Fire (or keep) the Workaholics

Jason Calacanis has an interesting list of things to save money in a startup. One of his points was to fire people who aren’t workaholics. David from 37 Signals responded with a post saying that you should fire the people who are workaholics.

Both of these posts are worth reading–even if you have no intention of starting a business yourself. Behind the work you do is a problem that needs solved. Your work solves this problem. Your paycheck reflects that somewhere in the value chain, someone is willing to pay for your ability to solve that problem.

In the two articles I linked to above, both companies are dealing with very different problems. Jason’s company Mahalo basically collects the best links on a given subject and posts them to a web page. They pay editors $30 to $35k per year (from what I understand) to do this. Their goal is to create a “human powered” search engine. Obviously the bar isn’t very high for this type of work. I’m not saying that the people working there aren’t talented, but the majority of their work isn’t difficult intellectually. They are solving the type of problem that can be solved by throwing lots of time at it.

37 Signals is a bit different. Most of the types of problems they solve are a bit more involved. They have come up with some highly creative solutions in the web application space. I’m not saying that they are full of PhD level employees, but there is a level of creativity that goes well beyond trying to collect a bunch of links on a particular subject. The type of problem they are solving can’t be done just by throwing a lot of time at it.

I’m not trying to say that people at Mahalo aren’t bright or that the people at 37 Signals don’t work hard. I’m trying to point out that there is a significant difference between what is required to solve their particular problem. Mahalo prefers workaholics because they add value through their time. 37 Signals prefers non-workaholics because they are solving problems through creativity.

When you look at your own career it can be very helpful to reflect on what you are being paid for. Are you just selling your time to your employer or are you selling your creativity? Obviously there is some overlap, but in general your ability to sell your creativity instead of your time will give you better work life balance.