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BEGINNINGS

Please discuss the questions below in your small groups. Then enter your group's best ideas into the question bins ...

Participants entered the following set of comments:

A. What do I want to BRING FORWARD to the new organization's culture?

001 Implement the Release Process :-)
002 Beer on Fridays
003 leverage synergy across cross-functional platforms
004 clear focus and commitment.
005 promotion and a raise
006 Fun and energetic environment while never sacrificing productivity and professionalism.
007 growth with that close family feeling
008 I need someone to make a decision. Too many things are endlessly discussed with no resolution. I thought the point of a small "start-up" was to avoid bureaucracy and scope creep.
009 Sane working hours for my team.
010 More informal gatherings (happy hours)
011 fireman's pole in the new office
012 We want toys.
013 Floyd
014 everyone should have the feeling that they are contributing successfully
015 Friday night company BBQ/Happy hour
016 More video games...ones girls like to play i.e. Ms. Pac Man and Frogger
017 After work hang outs, (i.e. beer bashes, happy hours, team sports, basketball is a good start)
018 work with others to get things done.
019 More Security and Stability
020 Think first, react second.
021 a party
022 dogs in the office.... and the nice, relaxed feel of the office.
I Don't want to wear a suit
023 shiny happy people
024 Floyd! -the dog, not the server
025 Same level of growth (membership on eGroups) as we have had in the past - successful business model
026 Zoob.
027 Soda fountain machine. Environmentally kind.
028 Can we continue with the very early cultural things like doggies, food for all, beer bashes, video games?
029 The ability to fully customize the cubicle experience (variations in lighting, decoration)
030 Trust.
031 bean bags, casual dress, flexible hours, dogs (pepper, floyd, rocket), free candy & soda, Jan.
032 I'd like to sell SUCCESSFUL ad campaigns and develop long-term relationships with core advertisers.
033 No beer on Fridays. Beer everyday.
034 Don't break the growth of the service.
035 more social events to help foster strong relationships
036 Help maintain the start up feel that is as fun as it is hard and intense.
037 Floyd
038 educational stipends
039 morale, if there is any left
a better understanding of why eStaff won't answer any of our questions specifically
will there ever be any answers, where have all the answers gone
higher pay for the people who matter and not to receive the run around ONCE AGAIN
if eStaff's grand vision for compensation equality and industry competitiveness will be retroactive for existing employees?
all current employees
040 Two words: Ally McBeal
041 same community environments, no walled cubes
042 Better collaboration/trust between departments
043 Not losing the close culture that was prevalent in the beginning of the organization.
Less levels within organization i.e., 5 levels within a
30 person marketing department
044 freedom to experiment with ideas and processes
045 A non-political environment with an open "get it done" attitude
046 Continue the dinner tradition in RWC
047 Doug Miller's dog, Floyd.
048 trust and camaraderie that existed before the merger
voice opinions w/o punishment- bad attitude
more fun--activities
049 Hey #16, I have a Ms. PacMan I can bring in.
050 An open, communicative work environment
051 I need to get answers to my questions in a more timely manner.
I think that we should have more defined policies on what can and can't be done as a company.
052 $$$$$
053 How about supporting a revised version of egp-badattitude that management can live with?
054 work hard, play harder!
055 The non-rigid nature of organization/org charts. Being able to learn from people with more experience through direct contact.
056 Yeah, how about exec staff staying the hell off of groups like bad-attitude as employees need somewhere to bitch, and guess what, it's usually about you...
057 the accessibility of the e-staff (i.e.. Michael's, and others, office hours
timely communication to the staff of organizational changes
Wednesday fruit
058 Intolerance of sugar-coated bullshit executive speeches.
059 Informal dinner meetings w/ other folks in the company--freely discussing what each of us is working on
060 Ads that work!
061 Work smarter, not harder.
062 GRADUATE EDUCATION REIMBURSEMENT
063 a balance between work and life.
064 please disregard this
065 A CEO who says hello to employees
066 I would like to state for the record that our VP comes to our departmental meetings every week with a list of topics that eStaff is discussing and with updates. As boring as it may be at times, it is appreciated.
067 Leadership. We are all individual brands in this market.
068 in response to #53, clamping down on bat attitude just drove the bitching underground
069 My commitment and dedication
070 No walls. Sure the cussing and occasional dog bark sucks, but it keeps me awake...making the 13 hour days possible.
071 a means to turn the endless gigabytes of nudity on the site into the cash cow we all know it can be (all models over 18, of course!)
Welcome to eGropes.com
072 Renato.
073 A female masseur for the boys in the office.
074 BETTER EXPOSURE
075 Renato nude ....
hey- a new revenue stream!!
076 Please leave some of these scary people behind.
077 $100,000 for this??? Does that come with lubricant?
078 The $100K spent on these overgrown kindergarten teachers would pay for a ski weekend for all employees. How much more would morale go up skiing or simply giving everyone $600 or so as a bonus than wasting $100K?


