Hot off the presses

August 4, 2008 on 5:20 pm | In Business, Insider View, Jobs, Updates by Brett | 23 Comments

Earlier this year DreamHost was named as one of only twenty five companies worldwide to be recognized as having a democratic workplace by the WorldBlu Organization.

We\'re blu too.

What’s that mean? It means that we listen to our employees. It means we’re transparent in how we do things and why we do them. It means that, coincidentally, we’re also a great place to work!

Axiom News of Canada recently recognized our commitment to the democratic workplace in a three-part series.

NO OBJECTION!
E-meetings Engage all DreamHost Employees in Corporate Decision-Making

We really don’t have too many meetings around here. We use email lists. A lot. We don’t restrict employees from joining any list – in fact, we encourage it. If someone in tech support wants to listen in on our developers or system administrators, they’re welcome to do so! If anyone has a suggestion for system improvements, or a general comment about our operations, it shows up on an email list first.



Steppa Two!DreamHost’s Unique Profit-Sharing System Results in High Morale, Strong Retention

We’ve literally been giving our company away since the very beginning. Every DreamHost employee is issued units in the company. (Units are kind of like the equivalent of ’stock options’ for an LLC.) At most companies those options are sold to employees at a discount – but not at DreamHost. We just go ahead and GIVE them to our employees at no cost. Once you’ve been working here for a reasonable amount of time you’re actually made an owner of the company!



Have you ever searched for '3 fingers' on Google Image Search? DON'T.Flat Management Structure Promotes Productivity, Retention at DreamHost

There are no cubicles at DreamHost. Our open-door policy springs from our roots as a dot-com startup, when teams were small and titles were meaningless. Our teams have grown since then and we’re still not too big on titles, but one thing we haven’t done is closed the door on inter-company communication.


We’re honored to have been recognized by WorldBlu and Axiom News. It’s a good feeling to see people interested in promoting what we’ve considered to be basic business practices from day one.

DreamHost really is a great place to work, and we’re always on the lookout for new talent to add to our team. If any of what you’ve just read appeals to you, be sure to check out our open positions and send in your resume today!

23 Responses to “Hot off the presses”

  1. Sara Says:
    August 4th, 2008 at 10:06 pm

    Since Dreamhost is employee owned, does that help explain by the Private Servers are nearly 2x the price of other VPS?

    I say that with love :)

  2. Lee Says:
    August 4th, 2008 at 10:53 pm

    Man, I just wanted to take the tiny typing test but it won’t let me without actually applying for the job. Weak!

  3. db0 Says:
    August 5th, 2008 at 3:45 am

    Doggonit! When are you people going to open a European chapter in Germany?! All yout jobs are beyond the pond :(

  4. Al Says:
    August 5th, 2008 at 5:24 am

    Choose Holland ;-)

  5. Simon Jessey Says:
    August 5th, 2008 at 5:34 am

    I am going to make the same complaint I always make when one of you chaps does a job-related post. Why does a web company, that relies heavily on email and command line access, only employ support folk from the LA/Brea area? A company as forward-thinking and awesomely clever as DreamHost should be making use of telecommuting and employing people from just about everywhere.

  6. O Mon Says:
    August 5th, 2008 at 7:08 am

    This is why I’ve been hosting with DH for six years. Congrats on the recognition, it is well deserved for being truthful, honest and forthright with your customers… in times of peaceful bliss and in times of crazed chaos.

    Now open an office in Montreal dammit!

  7. Jeff Says:
    August 5th, 2008 at 9:06 am

    > A company as forward-thinking and awesomely clever as
    > DreamHost should be making use of telecommuting and
    > employing people from just about everywhere.

    Been there, done that. As great and forward-thinking as it may seem, it poses some very real challenges. There actually is some real benefit to working in physical proximity to co-workers – especially for Tech Support and Admin staff, which are the people we hire most often.

