What would happen if we slowed down
October 29, 2021 7:46 AM Subscribe
What if, for example, you aimed to work 20% less than you had time to reasonably handle? "If you worked deeply and regularly on a reasonable portfolio of initiatives that move the needle, and were sufficiently organized to keep administrative necessities from dropping through the cracks, your business probably wouldn’t implode, and your job roles would likely still be fulfilled. This shift from a state of slightly too much work to not quite enough, in other words, might be less consequential than we fear."
"What if, for example, you aimed to work 20% less than you had time to reasonably handle? If you have a relatively autonomous, entrepreneurial type job, this would mean saying “no” to more things. It would also mean, on the daily scale, being more willing to end early, or take an afternoon off to go do something unrelated, or extend lunch to read a frivolous book."
"What if, for example, you aimed to work 20% less than you had time to reasonably handle? If you have a relatively autonomous, entrepreneurial type job, this would mean saying “no” to more things. It would also mean, on the daily scale, being more willing to end early, or take an afternoon off to go do something unrelated, or extend lunch to read a frivolous book."
The challenge of the 21st century is to figure out how to run the economy backward, so...
posted by Verg at 8:08 AM on October 29, 2021 [4 favorites]
posted by Verg at 8:08 AM on October 29, 2021 [4 favorites]
I needed this essay today both for myself and my staff. Thank you!!
posted by warriorqueen at 8:10 AM on October 29, 2021 [1 favorite]
posted by warriorqueen at 8:10 AM on October 29, 2021 [1 favorite]
I’ve been on the same job doing administrative work for 16 years. I have had complete autonomy over the organization of my work, including over the software that I use. Consequently, I am usually only working flat out for at most 10 hours a week. I’m pretty good at keeping myself entertained, so I don’t feel terribly ripped off of my time. The pay is good, so why rock the boat? The same is basically true for everyone I work with. You multiply that by millions of workers in a similar situation, and you see that there is a situation ripe for change. There have been times when I was overloaded, but my whole effort is to get new tasks automated to the maximum. It can be hard to get there, but once it's done, it's done for good.
posted by No Robots at 8:23 AM on October 29, 2021 [7 favorites]
posted by No Robots at 8:23 AM on October 29, 2021 [7 favorites]
Before I retired from software development it was always my goal to work at least 20% less than what management desired. Always kind of awkward during the performance review, but I'd learned the dirty looks and discomfort would eventually end, and they'd stop bothering me about working longer and harder until the next year. No Robots just mentioned administrative work; if you want this kind of job my suggestion to you kids is to get into the office workings of your local school system. In my second career as a teacher, I couldn't believe how much they get paid up there, for producing so little. Another altruistic career like this could be working in a doctor's office, hiring made possible with an appropriate certificate from a community college.
posted by Rash at 8:39 AM on October 29, 2021 [1 favorite]
posted by Rash at 8:39 AM on October 29, 2021 [1 favorite]
I recently left my corporate job and have been doing my own business thing for 4+ months. One idea I've baked in from the very start is to aim to do as little as possible, and to design my time how I want. A current goal I have toward this is to not take calls on Mondays (I've decided that these are purely business development days). I do coaching and consulting work on Tues–Thurs, and I take Fridays off. Now, realistically that hasn't worked out quite that way yet, but I am slowly but surely inching my way toward it, moreso with my strengthening intentions. The question I constantly ask myself is this: By saying no to [X], what am I saying yes to?
posted by iamkimiam at 8:42 AM on October 29, 2021 [6 favorites]
posted by iamkimiam at 8:42 AM on October 29, 2021 [6 favorites]
"What if, for example, you aimed to work 20% less than you had time to reasonably handle?"
Personally?
I'd lose income, right away. I work as a researcher and consultant, assembling income from numerous gigs and streams, so a 1/5th reduction in my time means some corresponding drop in dollars. That's a big ask. And we live frugally.
There would be a secondary decrease, too, since some of my work is unpaid, but maintains my reputation - i.e., marketing.
An additional risk here is health care. As an independent I have to buy a medical plan on the open market, which is costly, and ditto for co-pays etc. As I and my spouse age past 55, our medical costs are likely to rise, which makes me really not want to cut the income needed to pay for it.
One solution is to raise my rates, which I've already done. I work in academia and academically-adjacent places (libraries, publishers, governments), and I'm already at the height of what I can reasonably charge.
