“If everyone had the luxury to pursue a life of exactly what they love, we would all be ranked as visionary and brilliant. … If you got to spend every day of your life doing what you love, you can’t help but be the best in the world at that. And you get to smile every day for doing so. And you’ll be working at it almost to the exclusion of personal hygiene, and your friends are knocking on your door, saying, “Don’t you need a vacation?!,” and you don’t even know what the word “vacation” means because what you’re doing is what you want to do and a vacation from that is anything but a vacation — that’s the state of mind of somebody who’s doing what others might call visionary and brilliant.”

Employee Handbooks You Can Smile About

2011-culture-bookWe wrote a guest article on Zen Payroll’s blog about the new Employee Handbooks that companies are putting out these days, how they differ from the handbooks of old, and when companies should think about getting either one of them.

Here’s how the article starts…

Traditionally, employee handbooks have been snooze-inducing legal documents crafted or at least reviewed by a lawyer with the goal of protecting an employer from lawsuits and fines. But the definition of an employee handbook is expanding. Recently, companies have begun using employee handbooks in a different way: to define and publish their company culture for employees and recruits alike. These culture handbooks set the tone for interactions throughout a company and paint a picture of what new employees can expect upon joining. So when do handbooks matter to you, and which kind should you have? Depending on your company’s size, you may have one, both, or none.

Check out the full article on Zen Payroll’s blog.

Photo credit: This is Zappo’s 2011 Culture Book.

“Company culture is like a balloon: each new employee breathes fresh life into it, but one prick can pop the whole thing.”

Our founder, Tom O’Dea, from our upcoming blog post on when to care about employee handbooks.