REWORK

Unlimited paid time off is a common perk in the tech industry, but as one company discovered, an open-ended vacation policy led to confusion and even burnout. Dan Jimenez of Chatbooks comes on Rework to talk about how they shifted from unlimited to mandatory PTO, and how they're recalibrating expectations for work, productivity, and rest during a turbulent time.

Show Notes

"How the 'Knives Out' Costume Designer Chose Chris Evans' Perfect Sweater" (The Hollywood Reporter) - 1:50

"27 Days in Tokyo Bay: What Happened on the Diamond Princess" (Wired) - 2:16

Wailin and Shaun discussed how they spent their sabbaticals in "The Bean Machine" - 2:51

Basecamp's PTO policy - 3:11

We addressed our PTO policy change in "It Doesn't Have to be Crazy at Work - Part 1" and "Rework Mailbag 1 - Part 2" - 3:25

Dan Jimenez on LinkedIn | Twitter - 3:42

Chatbooks - 3:45

Nate Quigley, CEO of Chatbooks - 5:49

Rachel Hofstetter, CMO at Chatbooks - 18:37

Dan Jimenez's Twitter thread about changing Chatbooks' PTO policy - 19:36

"What is Hygge?" - 23:35

John Wick - 24:18

Boy Smells - 24:35

literary candles from Hearth & Hammer - 24:39

We featured Hearth & Hammer on the episode "Bubble Wrap and Prayers" - 24:42

A24 x Joya film genre candles - 24:47

Bath & Body Works white pumpkin candle - 26:42

Shaun gets his togarashi from Third Street Market in Whitefish, Montana - 27:07

More than ever, the tech industry is re-thinking how work gets done and how great ideas come to light when people are no longer linked by their physical location. In this episode, we have frank but hopeful conversations with Deldelp Medina of Black & Brown Founders and Michael Berhane of People Of Color In Tech. They talk about the ongoing work of building intentional communities in tech and modeling what it means to truly trust and support each other.

Show Notes

"Duty Calls," the famous XKCD comic - 00:18

"How Remote Work Could Destroy Silicon Valley" (Marker) — 00:40

"'Rich people leave, artists and queerdos return': is San Francisco's tech exodus real or a fantasy?" (The Guardian) - 1:09

Deldelp Medina on LinkedIn | Twitter - 2:07

Black & Brown Founders website | Twitter | Instagram - 2:10

History Channel article on the 1978 murders of San Francisco Mayor George Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk - 2:41

PBS article on Jim Jones and The Peoples Temple in Guyana - 2:46

Ruth Asawa - 5:15

BMUG (Berkeley Macintosh Users Group) - 6:34

Michael Berhane on LinkedIn | Twitter | Instagram - 11:26

POCIT (People Of Color In Tech) website | Twitter | Instagram - 11:29

POCIT newsletter - 17:39

Techish podcast - 17:50

Techish co-host Abadesi Osunsade - 17:58

The Lean Startup - 20:20

Aniyia Williams - 25:51

Better Product is a podcast by Innovatemap, a digital product agency. We are playing their episode featuring Basecamp's marketing designer, Adam Stoddard, who joins them to talk about Basecamp's design philosophy and the thought process behind the look of HEY.com. 

Show Notes

Adam Stoddard on Twitter - 1:04

Basecamp co-founder and CTO David Heinemeier Hansson discussed Superhuman in a previous Rework episode - 12:20

"Superhuman is Spying on You" by Mike Davidson - 13:23

HEY's pixel tracker blocking feature - 13:33

We talk to two very different small businesses about their Babies at Work programs, where new parents can have their infants with them at the office. With COVID sending so many office workers home—and pushing women out of the workforce altogether—acknowledging employees' whole selves is more important than ever. The companies in today's episode talk about how they've adapted their programs for a work-from-home-during-a-pandemic reality.

Show Notes

Leah Silber on Twitter - 00:05

Tilde - 00:58

Leah's 2017 essay, "Babies at Work: It's Weird that it's Weird" - 1:06

Our episode where Basecamp employees answered questions about working from home with kids - 2:36

"865,000 women left the workforce in September" (The 19th) - 2:48

“We’re just beginning to understand the extent of Covid-19’s feminist nightmare” (MSNBC) - 3:05

W.S. Badger Company - 3:43

Badger’s Babies at Work program - 4:09

"Parents Got More Time Off. Then the Backlash Started." (NYT) - 18:47

Parenting in the Workplace Institute - 24:03

Imagine a corporate privacy policy on a website that was actually comprehensible and written by and for human beings. We talk to companies who have done just this, and what it means to build a business that has respect for privacy baked in from the outset. We also talk to a researcher who's witnessed the difficulty of navigating online privacy settings.

