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by ecf 2411 days ago
A great way is to just not do one.

Startups need to stop pretending their employees are “friends” or “family”.

They are disposable cogs that will be replaced the very same day if they happened to pass away, for example.

I’ve never seen one of these be done where it wasn’t a) a party or b) eye rolling corporate propaganda.

In my case, I saw my engineering manager inhale co2 cartridges...

1 comments

Don't be so opposed to the idea as such, friend.

-> Startups need to stop pretending their employees are “friends” or “family”. Startups can strive hard to build a company that looks out for the person on their left and right. Yes, it won't be perfect. Yes, it will get difficult when it grows. But those are not good enough reasons not to try.

--> Disposable cogs All of us don't see it that way. We have to part ways with our team members, but the key is to do it gracefully, in a humane way. Here is a video that I recorded about it -> https://www.linkedin.com/posts/rarjunpillai_founderhabits-te...

In US, coz of the fear of getting sued, companies are forced to blindfold, inhumanely fire people and get them out of the office in 5 mins. Around the world, companies don't fire team members like in US. There are enough places where there are conversations, notice period, performance improvement plans and then letting go.

-> I’ve never seen one of these be done where it wasn’t a) a party or b) eye rolling corporate propaganda. You have been to only 1 or 2 types of retreats. Our retreat didn't have a party. I have attended over 10, none of them had 'parties'. Did we have a good time? yes. But not the dance floor parties with all sorts of stuff inside you.

Give it a chance that there could be a good side of it :)