#work-culture

#work-culture

When your sixty-something mother says she's too tired to visit this weekend, or your recently retired father spends entire afternoons on the couch, it's tempting to wonder if they've just given up. We live in a culture that equates worth with productivity, so when older adults slow down, we often misread exhaustion as laziness or lack of motivation. But here's what we're missing: that bone-deep tiredness isn't a character flaw.

Even before he'd graduated from the University of Bath in 2024, Arnau Ayerbe landed a highly coveted role as an AI engineer with JP Morgan - yet he felt limited and uninspired. "I realised very quickly that the person to my right and to my left were going to be me in 20 years, and I didn't want to become that," recalls London-based Ayerbe.

It's been a week since we announced Divinity, our next RPG, and a lot has become lost in translation. Larian's DNA is agency. Everything we work towards is to the benefit of our teams, games, and players. A better work day, and a better game. Our successes come from empowering people to work in their own way and bring the best out of their skill & craft, so that we can make the best RPGs we can possible make.

For years, the prevailing theory amongst workers about "unlimited vacation" is that it actually encourages workers to take less time off. Without the entitlement to a set number of days, employees can feel awkward requesting days off, or worried that doing so will make them look less committed to work. But a new study from payroll and HR platform Deel finds it's less about specific PTO policies than about culture. It all depends on where you live, says Lauren Thomas, the startup's economist.

A 36-hour work sprint at xAI? Cue the applause from colleagues. Elon Musk's companies have long been known for their intensive work cultures. During Tesla's production ramps, some employees slept in their cars or, in Musk's case, on the factory floor. When Musk took over Twitter, he said to embrace an "extremely hardcore" schedule or be laid off. At xAI, one employee recently said that they worked for a day and a half straight, sparking responses from their colleagues - and Musk himself.

Two millennia ago, Aristotle distinguished between a life lived in pursuit of pleasure, which brings temporary satisfaction, and a life lived according to reason, virtue, and the pursuit of goals, which leads to true happiness. Therapeutic approaches of today tend to agree with Aristotle that fleeting pleasures aren't enough to make us happy and that a subjective sense of well-being stems largely from the way we live our lives.

We're a team of problem solvers,

Nair found the interview process at both companies to be "fairly similar," he said, with strong emphasis on problem-solving, coding skills, and system design. "Each company evaluated candidates for both technical expertise and cultural fit," Nair said, through four to five technical interviews and then a cultural-fit assessment. However, he found Google's technical interview process to be the hardest out of the Big Tech companies he's interviewed at.

Many startups in the US are adopting the '996' work schedule, a demanding 72-hour week, becoming widespread despite its controversial reputation and ties to worker exploitation in China.

Germans are cliched as hard-working, efficient, and just a touch humourless, while the French are widely seen as more interested in having a good lunch and a long holiday.

Many in the design industry have been inspired by design leaders who created environments that enabled their teams to succeed, grow, and make a positive impact. However, many of our peers, clients, and colleagues have been frustrated, burned out, and held back by leadership, which can have more negative effects.

"We made the choice because we didn't want to have a 'proper' job. Using your brain to make something fun and put it into the world is a nice way to spend your time."

I didn't expect to feel relieved when I got laid off. I've found the work fulfilling, but around five years ago I began to reconsider my role.

"I’m still here because I really like the work and enjoy being busy. I’m not someone who can just sit around. Most of my friends are retired, but they say they wish they had worked longer."

The coworking environment in Melbourne is notable for its unique combination of style, cultural richness, and a sense of community.

These snapshots capture the people behind the work, reminding us what real hustle used to look like.

Platforms like Fiverr and Upwork empower side giggers to pursue meaningful work, gain recognition, and explore passions, helping them find fulfillment outside their main job.

From the earliest office days in the 1900s to bulky computers in the 1980s, these photos show just how much office life has changed over the years.

Even in the most permissive workplace where a tolerance for the pesky coworker's antics is high, what eventually happens is that this coworker will keep pressing their luck until their violations become outright absurd.

As a certified workman I can safely answer this question, we take naps, we eat all our veggies, and we always listen to our mothers.