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posted by janrinok on Thursday November 24 2016, @05:27PM   Printer-friendly
from the this-dept-written-at-11:01am dept.

There aren't many companies that insist staff start work every day at such an oddly specific time as Pivotal Software.

Employees at the US firm's 20 global offices all have to be at work and ready to go at exactly 9.06am. At that precise time a cowbell is rung, or a gong is hit, and all workers gather for a brief stand-up meeting that lasts for between five and 10 minutes. Then the firm's programmers hit their computers, with no other meetings or distractions for the rest of the day.

Pivotal's founder and chief executive Rob Mee says it is all about making the working day as efficient as possible.

"I realised that programmers, if left to their own devices, may roll in at 10am," he says. "And if they haven't eaten adequately they will be hungry by 11am, so they'll stop for food, which then makes the afternoon too long. It is not very efficient. "So we thought, 'let's provide breakfast for everyone.' It gives them a reason to get here." So all employees get a free breakfast before work starts at 9.06am.

But why 9.06am? "We thought that if we made it 9am, developers psyching themselves up for the day would think, 'well if it is 9am I'll be late,'" says Mr Mee. "So then we thought, 'why don't we make it 9.05am,' but that is too precise, as programmers don't like over-optimising, so we went with 9.06am. Then it became something fun."

And at the end of the day everyone has to leave the office at 6pm sharp because staff aren't allowed to work into the evening. Mr Mee explains the reasoning: "Programmers don't programme well if they are too tired, so we don't want them working late into the night."

While Pivotal's approach to morning punctuality may seem endearingly nerdish, the business is in fact one of the most successful companies most people have never heard of. Valued at $2.8bn (£2.4bn), its investors include computer groups Dell Technologies and Microsoft, conglomerate General Electric, and car giant Ford.

Do you think it is a good idea? Would it be acceptable to you?


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  • (Score: 4, Insightful) by darkfeline on Thursday November 24 2016, @10:07PM

    by darkfeline (1030) on Thursday November 24 2016, @10:07PM (#432629) Homepage

    If you actually trust your employees, you'd let them determine a schedule that works for them, and the manager's job (surprise, surprise) is to even out any large inefficiencies:

    "You're important to the team, your work hours should reasonable overlap with the standard workday, 9pm-9am isn't allowed, sorry"

    "Hey, I see you've been working late the past few days. I'm going to insist you head home early today."

    "You have been showing up late. Is there anything you want to talk about? Should we find a better schedule?"

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