PHOTO: COURTESY OF PATAGONIA
Employees Who March To Their Own Music
Yes, Let My People Go Surfing is a memoir of Patagonia’s mountain-climbing founder, Yvon Chouinard. But the 2005 book is also a heartfelt plea for capitalism, ethics, and fun to coexist in the workplace. The privately held Ventura (Calif.) clothing company lets employees take breaks if the surf is good or a fresh snowfall creates an immediate desire to ski; the weather won’t wait, but the work usually can.
Chouinard firmly believes that smart, capable employees know how to get their work done and can judge the rhythms of their day without constant monitoring. This conviction has less to do with work-life balance than with the acknowledgment that work flow and passions are unique to each person. He’s also acutely attuned to preserving the planet’s resources, even inserting notes in Patagonia catalogs asking customers to buy only what they need. It’s a philosophy that resonates in an age of global networks, round-the-clock communications, and growing evidence that the earth is straining under the excesses of human behavior.