Jeez, I hate this attitude... that the only way a company can succeed is if you suffer. You spend all friggin' day at the office. It doesn't have to be a coalmine for the company to succeed. On the contrary. When a startup gets to the point that it needs to recruit the top talent, it better have nice working conditions. Look at Amazon today... crappy offices, pride in using doors as desks, and huge turnover among the development staff. Where are the Amazon engineers going? Google and Microsoft.
Do you have more insight into why Amazon's turnover is so high? I'm starting there fairly soon, and things look pretty peachy on the outside, but I am aware that for some reason or another people up and leave after about 2 years.
I honestly didn't mind the office - cramped sure, no fancy furniture sure, but I'm there to work, not marvel at the finishing and grain on my desk...
I do agree though, IMHO from the article the biggest loss was putting people into their own offices - but that's a failure in planning and understanding the company's development dynamics, not necessarily in the very act of moving.
It's a trade off. The first place I worked mis-planned their moved, and was suffering the following 3.5 years to maintain profitability. The margins weren't high enough and through put did not increase enough to justify the more expensive location. I think they moved out of that location about 10 years later, when the employee base had shrunk to a quarter of the original size.
Yes, it is a single antidote, and there other complicating factors ... such as it being 2002 when the markets were already difficult.