B. What do I want in the culture that is NEW to us (that we didn't have in the past)?

001 happy employees
002 A buddy system for new employees - not just a walk around the office, but an ongoing relationship to foster culture and relationships.
003 more alcohol
004 momentum and growth
005 A CEO that says hello to fellow employees.
006 Offsites with no business agenda - rather to just have fun.
007 less whining
008 emphasis on fun
009 fair compensation structure
010 autonomy
011 a chef
012 Anything that will bring together the SF/south-bay groups.
013 A nap room.
014 employees in this company are kept at a "need to know" basis - management does not tell us what is going on in ours and other departments - how about a better feedback loop
015 more communication regarding deals/company direction. e.g.) communication of x.com deal
016 Ability to voice concerns and have them listened to and responded to, without recrimination
Higher standards for performance and accountability
More cross departmental communication and cooperation
017 Friday beer-bash staff parties/meetings
018 increased social interaction between emps
019 I would like to have a smoking room in the office.. with incense
020 offices with doors
021 Could we have gym memberships so we can all become a bit healthier?
022 up and down feedback for bosses and employees.
023 office hours with any management staff
024 More communication b/n departments....
025 suggestion box to give comments
026 inter-departmental communication
027 We should be able to vote an employee "off the island" like in that new TV show. Pull your weight or your peers kick you off.
028 More action, less talk where it comes to focusing on primary revenue generating needs.
029 Greater visibility within our industry
030 Beer Bash Fridays!!!
031 more information about what's going on with the product, the company, other departments
032 sharing the excitement of the old culture.
033 transparent about company operations
034 morale, once again
kegerator
fun, even a little would be beneficial, fun for us not the eStaff
035 More industry parties/connections/visibility.
036 Plain and simple teamwork.
037 some mechanism for people to meet & interact with each other
quarterly eGroups field trips (out of the City)
038 $$$$$$
039 celebrating and recognizing all milestones
040 swimming pool and hot tub
041 encouragement to move to different departments to learn new skills
042 A game room with a pool table, punching bags, more arcades, on site 24 hours massage service (NO RENATO).
043 a building that supports a culture which values
collaborative efforts. rwc is too sterile, while SF is too packed, and noisy
044 cubes, better pizzas on Fridays, more cohesion among various functional teams
045 more informal and fun small group events.
046 Tahoe house OR ranch in Montana :)
More individual contributors in Engineering .
Accountability. If you don't contribute, you are HISTORY ....
047 More offsite events
048 Better work/life balance -- make crisis mode not the norm
049 Work on review policies for pay increases, work performance?
050 More time for departmental team-building
051 more learning opportunities. there is minimal mentorship right now. bring in folks if there is a lack of mentorship
052 Dinner in SF as well as RC.
053 some cross b/t the cube environment and open cattle environments to allow for a little more privacy while still maintaining social interaction and banter
054 a comfortable work environment
055 More recognition and appreciation (and respect) for employees at all levels
056 trust
respect from estaff and coworkers
recognition/acknowledgement
057 more attention to our members and customers
058 the feeling that we are moving in the right direction to be successful
059 Could we please ... FINALLY .. acknowledge, appreciate, and support all of the things that are RIGHT about this company? Despite all the complaints, this is still a pretty awesome place to work.
060 sharing the wealth more effectively
061 Herman Miller chairs!
062 Instead of taking a vacation without working, let us travel to the other office locations and allowing us to work there for a few weeks? Willing to bribe for this :-)
063 Determine a way to make the environment more "fun"....people more open and approachable. Walking the halls it appears that people are unhappy (no eye contact, no introductions, etc...)
064 We should have a sit down once a MONTH where the eStaff gets quizzed on all of the employees names. We have to know who they are...
065 Dunk tank
066 gym membership
067 not feeling guilty for wanting to leave the office at a reasonable hour and having a life outside of work
068 decisions that stick stop re opening every decision
069 Confidence!!!
We all need to start believing in ourselves and our future!!!
070 Removal of buzzwords from company meetings so offsites take 1 1/2 hours instead of all day.
071 Are employees going to get additional options?
072 dinner compensation when working late
*get An account with waiters on wheels*
073 less whining by all the employees about not enough stock, get over it the world isn't fair
074 less marketing
075 massages for NY office
076 for 73, how many at what price do YOU have??
077 Trust
078 Childcare - onsite and recognition that people have families and need balance..
079 sales: I need a modem for my laptop so I can harass my buyers when I'm on the road. Parked of course...
080 I shouldn't feel guilty about leaving work at 7pm
081 Olga, the Swedish masseuse.
082 buzzword bingo at company meetings
083 Gym membership!!!!
084 Welcome to the bad-attitude offsite.
085 Education subsidies.
086 Mentorships and learning!
087 24-hour site coverage.
088 Converting the entire company from UNIX to MS products. 90% of the world runs on MS< what are you trying to prove by being rebels? LONG LIVE BILL!
089 Moving to Microsoft? You're kidding, right? There is no WAY we could run our site on any combination of Microsoft software products...