So no, I don't think I can follow Cal's recommendation. I'll just continue working until death.
posted by doctornemo at 8:43 AM on October 29, 2021 [13 favorites]
Personally?
I'd lose income, right away. I work as a researcher and consultant, assembling income from numerous gigs and streams, so a 1/5th reduction in my time means some corresponding drop in dollars. That's a big ask. And we live frugally.
There would be a secondary decrease, too, since some of my work is unpaid, but maintains my reputation - i.e., marketing.
An additional risk here is health care. As an independent I have to buy a medical plan on the open market, which is costly, and ditto for co-pays etc. As I and my spouse age past 55, our medical costs are likely to rise, which makes me really not want to cut the income needed to pay for it.
One solution is to raise my rates, which I've already done. I work in academia and academically-adjacent places (libraries, publishers, governments), and I'm already at the height of what I can reasonably charge.
So no, I don't think I can follow Cal's recommendation. I'll just continue working until death.
posted by doctornemo at 8:43 AM on October 29, 2021 [13 favorites]
I wish I knew how I could move the needle. I feel like I am just a combination of spinning plates, putting out fires and looking for a purpose.
posted by lon_star at 8:43 AM on October 29, 2021 [12 favorites]
posted by lon_star at 8:43 AM on October 29, 2021 [12 favorites]
Nice work if you can get it.
posted by The Underpants Monster at 8:45 AM on October 29, 2021 [8 favorites]
posted by The Underpants Monster at 8:45 AM on October 29, 2021 [8 favorites]
We'd probably do just fine if no work at all got done in many of the jobs that pay more than about $40k/year
posted by thelonius at 9:54 AM on October 29, 2021 [9 favorites]
posted by thelonius at 9:54 AM on October 29, 2021 [9 favorites]
Only 20% less?
posted by Thorzdad at 10:04 AM on October 29, 2021 [4 favorites]
posted by Thorzdad at 10:04 AM on October 29, 2021 [4 favorites]
I am CEO of a nonprofit and this is how I organize my work and that of my team. On a normal week, nobody should be working above 80 percent capacity. I find that not only are we more effective and productive—because attempts to engage in busywork or unnecessarily complex procedures quickly die on the vine—but we have more energy and capacity for those times when we legitimately do have a surge. People are far more willing to go above and beyond in a critical situation if they are not already burnt out.
Of course, there is always the legitimate question, at least in knowledge work, of what constitutes “part of the job,” and what doesn’t. I know that my team members and I are very engaged by the subject matter of our work, and most of us use some of our “extra” time for reading and professional development activities that are at least peripherally related to our duties. In the rare cases where I have had an employee who does not have that interest, they have probably found the job more burdensome (and have usually voluntarily decided to leave the organization).
posted by rpfields at 10:05 AM on October 29, 2021 [15 favorites]
Of course, there is always the legitimate question, at least in knowledge work, of what constitutes “part of the job,” and what doesn’t. I know that my team members and I are very engaged by the subject matter of our work, and most of us use some of our “extra” time for reading and professional development activities that are at least peripherally related to our duties. In the rare cases where I have had an employee who does not have that interest, they have probably found the job more burdensome (and have usually voluntarily decided to leave the organization).
posted by rpfields at 10:05 AM on October 29, 2021 [15 favorites]
If you're a knowledge worker or have an entrepreneurial-type job, it's actually pretty hard to know or estimate how much work you can do in the first place. These jobs can involve staring into space, waiting for inspiration; or trying to interpret a lot of confusing and contradictory information and then making an educated guess. So actual productivity levels are all over the place. Often times, taking a break and not "working" can lead to a breakthrough, but staring at the same text on the same screen only leads to a headache.
It's like the very old Dilbert (ugh, Scott Adams) cartoon where Dilbert realizes that he designs circuits while at home in his shower, but only gets paid when he goes into the office and deals with corporate nonsense.
Not exactly the same but companies have been paying people to do "other" projects for a while: 20% Project, not just Google (who apparently discontinued it in 2013).
posted by meowzilla at 11:05 AM on October 29, 2021 [16 favorites]
It's like the very old Dilbert (ugh, Scott Adams) cartoon where Dilbert realizes that he designs circuits while at home in his shower, but only gets paid when he goes into the office and deals with corporate nonsense.
