Work at SEMCO

Everyone at SEMCO, even top managers, meets guests in reception, does the photocopying, sends faxes, types letters and dials the Phone. He let his workers take more responsibility so that they would be the ones worrying when things went wrong. He allowed them to set their own salaries, and he cut all the jobs he thought were unnecessary, like receptionists and secretaries. This saved money and brought more equality to the company.

'Everyone at SEMCO, even top managers, meets guests in reception, does the photocopying, sends faxes, types letters and dials the phone He completely reorganized the office: instead of walls, they have plants at SEMCO, so bosses can't shut themselves away from everyone else. And the workers are free to decorate their workspace as they want. As for uniforms, some people wear suits and others wear T-shirts.

Semler says, “We have a sales manager named Rubin Agater who sits there reading the newspaper hour after hour. He doesn't even pretend to be busy. But when a SEMCO pump on the other side of the world fails and millions of gallons of oil are about to spill into the sea, Rubin springs into action. He knows everything there is to know about our pumps and how to fix them. That's when he earns his salary, No one cares if he doesn't look busy the rest of the time”. SEMCO has flexible working hours; the employees decide when they need to arrive at work. The employees also evaluate their bosses twice a year. Also, SEMCO lets its workers use the company's machines for their own projects, and makes them take holidays for at least thirty days a year. It sounds perfect, but does it work? The answer is in the numbers: in the last six years, SEMCO’s revenues have gone from $35 million to $212 million. The company has grown from eight hundred employees to 3,000. Why?

Semler says it's because of peer pressure. Peer pressure makes everyone work hard for everyone else. lf someone isn't doing his job well, the other workers will not allow the situation to continue. In other words, Ricardo Semler treats his workers like adults and expects them to act like adults. And they do.

Oxford University Press, 2010

Vocabulary:

reception [ri'sεpʃn] – n. приемная

evaluate [i'væljυeit] - vb. оценивать

pressure ['prεʃə] - n. давление

pump [pʌmp] - n. насос