This is the second time I've read this book (the first time I listened to the audio book) and admittedly, while I love 85% of the sentiments throughout the book, I found a few things problematic.
Before we get to the problematic areas, I wanted to note a few things I did enjoy.
Basecamp's outlook on company benefits and how they should aim to get the employees *out* of the office and not keep them in (like free lunches and dinners do) is spot on. And paying for employees' vacations yearly almost forces them to relax, which in this day and age we need.
I also enjoyed how they employ a no-negotiation policy and how they pay their employees the top 10% market value of the employees' roles based out of San Francisco, even though their employees can live wherever they so choose.
I enjoyed the "absorb before responding" workflow. It allows presentation recipients to truly think through a proposal instead of making a snap judgement.
That being said, I also had some issues with the book.
First, the authors, who founded Basecamp, talk a LOT about the benefits their policies have for employees. They preach it time and time again, yet we fail to actually hear about these benefits from the employees themselves. I would have liked to see some quotes from current and past employees testifying to these benefits instead of hearing about them second hand.
Next, the authors seemed to contradict themselves, likely due to a lack of providing details. Each chapter is extremely short, which makes it easy to digest, but it sacrificed clarity that I personally missed.
For example, they harp on the idea of "meeting free work time" and meetings as a last resort, but then later in the book describe how their chat services should be minimally used and you should never make decisions or have long chat threads. How can you possibly maintain solid collaboration, across time zones and with remote employees, if you're encouraged to NOT have meetings and NOT use chats? It seemed a bit contradictory due to a lack of explanation.
This wasn't the only contradictory information I found either. Early in the book they talk about how employees don't have to let the team know where they are or if they're working. They're responsible for getting their work done but don't have to be transparent about when or where that is. However, later in the book they discuss their flexible PTO and flexible workdays and say that if an employee needs to leave early to pick up a child from school they can simply let their team know. So which is it?
There was no mention of mentorship, which I would like to have seen.
And lastly they discussed how consensus is NEVER feasible and you shouldn't aim for consensual decision making. But this is a very American-based mindset. In other parts of the world, they make decisions solely through consensus. America is a very top-down decision-making culture, but not every culture sees it this way. So it would be great if they could have recognized this.
I feel like each chapter reads wonderfully as a standalone, however when put together into a larger narrative, a lack of oversight was apparent. I still enjoyed the book and believe every company can gain something from it, but there were a few things I took issue with that knocked it down a star for me.