Not exactly the same but companies have been paying people to do "other" projects for a while: 20% Project, not just Google (who apparently discontinued it in 2013).
posted by meowzilla at 11:05 AM on October 29, 2021 [16 favorites]
s/not quite enough work/a more sustainable amount of work that allows for greater flexibility/
There's a variety streamer collective that I follow that has publicly said that they're aiming for this sort of 80% capacity goal, and they've said that a side benefit is that it allows room for them to pursue unexpected opportunities that they would've had to pass up if they were always fully booked. Just in case you're looking for another angle than just the avoiding burnout one.
Main problem is getting to a place where everyone can choose to work this way.
posted by Aleyn at 11:11 AM on October 29, 2021 [4 favorites]
There's a variety streamer collective that I follow that has publicly said that they're aiming for this sort of 80% capacity goal, and they've said that a side benefit is that it allows room for them to pursue unexpected opportunities that they would've had to pass up if they were always fully booked. Just in case you're looking for another angle than just the avoiding burnout one.
Main problem is getting to a place where everyone can choose to work this way.
posted by Aleyn at 11:11 AM on October 29, 2021 [4 favorites]
Do most professionals actually work at 100% capacity, all or most of the time? That seems kinda bonkers to me. It just doesn't seem sustainable.
There's a concept that I like, borrowed from the military, called "tempo". There's a very wordy doctrinal definition, but in short it refers to "the speed and intensity of our actions". It's well-accepted, in theory if not in practice, that you cannot have people operating at high tempo, all the time. It burns people out, wears stuff out, and consumes resources quickly. Sometimes you have to do it, but when you do, normally you compensate by reducing tempo afterwards and resetting.
That's how I've always tried to manage my teams. If we have to surge to get something done by a deadline, we do it, and burn resources appropriately. (I get catered lunches brought in, people who have to stay late can Doordash dinner, take Uber/Lyfts home, whatever. At the better places I've worked, there's usually some ability to get employees extra pay under "Extended Work Week" rules, too.) But there's no expectation that you can do that indefinitely.
I'm not claiming to be God's gift to management or anything, it just seems pretty obvious that if you want to have any sort of surge capacity, you can't be running people at 100% the rest of the time.
In what industries are managers trying to do that? How do they not have crazy retention problems? I feel like I'm not in the same universe sometimes: the fastest way I can think of to get myself fired (aside from actual criminal behavior), would be to have a whole bunch of my team's personnel suddenly quit. The cost of acquiring skilled labor right now is through the roof: recruiting an engineer is like a five-digit outlay per head, easily, and that's not counting the time it takes to actually train someone to become useful after they're hired. And everybody knows that anyone with a modicum of technical skill, a clean criminal record, and no really obvious personality deficiencies (and that one is negotiable), is just one LinkedIn mailbox-click away from a new job.
Gotta keep the torches and pitchforks (or maybe boiling tar and feathers? I'm flexible) ready for anyone who starts talking about a "labor shortage" or increasing H1B quotas, though. I'm sure the great Captains of Industry would prefer a much more slack labor market if they could arrange for it.
posted by Kadin2048 at 11:18 AM on October 29, 2021 [17 favorites]
There's a concept that I like, borrowed from the military, called "tempo". There's a very wordy doctrinal definition, but in short it refers to "the speed and intensity of our actions". It's well-accepted, in theory if not in practice, that you cannot have people operating at high tempo, all the time. It burns people out, wears stuff out, and consumes resources quickly. Sometimes you have to do it, but when you do, normally you compensate by reducing tempo afterwards and resetting.
That's how I've always tried to manage my teams. If we have to surge to get something done by a deadline, we do it, and burn resources appropriately. (I get catered lunches brought in, people who have to stay late can Doordash dinner, take Uber/Lyfts home, whatever. At the better places I've worked, there's usually some ability to get employees extra pay under "Extended Work Week" rules, too.) But there's no expectation that you can do that indefinitely.
I'm not claiming to be God's gift to management or anything, it just seems pretty obvious that if you want to have any sort of surge capacity, you can't be running people at 100% the rest of the time.
