In 2022, Elon Musk gave the remaining 2,900 employees of his recently acquired Twitter an ultimatum. The workers would need to be “extremely hardcore” and work long hours “at high intensity”. He declared that “only exceptional performances will constitute a passing grade.”
Did Musk start a trend of being so publicly brutal about what founders can expect from employees?
In recent weeks, a number of Australian founders in the tech and startup space have shared sentiments highlighting their own “wartime” like demands of team members.
Canva’s Cliff Obrecht recently told the Morgan Stanley Australia Summit that he takes a “wartime” approach to staff in terms of weeding out poor performers. He said that as much as companies need to reward high performers, they also need to keep the “performance bar high” and constantly look at low performers to manage them out.
At the AFR’s Entrepreneur’s Summit on Tuesday this week, Honey Insurance founder Richard Joffe told the audience that tells his own staff that “we’re going to war” and that they need to “pick up a knife and get on with it and bludgeon, or else get out of the way.”
Joffe shared some ideas about work-life balance, too, stating that “the idea that you can be in an exceptional environment and create wealth while sitting on the beach and finishing at five is just nonsense.”
He said that “the worst thing you can do is pretend to people that working in an early stage company is a cakewalk, that it’s a ping pong table, and it’s a joke.”
Joffe successfully exited two startups in the US before starting Honey Insurance in Australia, where he was involved in the third-largest Series A raise in Australian history.
It’s not just male CEOs and founders being upfront about their approaches.
“I fire people just as quickly as my male co-founders,” Airwallex co-founder Lucy Liu told the Summit, in response to investors who assume women are softer or gentler in the startup industry.
Goterra CEO Olympia Yarger told the AFR Summit that she also challenges the work life balance idea, and has “upfront conversations” with team members about the kind of work environment they are in and that there work involves responding to the climate crisis.
It is confronting to hear founders talk in such ways, especially given the fact these founders will and should always be hustling more than their employees, given they ultimately have the most to gain.
However, there is something in the honesty of such speak that is refreshing.
No lies about creating a “work family” or ideas that you’re at work to have fun and access free snacks and gym memberships. Rather, employees know what they’re getting into, and they can make up their own minds about whether or not they want to be part of such a culture.
It’s refreshing, as long as current employees knew the drill when they signed up before quitting other roles or opportunities to join the startup, and as long as they’re paid accordingly and given real access to generating wealth within the startup. The respect should extend to not only offering competitive salary packages but also strong leave entitlements, including paid parental leave and family leave and sick leave and real opportunities for flexible work.
Employees must be heard and treated as if they matter, and their work and contributions are valued and compensated fairly. They also don’t leave their worker rights at the door on joining a startup.
In high-stress cultures, things can go very wrong, especially when your workplace becomes your life place and the thing that drives you. The highest performers can also be the most problematic managers, especially if they’re rewarded on metrics that fail to consider how they treat and support their own team members.
There are high-performing, high-intensity workplaces, and there are also toxic workplaces. The former can quickly become the latter.
Toxic workplaces develop around managers who fail to consider the needs of people, and team members feel they can’t speak up and can’t share any mistakes or errors they’ve made. They’re workplaces that nurture a culture of cover ups, overlooking harassment and discrimination and lacking in transparent communication, as well as respect and the differences in approaches individuals have.
Toxic workplaces also fail to consider purpose in work and a vision that extends beyond moneymaking.
Employees who choose a high-intensity work environment and startup culture should consider the risks involved, as well as what they are willing to take on and deal with, and why.