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A comment on How a Radical Shift to "Self-Management" Left Zappos Reeling.

Re:How a Radical Shift to "Self-Management" Left Zappos Reeling by cballard on Monday March 07, 2016 @11:03AM (#11239584)
This working environment looks like a cramped nightmare. How can anyone focus?

https://fortunedotcom.files.wordpress.com/2016/03/zap03-15_b...

Compared to, say the Basecamp offices, which look open, airy, and peaceful:

https://basecamp.com/about/office

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Re:How a Radical Shift to "Self-Management" Left Zappos Reeling by onion2k on Monday March 07, 2016 @12:05PM (#11239951)
Crucially though, you know that chap in the Zapos office wants to work in that environment. He made it that way. He's happy. That's great. That might be the case with Basecamp, but you don't really know.

The choice isn't between the clutter of Zapos or the open space zen of Basecamp. It's between the "make your own ideal workspace" freedom of Zapos (on a relatively small budget) and the "this what we made for you" design of Basecamp (on a relatively high budget). Some people will prefer Basecamp, but not everyone.

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Re:How a Radical Shift to "Self-Management" Left Zappos Reeling by dsp1234 on Monday March 07, 2016 @12:33PM (#11240150)
you know that chap in the Zapos office wants to work in that environment.

I don't know that at all. All I know is that social pressure works, even at Zappos.

If every desk at Zappos has a bunch of crap on it, then by damned your desk better have some crap on it too. Otherwise, you could end up on a hero's journey to figure out why you're not fitting in.

Remember that 'conforming' doesn't always look like clean desks with the stapler always in the upper left hand corner.

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Re:How a Radical Shift to "Self-Management" Left Zappos Reeling by michaelbuckbee on Monday March 07, 2016 @11:08AM (#11239602)
Looking at the Zappos office all I can think is "pieces of flair" with respect to the cubicle decorations.
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Re:How a Radical Shift to "Self-Management" Left Zappos Reeling by bkurtz13 on Monday March 07, 2016 @11:16AM (#11239663)
It's so cluttered, it's giving me anxiety just looking at those photos. I keep a fairly clean desk, I don't think I could function well in that environment...
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Re:How a Radical Shift to "Self-Management" Left Zappos Reeling by untog on Monday March 07, 2016 @11:26AM (#11239731)
But that's a person's own desk. If you wanted to keep a clean desk then surely you could.
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Re:How a Radical Shift to "Self-Management" Left Zappos Reeling by protomyth on Monday March 07, 2016 @12:09PM (#11239969)
Could you? I'm thinking michaelbuckbee[1] is right about the flair thing. I would bet that if you keep a clean, organized desk with no decoration you would get asked about your feeling working there and maybe not be seen as Zappos material.

I'm not sure who's working PR as Zappos but that picture[2] cballard[3] linked to is probably not a good corporate message given the sign in the upper left corner.

1) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11239602

2) https://fortunedotcom.files.wordpress.com/2016/03/zap03-15_b...

3) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11239584

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Re:How a Radical Shift to "Self-Management" Left Zappos Reeling by pakled_engineer on Monday March 07, 2016 @01:24PM (#11240473)
Many years ago I worked for a stint at ebay and I was definitely considered a pariah for not flaring out my desk with juvenile toys. I did that in Grade 9 with my locker
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Re:How a Radical Shift to "Self-Management" Left Zappos Reeling by mikeyouse on Monday March 07, 2016 @12:10PM (#11239979)
I know it's not fair to whoever's desk that is, but I'm tidy/OCD enough that sitting near that disaster would cause me serious anxiety.
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Re:How a Radical Shift to "Self-Management" Left Zappos Reeling by teh_klev on Monday March 07, 2016 @11:43AM (#11239840)
"Stig of the Dump" immediately jumped to my mind looking at that [0].

[0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stig_of_the_Dump

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Re:How a Radical Shift to "Self-Management" Left Zappos Reeling by tlrobinson on Monday March 07, 2016 @12:45PM (#11240235)
This was precisely my thought as well. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KJtrLKGZZFg
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Re:How a Radical Shift to "Self-Management" Left Zappos Reeling by nols on Monday March 07, 2016 @11:57AM (#11239901)
Basecamp has 14 office employees (though they have more employees, and are big proponents of remote working) sharing a 10,000 sq foot space, compared to every office it's going to be open and airy.
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Re:How a Radical Shift to "Self-Management" Left Zappos Reeling by coldcode on Monday March 07, 2016 @12:54PM (#11240286)
Wow I worked in a place where I could have spit on the 10 people that sat around me they were so close. I think I had 10sf to myself.
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Re:How a Radical Shift to "Self-Management" Left Zappos Reeling by minimaxir on Monday March 07, 2016 @11:22AM (#11239698)
Here are more pictures of the Zappos office: http://officesnapshots.com/2013/12/16/new-zappos-downtown-la...

The open areas are Basecamp-esque cleanliness, the cubicles are the quirky-and-random crampiness.

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Re:How a Radical Shift to "Self-Management" Left Zappos Reeling by stevesearer on Monday March 07, 2016 @11:35AM (#11239792)
From what I remember about my tour of Zappos, those larger open plan areas are primarily for customer support whose staff operate on shifts meaning that not 100% of those desks are filled at any one time (except maybe the busy seasons).
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Re:How a Radical Shift to "Self-Management" Left Zappos Reeling by pnathan on Monday March 07, 2016 @12:28PM (#11240103)
If you carefully look at the desk next to him, it's quite neat. That chap is... chock-full of flair. And I suspect the desk next to him had to put up no boys allowed to keep his stuff from spilling.
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Re:How a Radical Shift to "Self-Management" Left Zappos Reeling by 91bananas on Monday March 07, 2016 @11:22AM (#11239699)
Am I seeing things or, in the Zappos picture, is he using an older flat screen monitor as some kind of a cork board for storing random pieces of paper, like that calendar?
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Re:How a Radical Shift to "Self-Management" Left Zappos Reeling by panglott on Monday March 07, 2016 @12:45PM (#11240233)
...and oppressively sterile. Grim, even.
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Re:How a Radical Shift to "Self-Management" Left Zappos Reeling by vonmoltke on Monday March 07, 2016 @11:49AM (#11239869)
> This working environment looks like a cramped nightmare. How can anyone focus?

Still more space than I have now. :(

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Re:How a Radical Shift to "Self-Management" Left Zappos Reeling by dionidium on Monday March 07, 2016 @02:14PM (#11240845)
Like putting stickers all over the bumper of your car, this is the most superficial and shallow and uninteresting way to shout to the world, "I am interesting! I have interests!"
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