In what industries are managers trying to do that? How do they not have crazy retention problems? I feel like I'm not in the same universe sometimes: the fastest way I can think of to get myself fired (aside from actual criminal behavior), would be to have a whole bunch of my team's personnel suddenly quit. The cost of acquiring skilled labor right now is through the roof: recruiting an engineer is like a five-digit outlay per head, easily, and that's not counting the time it takes to actually train someone to become useful after they're hired. And everybody knows that anyone with a modicum of technical skill, a clean criminal record, and no really obvious personality deficiencies (and that one is negotiable), is just one LinkedIn mailbox-click away from a new job.
Gotta keep the torches and pitchforks (or maybe boiling tar and feathers? I'm flexible) ready for anyone who starts talking about a "labor shortage" or increasing H1B quotas, though. I'm sure the great Captains of Industry would prefer a much more slack labor market if they could arrange for it.
posted by Kadin2048 at 11:18 AM on October 29, 2021 [17 favorites]
That's just crunch time, and part of it is hiring people for their "passion" and making them feel ownership over the final product and release. Then laying them off (not management of course) when it releases with too many problems caused by targeting an arbitrary ship date.
posted by meowzilla at 11:29 AM on October 29, 2021 [2 favorites]
posted by meowzilla at 11:29 AM on October 29, 2021 [2 favorites]
If you have a relatively autonomous, entrepreneurial type job, this would mean saying “no” to more things. It would also mean, on the daily scale, being more willing to end early, or take an afternoon off to go do something unrelated, or extend lunch to read a frivolous book
This has been my life for the past year as I've ventured into my own solo practice and I can honestly say it's the been the first thing in my life I feel extremely extremely lucky in. Sometimes I freak out for a minute when I think maybe I should be working longer or harder or expanding the business and taking on more clients etc etc. But then I remember how much all of that just sucks and that the whole point of all of this is to savor and enjoy what I have. There's always more, but what is the point?
posted by flamk at 11:46 AM on October 29, 2021 [5 favorites]
This has been my life for the past year as I've ventured into my own solo practice and I can honestly say it's the been the first thing in my life I feel extremely extremely lucky in. Sometimes I freak out for a minute when I think maybe I should be working longer or harder or expanding the business and taking on more clients etc etc. But then I remember how much all of that just sucks and that the whole point of all of this is to savor and enjoy what I have. There's always more, but what is the point?
posted by flamk at 11:46 AM on October 29, 2021 [5 favorites]
"It just doesn't seem sustainable."
Quick answer: it isn't!
Note the use of the word "death" in my comment. I'm not kidding. I hope that my life insurance pays out enough so that my surviving family members don't have to go through this.
What scares me much more than that is becoming sick or disabled so that I need care while at the same time being unable to work. That's my nightmare.
posted by doctornemo at 1:29 PM on October 29, 2021 [7 favorites]
Quick answer: it isn't!
Note the use of the word "death" in my comment. I'm not kidding. I hope that my life insurance pays out enough so that my surviving family members don't have to go through this.
What scares me much more than that is becoming sick or disabled so that I need care while at the same time being unable to work. That's my nightmare.
posted by doctornemo at 1:29 PM on October 29, 2021 [7 favorites]
As a freelancer I have a completely "autonomous, entrepreneurial type job," and I am both operating under capacity by some measures in the sense that I am pretty certain I don't spend more than 40 hours a week sitting at my desk more or less doing the work that people pay me for, and over capacity in the sense that I feel constantly stressed and pressed for time to fulfill my unpaid work/responsibilities and have enough true leisure time to myself. If I cut back my paid work responsibilities by 20%, the plain and simple outcome would be that my income would drop 20%. I'm already about as efficient at my job as is human/machinely possible, so that's not a realistic avenue to compensate. I could possibly cultivate a different/better-paying set of clients, but that would entail additional work per se, along with additional stress from uncertainty.
Cutting back work hours would mean either cutting back current expenses or cutting back my retirement timeline. I think about doing so quite often, but I also like the lifestyle that this level of professional output affords and worry a great deal about having enough of a financial cushion to take care of myself regardless of what the future may hold.
posted by drlith at 1:45 PM on October 29, 2021 [3 favorites]
Cutting back work hours would mean either cutting back current expenses or cutting back my retirement timeline. I think about doing so quite often, but I also like the lifestyle that this level of professional output affords and worry a great deal about having enough of a financial cushion to take care of myself regardless of what the future may hold.
posted by drlith at 1:45 PM on October 29, 2021 [3 favorites]
In what industries are managers trying to do that?
Publishing
How do they not have crazy retention problems?
