SP: English Study Group

source: http://www.bbc.com/news/business-37998577

Questions:

1. Do you think this way really makes you have greater will to go to work on time? What is the most attractive factor that could trigger your motivation to your work?

2. If you're the boss in your current company, what would you do to make your employees willing to come to work?

The article below is just a part of the original one, because the remaining part is not related to the disscusion.

There aren't many companies that insist staff start work every day at such an oddly specific time as Pivotal Software.

Employees at the US firm's 20 global offices all have to be at work and ready to go at exactly 9.06am.

At that precise time a cowbell is rung, or a gong is hit, and all workers gather for a brief stand-up meeting that lasts for between five and 10 minutes.

Then the firm's programmers hit their computers, with no other meetings or distractions for the rest of the day.

Pivotal's founder and chief executive Rob Mee says it is all about making the working day as efficient as possible.

"I realised that programmers, if left to their own devices, may roll in at 10am," he says. "And if they haven't eaten adequately they will be hungry by 11am, so they'll stop for food, which then makes the afternoon too long. It is not very efficient.

"So we thought, 'let's provide breakfast for everyone.' It gives them a reason to get here."

So all employees get a free breakfast before work starts at 9.06am.

But why 9.06am? "We thought that if we made it 9am, developers psyching themselves up for the day would think, 'well if it is 9am I'll be late,'" says Mr Mee.

"So then we thought, 'why don't we make it 9.05am,' but that is too precise, as programmers don't like over-optimising, so we went with 9.06am. Then it became something fun."

Start on time, finish on time

And at the end of the day everyone has to leave the office at 6pm sharp because staff aren't allowed to work into the evening.

Mr Mee explains the reasoning: "Programmers don't programme well if they are too tired, so we don't want them working late into the night."

While Pivotal's approach to morning punctuality may seem endearingly nerdish, the business is in fact one of the most successful companies most people have never heard of.

Valued at $2.8bn (£2.4bn), its investors include computer groups Dell Technologies and Microsoft, conglomerate General Electric, and car giant Ford.