Maybe the boss is a Hitler or a micro-manager sort. I bet, all you guys hate him!

The best way to motivate the employees is to trust them. It’s not a good idea to have HR managers who red-slip people when they show up late. What about the all nighters that you guys put? Does your HR reward those people?

As a startup, you make employees as the owners of the business (through stock options or whatever) they are working for and put them in-charge. That way they know that when they are slacking around, they are causing their own business harm. …. And ofcourse people will have to love what they do, that way they’ll never slack.

start ups have a diff culture. you work hard, you play hard. if that is the case, then its ok i reckon. a regular 9-5week mindset does not apply.

Yeah, thats where the problem is you see. The culture is just tooo laid back… totally unlike a real start up.

This is the classical case when there is no ownership given to employees. If one is made an owner of the process he or she handle and is adequately empowered, the situatio of the cat and mice is reduced to a large extent.

Plus, its also a factor of the average age group of the office.

i didnt think start up folk took vacations…

Ngyaahaha (LOL) I will love to work in such an office. But alas…

Be it a startup or a big company, you will find at least 20% people who would want to digress from their work once the boss is away. Some people work just because they want to impress their boss or they are afraid of him. So not having him/her around is like a free playground for them.

If your startup has people who want to digress from their work once the boss is away, then you’ve hired the wrong guys. The best idea would be to either fire them all, or shutdown that business and do something else.

A startup is typically started by a very small team of passionate people and then they get on the quest to find like minded people to join their team and work with the same passion on the ideas. It’s not at all about slacking at work. If that happens, then you are SOL.

well, it also comes down to this… people work differently. I am an exceptionally hard worker, but to others there are times when I appear to be slacking. And just because someone stays at office till 9 PM every night does not make them productive. (more often than not those people are not working very hard unless there is some pressing deadline. as a matter of fact, those that put in more than a 10 hour day are doing a major disservice to their companies).

People used to think I was a slacker cause I left office every day at 5 sharp. They did not realize when they were sound asleep at 8 AM I was already at office taking advantage of the quiet to do in 2 hours what might take then 5. and I take calculated mental breaks. which means that because I value my personal time, I am able to really really concentrate on the task at hand and apply myself. But you start taking away my weekends and my evenings on a consistent basis and my productivity level will go down.

people need to understand how to work smarter and be more productive in a given timeframe, not necessarily work more hours.

I am the boss of a startup, i trust my employees, but to an extent. If i am not there, i always assign time-bound tasks to them, as long as they are done by the time i get back, who cares how you spend your days.

besides having CCTVs installed in office does give that omnipresent BigBrother thing going.

Office Starts at 9:30 ?
Wow.
Can I send you my resume ? Hate getting to work at 7:30 everyday.

Oh, and you said it is a small startup and yet you have an HR manager. Is this common for such startups ?
Just curious, have been out of touch.