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BOOK REVIEW: The Year Without Pants
by Scott Berkun
✭✭✭✭A behind-the-scenes look at the firm behind WordPress.com and the unique work culture that contributes to its phenomenal success
50 million websites, or twenty percent of the entire web, use WordPress software. The force behind WordPress.com is a convention-defying company called Automattic, Inc., whose 120 employees work from anywhere in the world they wish, barely use email, and launch improvements to their products dozens of times a day. With a fraction of the resources of Google, Amazon, or Facebook, they have a similar impact on the future of the Internet. How is this possible? What’s different about how they work, and what can other companies learn from their methods?
To find out, former Microsoft veteran Scott Berkun worked as a manager at WordPress.com, leading a team of young programmers developing new ideas. The Year Without Pants shares the secrets of WordPress.com’s phenomenal success from the inside. Berkun’s story reveals insights on creativity, productivity, and leadership from the kind of workplace that might be in everyone’s future.
- Offers a fast-paced and entertaining insider’s account of how an amazing, powerful organization achieves impressive results
- Includes vital lessons about work culture and managing creativity
- Written by author and popular blogger Scott Berkun (scottberkun.com)
The Year Without Pants shares what every organization can learn from the world-changing ideas for the future of work at the heart of Automattic’s success.
My book club selected this book for the month of June and I thought it might be fun to share some of the discussion we had (as a group of remote workers) about the book. We met recently and I asked some questions to get the conversation going. We had a great discussion!
Below are a few of the questions I asked and our responses:
- What do you think was the purpose of this book?
- Sharing insight into a world that’s different from the norm
- Comparing remote work to traditional work
- Sharing unorthodox management
- Discussing team (and project) management in a remote environment
- Was there a specific passage or quote that left an impression on you?
- “This is one big problem with working remotely: no one believes you have a job at all.” (pg. 11)
- “No technique, no matter how good, can turn stupid coworkers into smart ones. And no method can magically make employees trust each other or their boss if they have good reason not to. The best approach, perhaps the only approach, is an honest examination of culture.” (pg. 29)
- After reading this book, what did it make you want to learn more about?
- Job postings at Automattic! 😊
- What did the book leave unanswered for you?
- How Automattic handles things like finance and paperwork.
We also got into a side-discussion about what makes someone good at working remotely and here were some of the thoughts folks shared about the type of person who would be a good fit:
- doesn’t need face-to-face interaction
- open to technology
- willing to learn from others
- good communication skills
- used to doing work (and not just being somewhere during specific hours)
- has clear goals
- takes ownership/responsibility
