Putting employees first actually makes a big difference

One of the things that constantly comes up in interviews with job candidates is what it is like to work at Grappetite. Things that came up in recent interviews were the way we put all our employees on our website, how we tell employees to go home instead of asking them to stay late, how we’ve flattened out much of the hierarchy in our company, and how our evaluations are times to focus on growth instead of simply identifying failures. I love seeing the candidates' responses and boasting about the people who work for us.

It is easy in this ‘dog to eat dog’ world to question what we do. How do we compete if we’re not constantly pushing and getting every bit of value out of our employees? What happens when projects fall behind and deadlines need to be met? The Grappetite difference to me is that the people who work here truly enjoy what they do and this company is not just an organization, or a team, but a family. I am amazed, humbled, and honored every time a developer asks to take a computer home or each time a designer says “may I do some editing later and send it to you?” I know that they actually do it to save managers like me. They know I will have to deal with a missed deadline or an unhappy client and they want to help ease the load. The power of caring, of selflessness, and wanting to help the team out trumps the forced labor of some of our competitors. It’s this attitude and dedication that I love and value in our company. 

It’s remarkable how this actually works, in recent months our management has actually tried harder to get people home on time. To make sure employees get to rest on the weekends. Our management values time with our families and thus there is the value placed on employees and their families. We feel that rested and refreshed people work twice as well as overworked and over-pushed ones. At the same time, I’ve seen more and more buy-in from our team, more dedication to get things done. We are not only starting to plan better, but also seeing a genuine interest in making our apps a success and our clients happy. I have learned a lot in the last year of being at Grappetite, but one of the biggest things I’ve learned and appreciate most is that if you treat people like family, they treat you like family. That might be why our employees have started to talk not just about our company but about the Grappetite Family.