    Sure, you can communicate over email and the like, but you’re less likely to “soak up” knowledge when you’re away all the time (putting you out of the loop). While almost never have real meetings, per se, a lot of knowledge can be picked up during a game of Foos Ball or whatever.

    Plus, to be honest, the pool of qualified people in the Los Angeles, Orange County and Inland Empire areas is large enough to fill our needs for some time to come.

    That’s not to say that we don’t see value in telecommuting. A lot of people work from remote off and on during the week – giving them the advantage of being around enough to know what’s up while still burning less gas, spending less time in traffic, etc.

    FWIW, I worked from out of state for around two years ago in DreamHost’s early days. I’m glad I moved to SoCal.

    - Jeff @ DreamHost

  8. Simon Jessey Says:
    August 5th, 2008 at 12:54 pm

    > I’m glad I moved to SoCal.

    It’s a teeny bit more difficult for me, because I’m all the way over in Pennsylvania, and the wife and kids wouldn’t be all that happy if I was to bugger off to California. That would be a hell of a commute.

  9. Jeff Says:
    August 5th, 2008 at 2:50 pm

    > and the wife and kids wouldn’t be all that happy if I
    > was to bugger off to California.

    Yes, yes, but a man has to keep his priorities in mind, no?

    :)

    - Jeff @ DreamHost

  10. WTF Says:
    August 5th, 2008 at 4:12 pm

    Hope your employees realize that ownership also includes liability.. all you’re doing is spreading the liability risk from yourselves to your employees. Yup, I can see how much you care…

  11. WTF Says:
    August 5th, 2008 at 4:15 pm

    btw, are ‘DH units’ kind of like carbon credits? – that is, of no value whatsoever other than a stupid bit of paper for your employees to boast about. Of course, as mentioned already, the liability should things go south still applies doesn’t it.

  12. Jeff Says:
    August 5th, 2008 at 6:33 pm

    Someone care to take a moment and educate this guy on what the ‘LL’ in ‘LLC’ stands for?

    Thanks,

    - Jeff @ DreamHost

  13. dwr Says:
    August 5th, 2008 at 8:04 pm

    Well, the whole Tao Of Business that seems to be emerging from this venture would be a worthwhile case study that could serve as an example for an entirely new business structure paradigm… like, even more so than places like Google who get a decent amount of mainstream press on their “Daily Way” or whatever.

    The Google way has always struck me as a little too superficial, not REALLY rooted in a “vision”. But I think the Dreamhost way really is rooted from a true, holistic vision rather than just being “oh, we’ve got some stuff made of LEGOS at the office and we let the janitor do a rabbit shit experiment on his “special time”, which makes Google sound fun, but they are also sucking out their people’s souls in return.

    Dreamhost though, is from the ground up always putting forth some sort of moral stance… like, protection of your customer’s freedom of speech, and wanting your employees to actually have a fulfilling experience…

    It really, really, REALLY sucks ass that we have to have money to live, and that we must put forth great effort to attain it rather than just waking up and doing as we wish everyday. I applaud Dreamhost in their example of what the more standard paradigm SHOULD be… that of give your employees as MUCH as you can rather than as LITTLE as you can get away with. THAT’s wtf is wrong with our economy… the top assholes giving their “subjects” the minimum they possibly can and get away with it.

    It sounds to me like Dreamhost is an oasis in the desert of places to work, much like it is in hosting (moment of silence for the people of the Lovejoy / Sanjay tribe).

    My Father worked for 35 years in a real shithole. It was a really nice office in town and all, but the boss fit Hitlers psychological profile according to my Dad, who had read a book on the subject and knew. It was the most undemocratic workplace I have ever heard of… and the second was the last job I had (self employed now). He felt he had no choice but to do that job, because frankly, around here it was considered a great job, to support our family. I would loved for him to have been able to have a wonderful job like the ones it sounds like you have.