They do; fully 40% of my department has quit in the last FOUR MONTHS.
The fastest way I can think of to get myself fired (aside from actual criminal behavior), would be to have a whole bunch of my team's personnel suddenly quit.
See but then they'd have to replace YOU.
The cost of acquiring skilled labor right now is through the roof: recruiting an engineer is like a five-digit outlay per head, easily, and that's not counting the time it takes to actually train someone to become useful after they're hired.
This assumes they ever backfill positions after someone quits, which they do not.
posted by We put our faith in Blast Hardcheese at 2:27 PM on October 29, 2021 [7 favorites]
Publishing
How do they not have crazy retention problems?
They do; fully 40% of my department has quit in the last FOUR MONTHS.
The fastest way I can think of to get myself fired (aside from actual criminal behavior), would be to have a whole bunch of my team's personnel suddenly quit.
See but then they'd have to replace YOU.
The cost of acquiring skilled labor right now is through the roof: recruiting an engineer is like a five-digit outlay per head, easily, and that's not counting the time it takes to actually train someone to become useful after they're hired.
This assumes they ever backfill positions after someone quits, which they do not.
posted by We put our faith in Blast Hardcheese at 2:27 PM on October 29, 2021 [7 favorites]
Yep. The last job I had in publishing, I was replacing four people. When they decided to cut my position down to half time, they had me make a detailed list of everything I did in my full-time job. The next day, they handed it back to me verbatim as the job description of my half time job.
posted by The Underpants Monster at 4:26 PM on October 29, 2021 [4 favorites]
posted by The Underpants Monster at 4:26 PM on October 29, 2021 [4 favorites]
I too welcome a world where the sales team does not work on commission...
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 5:03 PM on October 29, 2021
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 5:03 PM on October 29, 2021
The inflow of product into our warehouse and the outflow of product out of our warehouse is entirely beyond our control, and we only barely skate by every week by the skin of our teeth, and mostly NOT thanks to two or three coworkers who move at about 2/3 pace of the others, and also take a lot, like a LOT of breaks during the day. So, maybe they've made this choice already themselves.
What this HAS done is generated resentment toward them and toward management because if the work doesn't get done, it piles up. And it can't be allowed to pile up too much. We're a warehouse. Trucks arrive with stuff to put away.
Anyway, The amount of work we have to achieve is what it is. If we slow down, it doesn't just not get done, it becomes Lucy at the chocolate factory.
posted by hippybear at 5:52 PM on October 29, 2021
What this HAS done is generated resentment toward them and toward management because if the work doesn't get done, it piles up. And it can't be allowed to pile up too much. We're a warehouse. Trucks arrive with stuff to put away.
Anyway, The amount of work we have to achieve is what it is. If we slow down, it doesn't just not get done, it becomes Lucy at the chocolate factory.
posted by hippybear at 5:52 PM on October 29, 2021
In what industries are managers trying to do that?
Higher Ed, for another.
posted by stellaluna at 6:47 PM on October 29, 2021 [4 favorites]
Higher Ed, for another.
posted by stellaluna at 6:47 PM on October 29, 2021 [4 favorites]
Pay for performance solves about half an employer's problem of letting people work as much or as little as they want, but it still leaves two critical issues - opportunity cost (e.g., even a 100%-commissioned salesperson has to have a quota because otherwise you lose sales in his or her territory/client list that can't be recaptured by other salespeople working harder) and per-capita costs (benefits, HR, workspace / work equipment, etc.)
posted by MattD at 5:54 AM on October 30, 2021
posted by MattD at 5:54 AM on October 30, 2021
Cal Newport's related Why Do We Work too Much? (which I forgot to link in the original post)
posted by mecran01 at 6:37 AM on October 30, 2021 [1 favorite]
posted by mecran01 at 6:37 AM on October 30, 2021 [1 favorite]
In what industries are managers trying to do that?
