Nov 2, 2007 06:58 PM
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Philip Kaplan once ran the website InternalMemos.com, a compendium of leaked company missives. Now Valleywag has obtained one from AdBrite, the online-ad network Kaplan founded. AdBrite is now run by CEO Iggy Fanlo, who earns our Silicon Valley Tool award for railing at his employees about their work hours: "I continue to see too few folks here at 9 AM; and too few folks here at 6 PM." Let's leave aside the issue of whether Fanlo is violating California overtime laws; long hours are part of the startup culture. We just want to know if Fanlo has considered that employees might be avoiding the office in order to minimize contact with the company's erratic founder. The full memo, as Kaplan himself would have run it:
From: Iggy Fanlo To: AdBrite Subject: work hoursI hesitated sending this email for quite some time and had hoped that through your direct managers I would see some improvement. Having said that, I continue to see too few folks here at 9 AM; and too few folks here at 6 PM. I don't care if you are a morning person or a night person; if you want to work 10-8 pm or 8-6 pm, but I fully expect each one of you to put in 9-10 hours per working day. This is still a startup and we need more passion, time and energy from each of our employees than a large company would require. If we succeed, the rewards, both psychic and financial, will be great. But for that, we ask you to give more than the typical 9-5 job.
I respect each and every one of you as professionals, and I would be VERY sad if I/we ever had to keep track of working hours for our employees, but I need each of you to think about your commitment and whether it is strong enough. Again, I want to repeat; for the vast majority of you, this is just an FYI and you should be content in the knowledge that I care about you and don't want you struggling alone long into the night. Those that work hard deserve more from their peers. It's my job to make sure that we fight as a team; we are only as strong as our weakest link.
Ignacio "Iggy" Fanlo
AdBrite
CEO
iggy@adbrite.com
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