  14. Grey Hodge Says:
    August 5th, 2008 at 9:38 pm

    Simon: HA! I have you beat, the commute from Pittsburgh to LA is 300 miles shorter! WOOHOO!

  15. Baja Real Estate Says:
    August 6th, 2008 at 6:45 am

    I’ve been with DH for almost 8 years now and always seemed to be this way even before they got any awards. Congrats DH.

  16. GT Says:
    August 6th, 2008 at 9:23 am

    Per post #1:

    Sara,

    Take into account what VPS provides with DH vs. the competition.
    I know that you can possibly get more “measurable” product for the dollar with a VPS host. However I choose to stay with DH because their PS affords me the ability to have the ease of use of private hosting with the ‘burstability’ of a VPS.
    I on occasion use Slice Host accounts for certain tasks, but nothing beats the ‘easy’ way of doing things at the DH Panel.
    When I break something at Slice Host I have to figure out wtf I did. At DH, I can’t break stuff. From a straight value:features perspective it doesn’t make sense. But, from a value:benefits perspective it’s a good investment for me.

    A little about how I use PS. I have both a PS and MySQLPS “server”. The MySQL is set as low as it can go and the PS is at about 700 (though I could probably push it down to 500). It’s all php/perl stuff. Most of it written by me (so likely horribly inefficient/buggy/wrong) and of course the obligatory installations of Wordpress and a few others OSey scripts (not just one-click installs). What could I get for that expense at slicehost? It looks to me about twice as much RAM (at least). However, nowhere near the ease of use.
    The reality is that the ignorant pay more (ever charge a friend to host their “webpage”). I’m not ignorant of the price difference, I am ignorant of how to make slicehost as easy to use as DH.
    I’m actually pretty happy with my monthly bill from DH (previous sentence not applicable to DH employees).
    :)

    Just my .02 on the recent PS price blog-spam here.

  17. Annie Says:
    August 8th, 2008 at 12:30 pm

    side comment about the actual website-
    Love the new format!

    Kids + Photography + blatant 80’s gawky look = priceless.

    ~A teacher that scopes around for the “smart looking” kids.
    …(those kids on the site don’t look too promising, but oh well…)

    ::wink::

  18. Lozbo Says:
    August 8th, 2008 at 2:17 pm

    That is the kind of thing I like about DH.

    @dwr: I don’t think Google is that bad, actually I think it’s a great place to work, though I’ve never worked there, but it does seem fun to me..

  19. HansNL Says:
    August 8th, 2008 at 3:24 pm

    Watch out guys! You might be ending up like anarcho-syndicalists! Not that I would mind actually!

    I agree with 4. Al. Come to The Netherlands or anyway built a datacenter there. Eventually the quakes will get ya!

    Cheers HansNL

  20. Rachel Nabors Says:
    August 9th, 2008 at 5:28 am

    I love Dreamhost. I always bap my clients on the head and say, “Why aren’t you hosting with Dreamhost? Dreamhost is awesome! And their tech support is fast, friendly, and understanding!”

    No, seriously, now that I work on other people’s sites, I have learned just how slooooooow and passive aggressive some hosts can be about, well, stupid little things. My answer: getchoo a Dreamhost setup and leave that no-good husba–I mean host–of yours.

    I wish you had a job opening for something I’m qualified for!

    Rock on!

  21. Sean Serritella Says:
    August 9th, 2008 at 10:09 am

    I have to admit, DreamHost has been working very good as of late.

  22. zylox Says:
    August 9th, 2008 at 12:34 pm

    Wait … is thet own Datacenter mention in the latest Newsletter a joke, or not?

  23. Jon Says:
    August 20th, 2008 at 9:02 am

    Too bad your service sucks. Perhaps a communist hosting company would resolve filer issues before the 6 month mark. Who cares what your pee-ons think if they can’t do their jobs?

    Perhaps if you focused a little more on service and a little less on democracy, you wouldn’t have alienated so many people with unresolved issues.

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