ezLearnz Blog

The 6-hour workday

This is only tangetially related to ezLearnz, but once ezLearnz is an established company, I’d love to implement this idea:

Everyone works 6 hours on their dayjob, i.e. for what they’re hired, with a 25% smaller salary. For those who have other interests (e.g. wanting to spend more time with their children), their jobs stops at this point (they can always join others later). For the others, there are the projects. All of these projects are voluntary and come from the employees themselves. If the company needs a specific project carried out, it hires people whose primary responsibility is that project; that is, their dayjob. Every project, which can be done using company resources, lasts one quarter, after which it is presented company-wide. At this point, several things happen:

• If the company and the employee both like the project and agree to do so, it becomes “official”, and the company pays the employee a bonus for it; thus buying ownership of the project.
• The employee may decide to continue the project as a startup, or a hobby. In this case, the company takes a certain percent equity depending on the situation and whether the company’s resource will continue being used.
• There is no penalty if the project fails: it is a learning experience, and the employee can continue with something else.
• A project can be worked on any number of people, both within and outside the company.

This work arrangement has several advantages:

• An employee can explore different fields of knowledge by making something, and moving forward with a career in ways that are traditionally impossible or very hard.
• The company retains a start-up-like atmosphere, and grows/diversifies its competencies; becoming a de-facto micro-venture capitalist at the seed stage.
• The company draws top talent, who often prefer freedom and flexibility to financial compensation.

What do you think?

Update: To clarify the idea a bit, the company would take equity only if the employee(s) used company resources to develop the project. If, after a given quarter, the company didn’t like the project, but the employee(s) did, the employee(s) could continue working on their own, not using the company’s resources. In another scenario, if the project was on the verge of succeeding (or had a very good chance to do so), but additional funding was needed, the company could put in funding/introduce to the employee other investors for funding (similar to YC’s Demo Day). In my opinion, for this to work, everything must be done voluntarily and with a consensus on both the company’s and employee’s side.