A Sydney startup founder’s post about “fully adopting” a Silicon Valley-style work culture has sparked a debate about long hours in tech and whether work-life balance clashes with ambition.
After arriving in San Francisco two weeks ago, Lyra co-founder and COO Anh Dao posted that he had experienced a “wake-up call” on work culture, and that Australia needs a “serious change”.
“The culture here runs till late,” Dao posted on LinkedIn.
“I saw people still in the office at 11.30pm, calls happening well…after 5pm, and a pace that does not slow down after hours. The energy carries well into the night.
“The support system was there, and everyone looked like they were having the time of their lives.”
Work-life balance?
He did acknowledge that many Australians have embraced an improved work-life balance in the wake of the COVID pandemic, but said that to succeed in tech, you need to be operating differently.
Lyra cofounder and COO Anh Dao
“We can always fall back on ideas like ‘work life balance’ and ‘life is more than work’, and there is truth in them, but the reality is that if we want to succeed at the highest level, we cannot operate like that,” Dao said in the post.
“We simply cannot compete on ambition, pace or outcomes if comfort becomes the priority, and in Australia, breaking out of the tall poppy mindset is incredibly difficult because it is so deeply ingrained that ambition often gets cut down before it has the chance to grow.”
The founder concluded the post by saying his startup, Lyra, would be “fully adopting this culture”.
‘Stupidest post’
But the post was quickly met with backlash online, with commenters pointing at the salaries in San Francisco are typically far higher than in Sydney and Australia, and that it’s one thing for a founder to choose to work longer hours and another thing to require this of employees.
“If you expect your employees to do the same, pay them accordingly and don’t try and justify it through ‘reasonable overtime’,” one commenter said.
“An employee paid $130,000 pa who is paid to work 38 hours a week, but then is expected to work ‘reasonable overtime’ that pushes their work to 12 hours per day, six days a week, is now reducing their pay rate from $66 per hour to $35 per hour.
“At that pay rate, you could earn more stacking shelves at Woolworths when you factor overtime and penalty rates.”
One commenter simply said it was the “stupidest post” they had seen “in a long time”.
“Are you offering 4x market rate?” one comment said.
“Cause that is where you need to be salary wise to get this level of output from employees.”
Another commenter said this approach wouldn’t work for all workers, such as parents.
“It’s easy to talk about ambition, growth and locking tf in when you’re in your 20s and have no dependents but at the end of the day if you want what you’re building to survive outside your own ambition and in the real world you can’t expect everyone around you to think and act just like yourself,” they said.
“Maybe it’s best to keep the SF culture in SF and find something else that works better for Australians?”
Some were even more critical with one saying it was “excellent” Dao had posted “this hot garbage”.
“It helps people understand the kind of manager (not leader, manager) that you will be and ensures your crappy startup is nothing more than a stepping stone to something better,” he wrote.
Not what I meant
In response to the criticism, Dao posted again on LinkedIn this week, saying that his message was directed at “founders and builders in Australia”.
“The point wasn’t about working till 11.30pm,” he said.
“It was about ambition and what it takes to close the gap between what’s possible here and what’s already happening in the world.
“I believe drive looks different for everyone. Some want balance, some want to push limits. Both belong here.”
This post was met with some positive feedback from other startup founders.
“Founders didn’t get to where we got to today because they stopped work at 5pm or lived for work life balance,” one founder commented.
“Name a billion-dollar business not built on people willing to work past midnight,” another said.
Australian workers recently gained a right to disconnect under new federal legislation.
Under the rules, workers cannot face punishment for not responding to unreasonable work communications outside of their paid working hours.
- This story first appeared on Information Age. You can read the original here.