Show Notes

Mark Asquith's website | Twitter | Instagram - 00:21

Captivate.fm, part of Rebel Base Media - 00:28

Captivate’s privacy policy - 1:25

Hana Habib's website - 2:57

GDPR -  3:16

CCPA - 3:18

The study on privacy usability that Hana and her team published (PDF) - 3:46

Kaitlin Maud on Twitter | Instagram - 6:13

Rain or Shine Recruiting - 6:14

Rain or Shine Recruiting’s privacy policy - 11:50

Ryan Jones on Twitter - 13:16

Flighty - 13:18

Flighty’s privacy policy - 17:15

“A Hosty Retreat,” our episode about switching podcast hosts over privacy concerns -23:00

"Overcast's latest beta update tells listeners which podcasts are tracking them" (The Verge) - 23:06

Full Transparency Mode - 23:23

Transistor - 29:50

We do a quick check-in with Basecamp CEO Jason Fried about what he's been up to since launching HEY in June. He talks about running the company as the pandemic stretches on, the importance of not making promises, and learning to swim.

Show Notes

"Greetings from Mojito Island," our check-in episode with DHH - 00:14

"Hey, What's Going On?", our episode launching HEY - 00:43

HEY for Work - 2:47

“Don’t Promise” (Signal v. Noise) - 3:51

“Something’s Broken,” our episode on recent downtime - 4:58

Coalition for App Fairness - 12:43

Learn more about our conflict with Apple in our episode “Two Weeks” - 14:51

Vox explainer on Apple, Epic Games, and Fortnite - 15:19 

Basecamp co-founder and CTO David Heinemeier Hansson has been on a not-totally-intended sabbatical from both work and Twitter, and on an entirely intended break from living in the U.S. He checks in from Europe to talk about how he's managing his time off as the boss, and what developments back at Basecamp briefly pulled him back into work.

Show Notes

“Two Weeks,“ our episode about the launch of HEY - 5:00

Basecamp’s sabbatical policy - 5:23

HEY for Work - 8:23

HEY'S Paper Trail feature - 8:38

The School of Life - 9:27

It Doesn’t Have to be Crazy At Work by Jason Fried and DHH - 13:45

"Take A Break," our episode on sabbaticals - 15:05

“Something’s Broken,” our episode about recent outages - 15:58

"All Bugs are Not Created Equal" from Getting Real - 21:04

Culture writer Anne Helen Petersen, author of the new book Can’t Even: How Millennials Became the Burnout Generation, comes on the show to talk about how the real estate agents of the reality show Selling Sunset embody toxic ideas around work, passion, and career success. Along the way, Anne and Wailin discuss Christine's outfits, how they can't tell Brett and Jason apart, that $40 million listing, and more!

Show Notes

Anne Helen Petersen on Twitter - 0:39

Anne's newsletter, Culture Study - 0:43

The original BuzzFeed News piece, "How Millennials Became the Burnout Generation" - 0:47

Anne's book, Can’t Even: How Millennials Became the Burnout Generation - 0:52

Selling Sunset - 1:53

Wailin mentioned Selling Sunset in our episode "Apps Without Code" - 2:00

A BuzzFeed News profile of reality show producer Adam DiVello - 3:23

Laguna Beach: The Real Orange County - 3:25

The Hills - 3:28

Oppenheim Group - 3:42

Jason Oppenheim on Instagram | Brett Oppenheim on Instagram - 5:36

Mary Fitzgerald on Instagram - 7:04

Heather Rae Young on Instagram - 8:51

Amanza Smith on Instagram - 10:51

"How does the commission work on Selling Sunset?" - 12:55

Chrishell Stause on Instagram - 14:40

Davina Potratz on Instagram - 16:14

"Welcome to Airspace: How Silicon Valley helps spread the same sterile aesthetic across the world" (The Verge)  - 24:02

"Hollywood Hills stunner from 'Selling Sunset' sells for $35.5 million" (Los Angeles Times) - 25:22

Christine Quinn on Instagram - 26:13

A roundup of Christine’s outfits - 27:28

Errol Morris films on the Criterion Channel - 32:41

Basecamp recently suffered three outages in a week. Programming lead Jeremy Daer and director of operations Troy Toman come on the show to discuss their approach to customer communication around these kinds of incidents. They talk about public accountability, mental health, and why the human side of incident response is just as critical as the technical details. (Read Jeremy's post and Troy's post on Signal v. Noise.)

Show Notes

Troy Toman on Twitter - 00:04

Basecamp's policy on summer hours - 00:15

Jeremy's Signal v. Noise post - 1:35

Troy's Signal v. Noise post - 1:38

Jeremy Daer on Twitter - 2:58

Basecamp's status page showing its uptime percentages - 3:55

The Big Integer incident was covered on Rework | in this Signal v. Noise post  - 4:36

Basecamp has closed its physical office after a 10-year run in Chicago's West Loop area. In this episode, we say good-bye to the neighborhood and two of its businesses. J.P. Graziano and un-cooked are small, family-owned restaurants on either side of the longevity spectrum: Jim Graziano is the fourth-generation owner of an Italian food importer-turned-sandwich shop, and Jeremy Jones opened his vegan grab-and-go place with his mother and wife in July. Jim and Jeremy talk about weathering the pandemic as independent restaurant owners.

Show Notes

Our previous episode about closing the Chicago office - 00:21

J.P. Graziano Grocery Company website | Instagram | Twitter - 2:15

un-cooked website | Instagram - 7:29

Collective Resource Compost - 12:27

Strength in the City | fundraising campaign for their mentorship program with SRV - 20:17

Taste Real Chicago - 34:03