Why does Yahoo attract the best and the brightest?

The little things.

Does your company do the little things?

I’ve worked at two startups who had foosball tables and we (the software engineers) loved every minute of it. There’s nothing better than relieving some stress with a quick game of foos. Unfortunately the powers that be at both companies decided it was ‘a waste of time’ and took it away. (Although we still had Unreal Tournament, shhh). Why are things like this so important to us, and by us I mean all knowledge workers?

It’s a proven fact that people need breaks throughout the day. It seems that ‘old school’ thinkers have the idea that a loss of productivity occurs when their workers aren’t at their desk or their code monkeys aren’t face first in code. Well, they are wrong. Frequent breaks allows your mind to rest and often times sparks ideas. I’ve solved many problems over a game of foos because it allows you to clear your mind for new ideas to enter.

As a developer, how many times have you thought of a solution to a problem on your drive home from work? I know I have many times. It’s because you had a chance to clear your mind and get away from that daunting monitor and lines of code.

What else does a game of foos do? It creates a fun atmosphere. We used to have ongoing contests where the losing team after a week of play had to buy some barley pops for the winning team at the local watering hole. It’s fun to have fun, especially at work. It’s a morale boost. It takes your mind off of work and lets you have a moment to relax during the day.

So, to all you CEO’s and managers out there - let your employees have a little fun every day. I guarantee you will see a boost in productivitiy, even though your nerds aren’t at their desk all day.

“Foosball is an old tradition at Yahoo!. All of our offices around the world have at least one table. This wasn’t your father’s foos tournament — we have some formidable players around here. We’re talking wristbands, sweat towels, and strict enforcement of U.S. Table Soccer Association regulations (e.g., no banging the five rod).”

Foosapalooza! - Yodel Anecdotal

UPDATE: Just ran across this through Lifehacker - 10 seeeeeriously cool workplaces

UDPATE: I swore I’d never work for a large company but I’ve been following Yahoo’s internal blog and am genuinely impressed with their operation. It seems like a great environment to work in. So I’d make an exception to them - if they called me and offered me a product manager spot I’d definitely pack up and head west.

technorati tags:foosapalooza, yahoo, fun, work