Workplace Experiments  Image credit:   Web application design
firm 37signals is spending 2008 running workplace experiments in
an attempt to make their office "one of the best places in the
world to work, learn, and generally be happy." Their first
experiment:  Shorter work weeks    So recently we've instituted
a four-day work week as standard. We take Fridays off. We're
around for emergencies, and we still do customer service/support
on Fridays, but other than that work is not required on Fridays.
In addition, they've tried "funding people's passions" by
playing for employees' personal hobbies (the example they give
is funding flying lessons), as well as "discretionary spending
accounts" -- credit cards that are at the employees' discretion
to use for books, software, conferences, or whatever they think
is important. As they say, "We'd rather trust people to make
reasonable spending decisions than assume people will abuse the
privilege by default." What an enlightened idea.  So here's the
question: what's