Video tutorial: Dan Lyons, author, on the realities of a good place to work

Lyons was recounting his experiences of working in a start-up business as a 52 year old former Newsweek technology editor in an opening keynote at the REBA Employee Wellbeing Congress 2019.

He said from the outside it had appeared the business was a great place to work. But in reality it turned out not to be the case since he didn’t fit in with the cheery nature of the business and it felt ‘culty.’ “Start-ups present a false front - a sort of smiley face to the world,” he said.

His experience inspired a book on the subject which opened up stories from others who had been through similar, he said. The stories all boiled down to the emotional damage and impact on self-esteem that people had gone through in similar positions, he explained.

“This is not the internet world we envisioned 20 years ago. We were going to work fewer hours, make more money and have more leisure time,” he said. Instead people are miserable and unhappy at work, particularly within the Silicon Valley environment, with employees feeling dehumanised as a result.

Instead he said companies need a clear purpose. He cited a company called Basecamp for how they run their business in a more positive manner. “They do everything wrong by the standards of Silicon Valley,” he said. That included profit-sharing with their employees and running seminars where they share their philosophy on how they run their company.

“One rule they have which is amazing to me is that no-one works more than 40 hours a week – it’s capped. You work 8 hours a day and you go home. In the summer they cap it at 32, everyone has Friday off,” he said.

This video was recorded at the REBA Employee Wellbeing Congress 2019, held in London on 20 June.