C. What do we need from the EXEC-STAFF over the next 3-6 months?

001 Leadership.
002 An explanation of question #37.
003 Realization of what we do.
004 I'd like to have an orange shirt just like Rikk's
005 Introductions, I have no idea who some of the people standing up there are
006 An across the board 50% increase in options for all staff, with loans.
007 We need the eStaff to trust one another in their own efforts, and stop questioning one another.
008 Parking spaces.
009 encouragement
010 Bonus like the ones handed to the estaff
011 Don't duck the tough questions about e-staff compensation!
012 Develop a brand name that can be recognizable to the industry in order to increase sales/recruiting/ etc.
013 more communications and clarification of decisions
014 How about budgets that are meaningful?
015 Vision and more leadership, but not micro-management
016 recognition, money, stock
017 A huge focus on recruiting the bodies needed to staff up the ad serving efforts of the engineering team.
018 a monkey
019 Please address the morale, which is remarkably low for a company about to go public, growing at 15% per month, and has a great logo (okay, 2 out of 3 ain't bad)
020 Leadership, vision, communication, intelligence
021 some of their options
022 Communication without BUZZWORDS
023 We definitely need more account coordinators and the coordinators should be freed up from reports and proposal writing to do inside sales for the reps, prospecting and calling, prospecting and calling.
024 Vacation.. can we finally start to work normal hours
025 Communication and trust
Humility -- recognize that you are not the experts about our business -- we are.
Results and follow-through -- how much is really happening vs. talk.
026 More engineers. Why are we hiring so many marketing people when we don't have engineers to support what we already have planned.
027 More visibility in the marketplace. If ad sales is our only revenue source they should be highly visible and recognized in the industry.
028 $$$$$$$$
029 Cars. Thank you.
030 A learning environment which allows for emps to explore dif paths
031 please listen to our concerns and address them rather than dodge
032 Balls to make the tough decisions when they need to be made. We should've jumped all over Brisbane when PlanetRx bailed out... But no, we had to be cheap asses and try to "get by" with RWC.
033 One Roof
One Plan
One Vision
034 clear communications regarding changes
035 *sung to the Mouseketeers theme...
P-O-R-S-C-H-E
B-O-X-T-E-R
036 We want up to date information on what we are doing in foreign markets, possible new revenue streams, partnerships, acquisitions, etc. etc.
037 PARKING!!!
038 Honesty
039 Better attitude and professionalism -- it is embarrassing to hear execs talk about each other and to discuss their own exit strategies
040 Weekly newsletter (we can finally justify the cost of those ^%$!! tech writers!)
041 More stock. Some of theirs preferably. Thank you again.
042 exec staff needs to get along with one another more. it is quite apparent that things are unsettled right now
043 Subsidy of parking that’s real. I don t want to pay 400 per month in the financial district
044 Define marketing’s role in the company.
045 Greater communication/cooperation between departments.
046 more appreciation for employees on their teams and throughout company
047 parking reimbursement
048 Get over the "viral growth" crapola and start focusing on "real world" advertising & marketing efforts. How are we supposed to have a successful IPO if nobody knows who we are?
049 options!
050 Guarantee free parking
051 positive reinforcement
052 Vision
053 To design office space which reflects the culture that makes eGroups a fun place to work.
054 Leadership
055 an explanation of how and why the execs got to get 50% more options ON LOAN and the rest of us will get enough from the IPO to buy a (used) toaster
