Thanks for that. Great stuff.
149 karma · joined September 11, 2014
Saying that a former employee violating a non-disparagement agreement means that it's now a good idea for the company to take use an eye-for-an-eye policy in return? -- What.
No (American) non-executive employees should ever be forced to sign anything. I never have for any job. Employers are in too powerful of a position by default.
Whatever you do, constantly be looking for ways to actively mitigate it. Just working less is NOT the only way to prevent it. Everyone has had times when they've worked long hours on something, and still felt great. Think about what was special in those situations. Ideas:
1) Play a sport.
2) Party hard, roughly 1 night per week, maybe Friday. This works well for many extremely hard working professionals in NYC. Not sure how well it would work in SV...
3) When coding, try to break up tasks into self-contained chunks that you can start and finish within one day. Accomplishing a new tangible goal each day can have a great mental effect. Catching up on big half-finished tasks from the previous day can be stressful and mentally draining.
4) Be around people you love being around. You'll feel less stressed about escaping the office if the people you're looking forward to being around are inside instead of outside the office.
5) Notice how it's so hard to focus late into the evening at the office, but once you're home you feel awake again and can work? For the earliest stage startup, consider making your work environment more like a home, or literally work out of your home with your cofounder. Your girlfriend/boyfriend may look down at you for doing this, get used to it. Partners hate startups.
6) Go for walks twice per day, preferably outdoors, in a place where you're surrounded by lots of people - or alone in nature, whatever you feel like you're missing.
7) Kick out whining people, immediately.
It's similar to when I did cross-country running for a few years. That wasn't fun at all, not even once. It was painful. I'd say that I did it just because of competitive instincts.
I've experienced this many times while living outside of the US, in recent years. All of the people you'll read about in blogs, or see in videos -- they're perceived like movie stars or legends that must have been greatly distorted on their journey to the opposite end of the world. Keep in mind that many small countries have never seen a single big tech-startup success happen within their borders. Even suggesting a remote possibility of successes, will be met with the argument that every successful person they've ever known hasn't followed what they call the "American" startup way.
In-person role models -- can't underestimate the psychological impact.