What if you could work only four days a week and still get a full pay-check? No extra hours needed, no secret work on weekends, only a true 32-hour work week with all the perks of a full schedule. That's what Treehouse Island, Inc. workers have, and so far it's been working out pretty good for them. The fast-growing company was founded in 2011 and provides an interactive education platform that teaches how to code. It has over 130,000 students worldwide and revenue is around $10 million now (£6.5 million). So how do they do it?
"We have over 100 employees.
We're doing all the things successful companies do, but we work less," CEO Ryan Carson stated at a packed room during Collision Conference, in Las Vegas. He told business owners to just engineer their companies around this concept, and it will prove itself.
The bottom line, he said, is that "money can't buy you time." And time is what you need to be with your family and enjoy life, "so you have to work less." Investors have not shied away from the company over this; in fact, they poured £3 million in funding in 2012 and an additional £4.5 million the following year.
"We pay full salaries at market rates. Real salaries, not less," Carson assured, adding that everyone gets 18 days of vacation per year.
"As the CEO, I don't secretly work Friday through Sunday. My friends who are also CEOs think it's good to be tired and I think it's bullshit," he bluntly announced. "Being tired means you're lazy and can't control your life. If you feel you can't, remember this: in 200,00 weekends you're going to be dead."
Here's how they do it:
- The support team works shifts.
There's always someone there when clients need them
- No one works extra hours
- They use a tool called Asana, which reduces "email crap"
- They don't use email internally, but instead talk via HipChat, another tool that prevents people from constantly being disturbed while working
- They encourage each other not to interrupt people at their desk
- When people have more time, they become more efficient.
"If more companies do what we do, you won't be able to hire good people," Carson said, revealing that his employees have been lured by the likes of Google and Facebook and still chose to stay at Treehouse.
The company also doesn't have the concept of managers. "There isn't a trick," Carson says. "It's the small things that work."
