How to Achieve Higher Productivity in Only 4 Days, Without Bosses

By Cristian Rennella

As a programming engineer, I started more than 15 years ago developing programming codes for prestigious software companies such as IBM, Intel and HP. Since the very early stages of my career, I could identify certain aspects of the operation with which I did not agree.

What were the problems?

Firstly, every highly-skilled software engineer I knew would eventually be promoted to a managerial position. This meant that the best programmers would, eventually, stop doing what they did best: programming. This system took place because it was the only way to get a high-rank post and, therefore, a better salary.

The problem lies in the fact that the best programmers will not necessarily be the best managers, or the so-called, “Project Managers,” since each job requires the mastering of very different skills. What's more, I strongly believe that programmers cannot perform well as managers. Finally, quoting Joel Spolsky, Trello’s designer/developer: “In the end, great human resources who did their jobs skillfully were lost."

On the other hand, there were managers who had never been programmers, but who did know how to deal with human resources efficiently, communicate their ideas and organize projects according to the company’s goals. The problem with working with this methodology is what Google’s founder, Larry Page, has expressed on several occasions: “Engineers should not be supervised by managers who lack technical knowledge."

Based on my personal experience, what really happened was that, as managers did not have the capacity of controlling the tasks developed by the programmers, they would reward those who performed their tasks faster, regardless of the quality of their work. And, as all programmers know, more is not necessarily better, since performance in software designing is governed by the premise 'less is more.' The less programming language we develop and the more efficient it is in its performance, the better. This is so because that programming language will eventually be cheaper in terms of maintenance costs and will also be much easier to run to run for anyone who wishes to use/modify such program.

What is the solution?

After 8 years of working in our project, OMT, there are currently 35 members in our working team, and the solution to the aforementioned problems is simply to work directly without managers (without bosses). In our company, we are all software engineers who work autonomously four days a week, for a total of 32 hours, as freelancers (without offices).

How did we come up with this solution?

1) The first thing we did was to create a SAAS (Software as a service) internal tool tailor-made to satisfy our needs. Any of our workers can, through this tool, consult the updated list of projects being developed at the moment.

In this way, each of us can voluntarily join and work on any of the projects that we may feel most identified with by contributing hours of programming, research, design, etc. Programmers may even create their own project if necessary.

2) Despite the fact that each member of our company is a programmer, as in all enterprises, we all carry out marketing, sales and customer service tasks, etc. In order to bring about all of these aspects, we have implemented a rotation system in which each member shares 20 percent of their time to develop these activities.

Who could be in a better position to deal with and help a client with a problem than the person who actually developed the program? The benefits to be attained with this policy are priceless. To be in touch with clients is the key to success.

3) Our company has eliminated the hierarchical structure in which each of us does his or her own job with just one boss who assigns activities.

As stated in a recent research paper by the National Bureau of Economic Research, group decisions both foster commitment among team members and deliver better outcomes compared to those based on individual decisions.

Another example of this is DaVita, a health company with over $6 billion worth of annual income that did not go bankrupt thanks to the redesigning of its organization into one in which cooperation among all members was essential.

One final example is Morning Tomato, the world’s biggest tomato producer, where there is peer equality, autonomy and compensations defined by their coworkers.

4) Another key aspect of our company’s cultural approach is that we only incorporate proactive people. This means that no one is going to be controlled when performing his or her tasks, and also that employee promotion prospects depend on the employees themselves (how organized, hardworking and dedicated they are)

5) Finally, and according to research conducted by the American Journal of Epidemiology, individuals who work 55 hours a week perform much better and achieve better results than those who work 40 hours.
In accordance with our own experience over the last three years, those proactive programmers who worked four days a week outperformed by 35 percent the results achieved by those who worked five days.

However, results are not the only motivating factor that makes us work this way. Working this way is also an advantage for us when it comes to competing for the best talents in the labor market, and it helps us hire excellent professionals. Yet another advantage of working as our company does: It allows us to keep talented workers on our payroll, a better working environment and team work, as well as a long-term sustained growth.

As a conclusion, I am sure that there are many arguments in favor of continuing work practices in the traditional way, with a hierarchical and rigid structure made up of bosses, in a context where employees must work as much as possible (five days or even more). Nevertheless, I also believe that it is high time we grasp the idea that the industrial era is far gone, that less is always more, and where the current state of technology has the potential to allow and facilitate this transformation.

Image credit: Flickr/Matt Krawford

Cristian Rennella. Engineer. Professor of “Programming oriented to Objects” at the Catholic University of Córdoba. Cofounder of EMT. Now focused on the development of mobile technologies in developing countries.