Can you name a company that hires employees without formal interviews and instead gives prospective job seekers a real assignment to see how they deal with it? Or a company that has a headquarters but whose international workforce hardly ever works there? Or that requires every new hire to spend their first weeks at the company working in customer support?
It’s the same company that hosts nearly 73 million blogs, and the platform on which this blog runs: WordPress.
Scott Berkun, a former project manager at Microsoft and now an author of some fine books, wanted to find out more about what it would be like to work at an organization with an entirely distributed workforce. So he spent a year as a team manager at WordPress and then wrote a book about the experience. Hence The Year Without Pants.
I’ve read Berkun’s books on project management and public speaking, and am a regular reader of his blog. He’s typically insightful, provocative, and funny. When I saw that he’d be doing a book on WordPress, which I’ve used for about seven years now, I figured it would be worth the read.
What: The book is structured chronologically, running from the initial arrangements that led to Berkun’s hire through end of his year+ of employment with WordPress. Berkun offers a look at the dynamics of his team and the projects on which they worked, as well as how that work and the team fit into the larger WordPress structure. There’s also some reflection on larger management, culture, and leadership issues as well as Berkun’s thoughts on “the future of work” in a world where a computer and an Internet connection can link almost anyone anywhere in the world.
Audience: Anyone who wants an inside look at how WordPress works as an organization, project managers, and HR and business types who are curious about how a distributed workforce can really get stuff done. I’d also recommend it for anyone who wants to do better at leading teams–you’ll get the vicarious experience of watching Scott Berkun lead his team and get a glimpse at the thinking and motivations behind his decisions.
Nuggets: Here are few bits that I underlined (well, highlighted on my Kindle version).
No technique, no matter how good, can turn stupid coworkers into smart ones. And no method can magically make employees trust each other or their boss if they have good reason not to. (p 29)
Product creators are the true talent of any corporation, especially one claiming to bet on innovation. The other roles don’t create products and should be there to serve those who do. A classic betrayal of this idea is when the IT department dictates to creatives what equipment they can use. If one group has to be inefficient, it should be the support group, not the creatives. If the supporting roles, including management, dominate, the quality of products can only suffer. (p 38)
Every tradition we hold dear was once a new idea someone proposed, tried, and found valuable, often inspired by a previous tradition that had been outgrown. The responsibility of people in power is to continually eliminate useless traditions and introduce valuable ones. An organization where nothing ever changes is not a workplace but a living museum. (p 76)
Morale isn’t an event; it’s the accumulated goodwill people build through work together. (p 206)
Application: After reading the book, I decided to try an experiment in one of my Lincoln Christian University classes. The marketing class is working on a project in teams. In the past, I’ve always met with each team to check on their progress and address problems. For a class with four teams, this meant scheduling multiple meetings with each team–a significant logistical challenge at the end of the semester.
For this class, I asked each team to select a project manager. Instead of meeting with all of the teams, I’m meeting only with the project managers. So far this has created two improvements: fewer meetings and more collaboration. Instead of scheduling four meetings with four teams, I have one meeting with the four project managers. And the teams are sharing ideas more than I’ve seen in the past. The semester isn’t over yet, so the plan could still flop but I like what I’m seeing so far.
This upcoming spring semester, I have two of my LCU students working on a human resource management independent study. I’ll have them read The Year Without Pants as one of their texts. I also want to use more project management ideas in future classes, passing more responsibility along to the students with the hope that it better prepares them for life after LCU.
