Goterra CEO Olympia Yarger said there is no work-life balance in a climate crisis. Oscar Colman
Mr Joffe, who came to Australia after selling two start-ups in the US, said Australian start-up culture lacked the competitive drive that pushed overseas outfits to success. He recently inked Australia’s third-largest series A raise, and said the smaller local market can prove more attractive to build a start-up than the US.
He was reacting to comments made by Canva founder Cliff Obrecht earlier this month, that he had a “wartime” approach to staff in weeding out poor performers, comparing the task of building an exceptional company to elite performers in sports.
But the start-up “hustle” trope will soon be tested by the introduction of right to disconnect laws that come in from August 26, apart from small businesses, and will give workers the right to be out of contact with the office outside work hours.
Employees will be able to ignore calls, emails or messages from their bosses after work hours where reasonable, without fear of punishment. The right extends to ignoring messages from third parties, such as customers and suppliers,
Mr Joffe was joined in his disdain for such ideas by Goterra founder and CEO Olympia Yarger. Goterra is a Canberra-based start-up that grows fly larvae and uses them to convert food waste into protein and fertiliser, it works with customers including Woolworths.
She said her company had to be tough in terms of only keeping staff who were helping the business grow, and had “got rid of the idea” that they had to keep staff forever.
“The more traditional approach to work-life balance doesn’t exist at Goterra. We believe we’re in a climate crisis, and you don’t take work-life balance during a climate crisis,” Ms Yarger said.
“That’s an upfront conversation we have with staff, so we’re attracting the sort of people who want that kind of work environment.
“It’s difficult in Australia, particularly, because work-life balance is a thing (here). But I think it’s become a bit of a beast we can’t control. If you challenge the idea of work-life balance, that suggests you have no consideration for your staff.”
Other speakers at the Summit were less strident in their views on the need for staff to share the same entrepreneurial fervour as their company’s founders.
Behavioural and organisational psychology expert Jemma King, the founder of BioPsychAnalytics, said it is easier for company founders to “grind” than employees, because they are in control and experience the biggest benefits.
“If you’re engaged in a vocation or a business that you love, and you’re passionate about, you can work for 14 hours straight and don’t even feel it,” she said.
“But if you’re grinding away on something like meal management, [you get] the sandwich stress, where you don’t have autonomy over your decisions, it’s not your business. That’s where the stress is at because there’s not that input-in-reward-out equation.”
Founder of wellness and recovery centre business Recoverie, Stephen Hoiles, said company founders needed to be more understanding of the different perspective of their employees.
“As founders, we put everything in. It’s everything that we’re going for. [For] employees, it’s a bit different. We’ve got to understand they’ve got lives away from your little start-up,” he said.