Mmm, you have given me a great idea for a blog post…. Watch this space.

At the start of a 2-week iteration everyone updates the wiki with what they want for lunch for the coming 2 weeks, and then it gets delivered daily.

Breakfast is also supplied in the form or cereal, rusks, whatever. Sexy Sprada coffee machine. If you happen to be around for supper that gets covered as well.

Flat-screen DSTV in the common room with an XBox. This is currently undergoing an upgrade – we have the new XBox and decoder, TV arriving soon.

Pool table.

The Wiki also has a shopping list that you can add any consumables (biscuits, fruit, stationery, sweets, drinks) to and they will be stocked.

The Wiki is also where you add books to the booklist, and periodic Amazon orders get placed.

At the end of the two-week iteration everyone goes out for a ‘retrospective’ lunch/afternoon and that is how the iteration ends.

And then of course stock options.

Most importantly, the tech is great and compelling and you get to input significantly in what you spend your time working on.

@Gary, 3 days a week?! That is bordering on swapping the weekend and work week around! Hehe. 4 days I think is optimal.

@Lesley, spam away your job openings… Maybe I should start a job board on my site?

@Retrosaint, golf membership!? Really? That’s a pretty weird but cool perk!

@Fox, paid lunches rock. I think I need to suggest that at our office!

We have perks too … we get paid lunch on Fridays …. and … errmmm … thats it really.

Wow Lesley, you got some awesome benefits!

Golf membership is one of the perks i got… now i get up early on Saturday mornings to stalk this little white ball. It’s fun, i promise!

Chris

Here at Acceleration employees get a laptop, home adsl, cell phone allowance, catered lunch, real coffee machine, and flexi-time (although we do have support, and timezone commitments). It’s more than just that too.. it’s about people genuinely working together in team.. having a respect for all your colleagues whether they are above or below you in hierarchy. Ok, we dont have 4 day working weeks, but maybe I’ll suggest it! :)

By the way, Jason, if you don’t mind, I will take this opportunity to mention that we are hiring! :) So if there are any hot .NET developers reading this, give me a shout!

Another friend of mine just started a new job here in Cape Town where 4 days of the week is normal work, but the 5th day is used to persue your own business and ideas.. where you get 50% stake… that sounds like a cool idea too.

LJD.

I’ve been a fan of the 4-day-week for a while. The 3-day-week is an even better idea . But seriously, the sooner software companies figure out that imposing structure on unstructured, creative employees is a bad idea, the better.

I read an article about MS once, where Gates said that in the early days of MS he would review each staff member’s work at the end of each month. As long as each guy was sufficiently productive, he didn’t care what hours they worked. That makes a lot of sense to me. If seen way too many programmers killing time waiting for 5pm. It’s a cancer.

Keep in touch..

Gary.

Thanks for the awesome words. I’m glad that we’re encouraging people to make their companies better places to work. As you know, we really believe in having fun as well as working hard.

Really appreciate the blog post – thanks again.

All the best,
Ryan