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Ian Mann's book reviews
“Books about the future of work make the same mistake: they fail to look back at the history … of books about the future of work and how wrong they were.”Despite this sentence being a quotation from the book - which is difficult to reconcile with the book’s subtitle - it is worth reading.It is the description of Berkun’s assignment at WordPress. To put the style of work that Berkun describes into perspective, the WordPress group hosts 38% of the websites in the world. Automattic, the company behind WordPress.com, sells WordPress related services such as hosting, backup, blogs and others. Two new blogs are started every second through its services!The contemporary relevance of the book lies in the fact that Autommatic is a distributed organization: comprised of teams with members working remotely from one another. As anyone who works from home knows, as so many do of late, pants are not a prerequisite, hence the title. However, the enduring relevance of the book is in many of the practices that have made Automattic a $3billion company.A caveat: the fact that certain practices are highly effective in one company, should not mislead anyone into thinking that they will necessarily benefit another. “A great fallacy born from the failure to study culture is the assumption that you can take a practice from one culture and simply jam it into another and expect similar results,” Berkun warns.That said, learning how other successful companies operate is always valuable. I have long been a believer in the principle of ‘swipe and adapt’ articulated decades ago by Tom Peters.The founder of Automattic, Matt Mullenweg, articulated his business principles in a statement now found in many places in the company and included in the letter of engagement of staff.“I will never stop learning. I won't just work on things that are assigned to me. I know there's no such thing as a status quo.I will never pass up an opportunity to help out a colleague, and I'll remember the days before I knew everything.I will communicate as much as possible, because it's the oxygen of a distributed company. I am in a marathon, not a sprint, and no matter how far away the goal is, the only way to get there is by putting one foot in front of another every day. Given time, there is no problem that's insurmountable.”Mullenweg and Schneider the CEO, have deliberately kept support roles, like legal, human resources, and even IT, away from creative roles such as engineering and design. This prevents them from interfering and infringing on the autonomy of the people who actually make the money. This accords with Schneider’s principles of hiring great people, then setting good priorities, removing distractions, and staying out of their way.The hiring process at Automattic doesn’t rely on interviews or the candidate’s ability to answer trick questions. Rather, talent is hired by trial which filters out people not suited for the work. If you do well, you are offered a job. If you do not, you are not hired.The author’s induction was to work in customer support. Making new recruits work in support, forces everyone to take customers seriously: after all it is they who pay the salaries and it is they who need to be pleased, not a manager.In his first placement, Berkun was not given forms to fill out, or checklists, or a childproof version to learn on, with all the dangerous things turned off. The training was indistinguishable from work. Colleagues were willing to drop whatever they were doing to lend a hand to a newcomer they didn't know. There were quotas of work to be completed, but they weren’t stated anywhere. Everyone knew that employees look at other employees’ statistics - that's part of how they evaluate each other.“I could proudly say I'd simultaneously helped customers, improved my knowledge of the product, and befriended more than a dozen co-workers through actual work.” Hiring this way for a meritocratic culture, designed for autonomous adults, is simple, effective and brilliant.When all work is done remotely, great communication skills are essential and everyone has them or they wouldn’t be there. At Autommatic communication is primarily via texting on open platforms so all the relevant people can see the chat and respond or be informed. In the US, corporations have the right to look at employees’ business communications. Corporate communications are corporate property. At Automattic, the rule is clear and fair: everyone, not just executives, has access to all corporate communications.People are generally sceptical about the effectiveness of online meetings overlooking the fact that most in-person meetings, don't work either.To augment communication and overcome the limitations of working remotely, informal Automattic staff gatherings are arranged periodically. People who have been collaborating and communicating via text meet in person “as often as family reunions and feel like them too, except everyone likes each other. And knows how to code,” Berkun reports.The stereotypical company retreats have the same central element: crushing boredom and the desperate struggle to stay awake. They are endured by staff only for the location. At Automattic being a distributed company, the company retreat and meet-up has great significance. It is the only week all year that all employees are in the same place.Instead of a series of presentations, the event focuses on launching new ideas for WordPress.com—not for practice but for real. Every team is instructed to pick a project for the week and see to it that it goes out to the public before they leave for home. The work at the event is similar to how work is done all year at Automattic, except this week it is done in person.A central element of the Automattic culture is results first. “Nobody cared when you arrived at work or how long you worked. It didn't matter if you were pantless in your living room. What mattered was your output,” Berkun reports.Their investment in paying for teams to meet is acknowledgment that some face-to-face experiences are essential.When Berkun joined the company, he was told by an experienced employee: “Welcome to Chaos.” There were few rules there, and the ones that existed changed quickly. The best results require commitment to improvisation. In the case of Automattic remote work is a choice, today for many it is not, but when it is once again a choice, the lessons Berkun has gleaned through his year there will become even more relevant.Readability Light -+--- SeriousInsights High --+-- LowPractical High --+-- Low*Ian Mann of Gateways consults internationally on strategy and implementation, is the author of ‘Strategy that Works’ and a public speaker. Views expressed are his own.
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Reviewed in the United States on December 2, 2013
Reviewed in the United States on October 9, 2020
“Books about the future of work make the same mistake: they fail to look back at the history … of books about the future of work and how wrong they were.”
Despite this sentence being a quotation from the book - which is difficult to reconcile with the book’s subtitle - it is worth reading.
It is the description of Berkun’s assignment at WordPress. To put the style of work that Berkun describes into perspective, the WordPress group hosts 38% of the websites in the world. Automattic, the company behind WordPress.com, sells WordPress related services such as hosting, backup, blogs and others. Two new blogs are started every second through its services!
The contemporary relevance of the book lies in the fact that Autommatic is a distributed organization: comprised of teams with members working remotely from one another. As anyone who works from home knows, as so many do of late, pants are not a prerequisite, hence the title. However, the enduring relevance of the book is in many of the practices that have made Automattic a $3billion company.
