interviewed by our bosses but never get to interview someone who wants to be our boss?" "For the last twenty years Semler has been doing a lot more than asking questions - he's actually been running a company by breaking every tenet in the traditional rule book. Semler encourages his employees to play hooky.
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…people seem obsessed with getting a large quantity of money, and only then trying their hand at building a fulfilling life. I have always thought of Semler as running things in reverse: how do we design a seven day weekend that is cash positive? (Semler's book, The Seven Day Weekend, is highly recommended to anyone who wants to hear more)
on “37signals Earns Millions Each Year. Its CEO’s Model? His Cleaning Lady” ↗The books by Ricardo Semler? "Maveric" and the "The Seven Day Weekend". Both worth reading, imho. Even if you won't be able to apply the same principles they can serve as a good eye-opener for the many things we take for granted.
on “Large Round of Layoffs Expected at Microsoft” ↗The best business book I've ever read is The Seven Day Weekend by Ricardo Semler. I was turned onto Semler after Jason Fried recommended the book on one of 37signals live sessions. http://www.amazon.com/Seven-Day-Weekend-Changing-Work-Works/...
on “Ask YC: What are some the best business books?” ↗Yes, I wonder why Ricardo Semler http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ricardo_Semler and Semco is not mentioned more frequently. I enjoyed his book "Maverick" a lot: http://tinyurl.com/7l6mfp , the newer 'Seven day weekend" is not bad either.
on “Extraordinary Organizations: $170M company with no titles except “plant” manager” ↗…more. What is important is to always provide an opportunity for discussions regarding this type of issue. http://semco.locaweb.com.br/en/content.asp?content=3&con... Also try one of Semler's books, like Seven Day Weekend, excerpted here: http://www.inc.com/articles/2004/03/7dayweekend.html His methods might never fly in America, but it's useful to know that open salaries are within the realm of possibility.
on “Discuss with HN: salary confidentiality” ↗Let my people go surfing -- Yvon Chouinard http://amzn.com/1594200726 The seven day weekend -- Ricardo Semler http://amzn.com/1591840260 Getting Real http://gettingreal.37signals.com/ -- Also, help flesh out the list of books for startups I just created for HN on my site: http://www.stormweight.com/lists/books-for-startups?p=OyAXcZ
on “Ask HN: What are your favorite management books?” ↗…the way to do things", "that's not our culture", etc. What "Rework" does is to encourage you to challenge those widely accepted traditions. BTW, I highly recommend Ricardo Semler's "Maverick" and "The Seven-Day weekend" to anyone who even remotely like the stuff 37signals write. Semler also speaks a lot about applying common sense to business. Their stance on meetings is simple—no one is required to attend. If you organize…
on “Management today review of 37signal's "Rework"” ↗If you liked Maverick, you should definitely check out Seven Day Weekend by Semler. I found it much more readable and relevant. It's crazy that it's out of print in the era of the Kindle http://www.amazon.com/Seven-Day-Weekend-Changing-Work-Works/...
on “Jason Fried: Why I Run a Flat Company ” ↗Really cool to see a company implement such open policies! Have you by any chance read Maverick or The seven day weekend by Ricardo Semler? Lots of similar ideas in there, and well worth the read! http://www.amazon.com/Ricardo-Semler/e/B000APW260/
on “Balsamiq : Salary Policy” ↗…large company doing self-management in a whole bunch of different verticals. Books by the SEMCO founder, Ricardo Semler: Maverick - http://www.amazon.com/Maverick-Success-Behind-Unusual-Workpl... The Seven Day Weekend - http://www.amazon.com/Seven-Day-Weekend-Changing-Work-Works-...
on “Why we removed bosses at Treehouse” ↗…them thinking about non-work things while at work. From time to time, people might choose to work late, but there's no external pressure to do so. This philosophy is best explained in a book called "The Seven-day weekend" by Ricardo Semler of Semco fame. Note the emphasis of letting life take over and blur the lines from that "direction", rather than just trying to fool people into working longer hours, which is indeed…
on “Google and tech’s elite are living in a parallel universe – John Naughton” ↗…Inc" by Ed Catmull ponders the problems of leadership and management at Pixar (namely, how they attempt to avoid all the stupid mistakes that are obvious in hindsight). You might be interested int the "seven day weekend" by Ricardo Semler as well. Human organizations are complex and difficult. I don't think you can legislate the pathologies away unless they are really obvious. But there are several companies already…
on “Why GitHub Finally Abandoned Its Bossless Workplace” ↗…industrial leader, who has a company called Semco that runs on egalitarian principles. https://www.ted.com/talks/ricardo_semler_how_to_run_a_company_with_almost_no_rules His books "Maverick!", "The Seven-day Weekend" is full of examples and instances of why,how Semco functions the way it does. It is a company which had stuff like profit sharing etc, and its run in democratic fashion where participation of employees…
on “Ask HN: Do you think ideas shared by Ricardo Semler can be applied to startups?” ↗I am not an entrepreneur (yet) but I still want to share a few titles with you: - "Maverick or The seven day weekend" by Ricardo Semler - "Rework" by Jason Fried and David Hansson - "Startup - an insider's guide to launching and running a business" by Kevin Ready - "Bookkeeping and Cost Accounting for Factories"…
on “Ask HN: What books helped you in your entrepreneurship journey?” ↗This may not help directly, but at least you'll get a couple of good reads out of it. See "Maverick! The Success Story Behind the World's Most Unusual Workplace" (1993) and "The Seven-Day Weekend: Changing the Way Work Works" (2003) by Ricardo Semler. Info about him is at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ricardo_Semler Right now I'm going through 37 Signals books just for the fun of learning..."Getting…
on “Ask HN: How to be a manager? Any good sources for learning how to delegate?” ↗