I think this misses the point of an employee handbook completely. Its meant for when things go wrong... employees are not looking at any company handbook on a day to day basis to figure out how the company runs and how they should act. They only crack it open when shit hits the fan and they need to know what to do...

- Think one of your co-workers is not performing up to par - might want to consult the employee handbook

- Think you might get laid off - might want to consult the employee handbook

- Wondering how much time you can take off - might want to consult the employee handbook

Employee handbooks are stuffy, boring and read like a dictionary. It is essentially a very light contract between the employer and employee - writing a contract about how there basically are no rules probably makes everyone feel like they are forward thinking but helps very little. Here are some tangible examples...

- There is no rule on vacation so my coworker "John" takes a lot of vacation. Hes pretty responsible about it but sometimes he's out and we really do need him - its begun to frustrate me a little. Is he about to be fired or can I do this too - Im doing a ton of work but would like to go to Europe for 6 weeks? (The problem here is that there is a very real limit on vacation - the limit is a magical number/level of output in the founders/investors/manager's heads and may depend on their mood day to day. What one's expectation of acceptable time off may not match anothers.)

- I like to wear unqiue clothes but now a couple coworkers have started to tease me in ways that are really starting to bother me. (As a side note I think this was part of what occurred with that Kixeye debacle while it was a vary extreme case.) Lets see what the handbook says... oh.

- "Tim" produces like crazy - the problem is that he is not big on communication and doesnt want to be apart of our meetings. Hes doing great work - its just not integrating with the direction everyone else is going.

It probably sounds like Im advocating for the other extreme where every detail is mapped out. Im not - it can be too extreme on structure but I dont think the other extreme is any better. In all honesty this would drive me away - it looks like a dream until money is low, stress is high, somebody is abusing something, or there is political in-fighting (which definitely can happen at small startups).