056 A room to carry out no holds barred wrestling matches. Matches would be chosen by me. The first match would be sunny d and the guy with no shirt
057 creativity.
058 50 % more stock to keep people from defecting to other killer startups.
An exec staff who is approachable and cordial.
059 More informal discussions/brainstorming--better meetings which engage department members and encourages thinking aloud.
060 Fewer levels in the marketing department.
061 Accept our porn inventory as valuable assets of our company. Face it, sex sells. Some of the most profitable internet companies are PORN sites. CASH IS KING BABY.
We are not here to set moral values but to make money. If I want moral values I would go to church.
By the way, if the Catholic Church ever IPO, I think they will beat YAHOO in market cap.
062 More stock and $
063 Flatten out the org-chart. There are too many layers for a company that only has 150 people. This is ridiculous, stop justifying people's jobs by forcing people to report to them.
064 a vacation
065 Better Schwag
more engineers
Big time help from the e-staff helping to close 7 figure deals.
more engineers
faster execution
066 resources to get ideas realized and time to think through all the angles
067 More options for those who have earned it - the exec staff gave more to themselves.
068 Come up with a relocation package that us poor slobs can use. Loosen the restrictions or save the money to hire new people.
069 More help closing larger deals.
070 leadership
071 longer than 15 minutes for lunch
072 encouragement and a acknowledgment of a job well done.
073 a realization that we could all leave for better money tomorrow, pay your employees well and they will stay and perform
074 Don't dodge the tough estaff compensation and stock questions
075 Support and trust to let employees make decisions and get their work done
076 CAB VOUCHERS
077 absolute focus on supporting revenue generating initiatives
078 The actions of the eGroups founders destroyed our trust. Can you bring it back?
079 more stocks for old eGroups people
080 Stop wasting money on touchy-feely employee events and Renato. Buy something we can use or distribute the slush fund.
081 more accessibility, fair compensation & recognition.
082 More clarity on international plans and policies.
083 Bold leadership
084 is this anonymous or will I need start looking for a new job?
085 Less bureaucracy and politics
086 remove separation between employees and E-staff, why are they on a stage?
087 Yes, we should have gone to Brisbane
088 more time in this exercise so the eStaff doesn't have an excuse not to answer the "hard" questions
eStaff who do not take their personal dislikes into consideration when retaining employees who are extremely valuable
089 Start recognizing individual contributions and reward them accordingly.
090 their stock options...
091 Make getting reimbursed for expenses less of a pain in the ass. This is a barrier to the benefits that have been promised.
092 How long before we will have this feature for our web site.
093 Better communication between Engineering and Marketing + trust
094 vision/direction
more cohesive estaff team
more personable/approachable
095 Personal acknowledgement for working our butts off!
096 DONUTS
097 BALLS
098 acknowledgement for past goals and dedication to a company that WE and not YOU created
099 how about option triggers for us, too.
100 A cafeteria where we can bond more informally and get some healthy food
101 Bring back bad-attitude (or a version of it) so that we don't have to come to the Presidio to have this discussion...
102 why didn't everyone who worked on Twister get gifts, it wasn't only done by the engineers, Customer Support are still picking up the pieces of Twister
103 some bow ties
104 yes, really. more stock for old eGroups people. and fess up on the e staff bonus
