PEOPLE.IDEAS.PERFORMANCE

65 :RUN +DUG 3OD\ +DUG – in work hard/play hard, employees themselves take few risks. However, the feedback on how well they are performing is almost immediate. Employees in this culture have to maintain high levels of energy and stay upbeat. Key figures found in such cultures are high volume salespeople, technology pioneers, and those who open new ventures and activities and locations. The work hard/play hard culture recognizes that one person alone cannot make the company. Work hard/play hard is a team effort and everyone is driven to excel. Contests among employees and competition between divisions are common here, as they drive everyone to reach new heights. ,//8675$7,9( &$6(6 5LFDUGR 6HPOHU DQG 6HPFR Semco is a Brazilian engineering, telecommunications and software development and IT services company. It is an example of how to make the work hard/play hard culture fully effective. As below, what has happened here is to remove all of the barriers and reasons why people either cannot or will not work. Especially, allowing people to choose their own salary, hours of work, and team in which they wish to participate, addresses critical barriers to effective performance. Once the staff have chosen their salary and nature of work, they can have no complaint if in the future this does not work out – they chose these elements; the elements were not imposed. Ricardo Semler, the company owner and chief executive, writes as follows (Semler, 2011): „ When I took over Semco from my father, it was a traditional company in every respect with a pyramid structure and a rule for every contingency. Today our factory workers sometimes set their own production quotas and even come in their own time to meet them without prodding from management or overtime pay. They help redesign the products, the make and formulate the marketing plans. Their bosses for their part can run our business units with extraordinary freedom determining business strategy without interference from the top brass. They even set their own salaries with no strings. Then again everyone will know what they are since all financial information at Semco is openly discussed. Our workers have unlimited access to our books. To show we are serious about this, Semco with the labor unions that represent our workers developed a course to teach everyone, including messengers and cleaning people, to read balance sheets and cash flow statements. We don't have receptionists. We don't think that they are necessary. We don't have secretaries either, or personal assistants. We don't believe in cluttering the payroll with un- gratifying dead-end jobs. Everyone at Semco, even top managers, fetch guests, stand over photocopiers, send faxes, type letters and use the phone. We have stripped away the unnecessary perks and privileges that feed the ego, but hurt the balance sheet and distract everyone from the crucial corporate tasks of making, selling, billing and collecting. One sales manager sits in the reception area reading newspapers hour after hour, not even making a pretence of looking busy. Most modern managers would not tolerate it. But when a Semco pump on an oil tanker on the other side of the world fails and millions of gallons of oil are about to spill into the sea he springs into action. He knows everything there is to know about our pumps and how to fix them. That's when he earns his salary. No-one cares if he doesn't look busy the rest of the time. We are not the only company to experiment with participative management. It has become a fad. But so many efforts at workplace democracy are just so much hot air. The rewards have already been substantial. We have taken a company that was moribund and made it thrive chiefly by refusing to squander our greatest resource, our people. Semco has grown sixteen-fold despite withering recessions, staggering inflation and chaotic