A caveat: the fact that certain practices are highly effective in one company, should not mislead anyone into thinking that they will necessarily benefit another. “A great fallacy born from the failure to study culture is the assumption that you can take a practice from one culture and simply jam it into another and expect similar results,” Berkun warns.
That said, learning how other successful companies operate is always valuable. I have long been a believer in the principle of ‘swipe and adapt’ articulated decades ago by Tom Peters.
The founder of Automattic, Matt Mullenweg, articulated his business principles in a statement now found in many places in the company and included in the letter of engagement of staff.
“I will never stop learning. I won't just work on things that are assigned to me. I know there's no such thing as a status quo.
I will never pass up an opportunity to help out a colleague, and I'll remember the days before I knew everything.
I will communicate as much as possible, because it's the oxygen of a distributed company. I am in a marathon, not a sprint, and no matter how far away the goal is, the only way to get there is by putting one foot in front of another every day. Given time, there is no problem that's insurmountable.”
Mullenweg and Schneider the CEO, have deliberately kept support roles, like legal, human resources, and even IT, away from creative roles such as engineering and design. This prevents them from interfering and infringing on the autonomy of the people who actually make the money. This accords with Schneider’s principles of hiring great people, then setting good priorities, removing distractions, and staying out of their way.
The hiring process at Automattic doesn’t rely on interviews or the candidate’s ability to answer trick questions. Rather, talent is hired by trial which filters out people not suited for the work. If you do well, you are offered a job. If you do not, you are not hired.
The author’s induction was to work in customer support. Making new recruits work in support, forces everyone to take customers seriously: after all it is they who pay the salaries and it is they who need to be pleased, not a manager.
In his first placement, Berkun was not given forms to fill out, or checklists, or a childproof version to learn on, with all the dangerous things turned off. The training was indistinguishable from work. Colleagues were willing to drop whatever they were doing to lend a hand to a newcomer they didn't know. There were quotas of work to be completed, but they weren’t stated anywhere. Everyone knew that employees look at other employees’ statistics - that's part of how they evaluate each other.
“I could proudly say I'd simultaneously helped customers, improved my knowledge of the product, and befriended more than a dozen co-workers through actual work.” Hiring this way for a meritocratic culture, designed for autonomous adults, is simple, effective and brilliant.
When all work is done remotely, great communication skills are essential and everyone has them or they wouldn’t be there. At Autommatic communication is primarily via texting on open platforms so all the relevant people can see the chat and respond or be informed. In the US, corporations have the right to look at employees’ business communications. Corporate communications are corporate property. At Automattic, the rule is clear and fair: everyone, not just executives, has access to all corporate communications.
People are generally sceptical about the effectiveness of online meetings overlooking the fact that most in-person meetings, don't work either.
To augment communication and overcome the limitations of working remotely, informal Automattic staff gatherings are arranged periodically. People who have been collaborating and communicating via text meet in person “as often as family reunions and feel like them too, except everyone likes each other. And knows how to code,” Berkun reports.
The stereotypical company retreats have the same central element: crushing boredom and the desperate struggle to stay awake. They are endured by staff only for the location. At Automattic being a distributed company, the company retreat and meet-up has great significance. It is the only week all year that all employees are in the same place.
Instead of a series of presentations, the event focuses on launching new ideas for WordPress.com—not for practice but for real. Every team is instructed to pick a project for the week and see to it that it goes out to the public before they leave for home. The work at the event is similar to how work is done all year at Automattic, except this week it is done in person.
A central element of the Automattic culture is results first. “Nobody cared when you arrived at work or how long you worked. It didn't matter if you were pantless in your living room. What mattered was your output,” Berkun reports.
Their investment in paying for teams to meet is acknowledgment that some face-to-face experiences are essential.
When Berkun joined the company, he was told by an experienced employee: “Welcome to Chaos.” There were few rules there, and the ones that existed changed quickly. The best results require commitment to improvisation. In the case of Automattic remote work is a choice, today for many it is not, but when it is once again a choice, the lessons Berkun has gleaned through his year there will become even more relevant.
Readability Light -+--- Serious
Insights High --+-- Low
Practical High --+-- Low
*Ian Mann of Gateways consults internationally on strategy and implementation, is the author of ‘Strategy that Works’ and a public speaker. Views expressed are his own.
Despite this sentence being a quotation from the book - which is difficult to reconcile with the book’s subtitle - it is worth reading.
It is the description of Berkun’s assignment at WordPress. To put the style of work that Berkun describes into perspective, the WordPress group hosts 38% of the websites in the world. Automattic, the company behind WordPress.com, sells WordPress related services such as hosting, backup, blogs and others. Two new blogs are started every second through its services!