I don't think this is an industry specific thing, but more like an office culture thing. I work on the same floor as people who don't report to the same people that I do until you get to the very top level in the company. The differences are astounding in the culture and expectations. Most of the people in my section came from the other, more draconian, section. Not having to look busy and not being allowed to to check in while on vacation are the biggest differences.
posted by soelo at 10:06 AM on October 30, 2021 [1 favorite]
I don't think this is an industry specific thing, but more like an office culture thing. I work on the same floor as people who don't report to the same people that I do until you get to the very top level in the company. The differences are astounding in the culture and expectations. Most of the people in my section came from the other, more draconian, section. Not having to look busy and not being allowed to to check in while on vacation are the biggest differences.
posted by soelo at 10:06 AM on October 30, 2021 [1 favorite]
..we only barely skate by every week by the skin of our teeth, and mostly NOT thanks to two or three coworkers who move at about 2/3 pace of the others, and also take a lot, like a LOT of breaks during the day. So, maybe they've made this choice already themselves.
Well, bingo.
What this HAS done is generated resentment toward them and toward management
Maybe the resentment towards your more reasonable coworkers is misplaced? Maybe they have the right idea. Also, do you have a union?
posted by Reverend John at 10:21 AM on October 30, 2021 [3 favorites]
Well, bingo.
What this HAS done is generated resentment toward them and toward management
Maybe the resentment towards your more reasonable coworkers is misplaced? Maybe they have the right idea. Also, do you have a union?
posted by Reverend John at 10:21 AM on October 30, 2021 [3 favorites]
I've tried to organize my work life this way. I define 100% effort as "I can do this forever without burning out." If I'm doing an amount of work that I couldn't maintain basically indefinitely, I define that as more than 100% to remind myself that it's unsustainable. A moderate amount of work that you can keep up indefinitely without suffering ill effects is a lot less work per week than most American bosses and coworkers expect, because it seems most workplaces expect constant relentless grind. But at the same time, in my industry people are really bad at measuring output, so they don't really know how much I'm working and how much I'm producing. So I play the required "I'm so busy!" game that we all seem to play.
I would feel guilty if anyone were picking up my slack but I'm the only one who does my kind of work in my department so there's no one else to pick up my slack. It turns out a lot of work really it's just useless busy work and everyone is still happy with me despite me setting reasonable boundaries on my time.
I also think lots of people vastly overestimate their productivity. People will spend hours in meetings where nothing gets done or hammering away at a document that no one needs to read and feel productive, but in terms of actual output that affects the world they produced next to nothing. This isn't the individuals' fault, it's the fault of the system that prioritizes the whims of bosses over productivity. It took me a decade of experience to realize how many office activities are not especially productive, but now that I have a sense of what will produce results that matter in a month or longer I do my best to push back on unproductive things and focus on the things that really matter. That's how I've managed to cut back without dropping the ball on anything meaningful. I strongly suspect that it a lot of jobs other people could do the same thing and still produce the same results without all the busywork. But that would require being independent and empowered enough to use your judgment on what is truly productive without your boss breathing down your neck, so a lot of workplaces would not tolerate it.
posted by Tehhund at 3:21 PM on November 2, 2021 [2 favorites]
I would feel guilty if anyone were picking up my slack but I'm the only one who does my kind of work in my department so there's no one else to pick up my slack. It turns out a lot of work really it's just useless busy work and everyone is still happy with me despite me setting reasonable boundaries on my time.
I also think lots of people vastly overestimate their productivity. People will spend hours in meetings where nothing gets done or hammering away at a document that no one needs to read and feel productive, but in terms of actual output that affects the world they produced next to nothing. This isn't the individuals' fault, it's the fault of the system that prioritizes the whims of bosses over productivity. It took me a decade of experience to realize how many office activities are not especially productive, but now that I have a sense of what will produce results that matter in a month or longer I do my best to push back on unproductive things and focus on the things that really matter. That's how I've managed to cut back without dropping the ball on anything meaningful. I strongly suspect that it a lot of jobs other people could do the same thing and still produce the same results without all the busywork. But that would require being independent and empowered enough to use your judgment on what is truly productive without your boss breathing down your neck, so a lot of workplaces would not tolerate it.
posted by Tehhund at 3:21 PM on November 2, 2021 [2 favorites]
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One of the big reasons I was attracted to my current job (I'm the assistant to the COO of a tech/manufacturing firm) was that during my first interview, they told me that my boss usually leaves right bang at five because he wants to go home and watch DORA THE EXPLORER with his kid. He also occasionally does art-related things for friends, because that was a former career of his, and only about 35% of the books in his huge library have anything to do with our actual business.
In short, he and everyone else in the company seemed to be people that had a sane perspective on things. And we're growing, so I think we're doing something right.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 7:53 AM on October 29, 2021 [55 favorites]