105 Continue with the detailed communication of EStaff (i.e. via Email). Go Michael !!! Continue meetings with everyone.
106 A fair employee compensation structure to fix past inequity.
107 A *YELL MEETING* WHERE CROSS DEPT' COMMUNICATION FLOWS IN A NO-HOLDS BARRED MANNER
108 creme-savers@egroups.com
109 It is probably hard to attract coordinators. As they do more inside sales, there should be commissions/incentives on business that they generate for the account managers.
110 why were we so aggressive on Twister when post-Twister clean is impacting our business far more severely than taking extra time....at this pace we're on track to fall on our face in 6 months
111 How about an acknowledgment of Jeff Winner's substantial contributions? What happened?
112 We need to be monetarily compensated for jobs well done, not just a pat on the back.
Money talks Bullshit Walks
113 What's up with the discrepancy in number of options between estaff and rest of employees? Can we give ourselves some more shares?
114 Stop diluting our options by issuing more for themselves.
115 A satellite office where I can park and not deal with the Financial District.
116 Final resolution of the Release Process, thanks :-)
117 How about a management training program - teach us how to dodge questions, too.
118 clarity.
119 Acknowledgement that current low morale can no longer simply be attributed to "normal merger reaction" - Morale is bad because employees have no confidence, don't feel valued, and don't enjoy coming to work every day. Do something about it, don't just try to placate us. Also, please acknowledge that the average employee has much better ideas and knows more about the business than anyone on the exec staff?
What is the corporate equivalent of a "no confidence" vote?
120 You want a gift for Twister and you aren't in Engineering? Talk to your manager and VP, ours is Kewl.
121 Better promotion and advertising. We need to bring people to the site.
122 Jeff Winner? Are you smoking crack?
123 I agree that the eGroups founders left a mess behind that needs to be cleaned up -- employee expectations, morale, crappy code.
124 There are non-founders who left behind crappier code.
125 screw you 120
126 if anyone in the estaff is feeling uncomfortable about these questions, just imagine the entire staff naked. on second thought, that may be even more frightening...
127 what is an estaff anyway? aren't we all just emps at a company?
128 Make sure the Board of Directors sees all of these comments -- not that VCs care, anyway.
129 bring back bad-attitude - we already had a means to voice these concerns which was shut down without due cause.
130 A 40 Page Release Process can't possibly be long enough to actually capture the essence of our releases. We need more input!
131 Right before lunch, can we all stand up, link hands, and sing "We are the world"?
132 Tivo rules. Just wish we had gotten it before the weekend so we wouldn't have missed all our shows... :)
133 "There's a choice we're making... We're saving our own lives... It's true we make a better day, just you and me..."
134 for the record, when you answer these questions (grouped into themes if you like) please do the courtesy of answering all of them and circulating the answers to everyone rather than counting on us not remembering what the specific questions were...


The following notes were taken during group discussion:

Themes from "Beginnings"
----------------------------------------

• Compensation issues:
1) fair rewards for all?
2) disparity of compensation

• Fun! Environment ... physical space plus ? make it a fun place to work, good place to work and have fun

• Trust, collaboration, and open communication: a desire for teamwork & collaboration between various groups and geo's

• Better remembering of the good things ... and celebrate!