The contemporary relevance of the book lies in the fact that Autommatic is a distributed organization: comprised of teams with members working remotely from one another. As anyone who works from home knows, as so many do of late, pants are not a prerequisite, hence the title. However, the enduring relevance of the book is in many of the practices that have made Automattic a $3billion company.
A caveat: the fact that certain practices are highly effective in one company, should not mislead anyone into thinking that they will necessarily benefit another. “A great fallacy born from the failure to study culture is the assumption that you can take a practice from one culture and simply jam it into another and expect similar results,” Berkun warns.
That said, learning how other successful companies operate is always valuable. I have long been a believer in the principle of ‘swipe and adapt’ articulated decades ago by Tom Peters.
The founder of Automattic, Matt Mullenweg, articulated his business principles in a statement now found in many places in the company and included in the letter of engagement of staff.
“I will never stop learning. I won't just work on things that are assigned to me. I know there's no such thing as a status quo.
I will never pass up an opportunity to help out a colleague, and I'll remember the days before I knew everything.
I will communicate as much as possible, because it's the oxygen of a distributed company. I am in a marathon, not a sprint, and no matter how far away the goal is, the only way to get there is by putting one foot in front of another every day. Given time, there is no problem that's insurmountable.”
Mullenweg and Schneider the CEO, have deliberately kept support roles, like legal, human resources, and even IT, away from creative roles such as engineering and design. This prevents them from interfering and infringing on the autonomy of the people who actually make the money. This accords with Schneider’s principles of hiring great people, then setting good priorities, removing distractions, and staying out of their way.
The hiring process at Automattic doesn’t rely on interviews or the candidate’s ability to answer trick questions. Rather, talent is hired by trial which filters out people not suited for the work. If you do well, you are offered a job. If you do not, you are not hired.
The author’s induction was to work in customer support. Making new recruits work in support, forces everyone to take customers seriously: after all it is they who pay the salaries and it is they who need to be pleased, not a manager.
In his first placement, Berkun was not given forms to fill out, or checklists, or a childproof version to learn on, with all the dangerous things turned off. The training was indistinguishable from work. Colleagues were willing to drop whatever they were doing to lend a hand to a newcomer they didn't know. There were quotas of work to be completed, but they weren’t stated anywhere. Everyone knew that employees look at other employees’ statistics - that's part of how they evaluate each other.
“I could proudly say I'd simultaneously helped customers, improved my knowledge of the product, and befriended more than a dozen co-workers through actual work.” Hiring this way for a meritocratic culture, designed for autonomous adults, is simple, effective and brilliant.
When all work is done remotely, great communication skills are essential and everyone has them or they wouldn’t be there. At Autommatic communication is primarily via texting on open platforms so all the relevant people can see the chat and respond or be informed. In the US, corporations have the right to look at employees’ business communications. Corporate communications are corporate property. At Automattic, the rule is clear and fair: everyone, not just executives, has access to all corporate communications.
People are generally sceptical about the effectiveness of online meetings overlooking the fact that most in-person meetings, don't work either.
To augment communication and overcome the limitations of working remotely, informal Automattic staff gatherings are arranged periodically. People who have been collaborating and communicating via text meet in person “as often as family reunions and feel like them too, except everyone likes each other. And knows how to code,” Berkun reports.
The stereotypical company retreats have the same central element: crushing boredom and the desperate struggle to stay awake. They are endured by staff only for the location. At Automattic being a distributed company, the company retreat and meet-up has great significance. It is the only week all year that all employees are in the same place.
Instead of a series of presentations, the event focuses on launching new ideas for WordPress.com—not for practice but for real. Every team is instructed to pick a project for the week and see to it that it goes out to the public before they leave for home. The work at the event is similar to how work is done all year at Automattic, except this week it is done in person.
A central element of the Automattic culture is results first. “Nobody cared when you arrived at work or how long you worked. It didn't matter if you were pantless in your living room. What mattered was your output,” Berkun reports.
Their investment in paying for teams to meet is acknowledgment that some face-to-face experiences are essential.
When Berkun joined the company, he was told by an experienced employee: “Welcome to Chaos.” There were few rules there, and the ones that existed changed quickly. The best results require commitment to improvisation. In the case of Automattic remote work is a choice, today for many it is not, but when it is once again a choice, the lessons Berkun has gleaned through his year there will become even more relevant.
Readability Light -+--- Serious
Insights High --+-- Low
Practical High --+-- Low
*Ian Mann of Gateways consults internationally on strategy and implementation, is the author of ‘Strategy that Works’ and a public speaker. Views expressed are his own.
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Reviewed in the United States on July 4, 2021
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