3y
We're sorry to hear you are having a bad experience at Astranis. We believe 55 hours is a reasonable, and industry standard, expectation at a startup. Some people are looking for more of a 9-5 job, and that's ok. But those people are not a good fit for Astranis.
We set this as an explicit expectation when we realized that there was a fundamentally unfair situation at Astranis. With some members of the team putting in heroic efforts far in excess of 55 hours a week, while some other members of the team were working significantly less than 55 hours. By setting this expectation across the company we have been able to provide relief to some of our hardest working team members.
We do think it is important to correct the record here on one point — there is no expectation that all working hours must be done in the office, as the above post implies. There are exceptions but the requirement at Astranis for most positions is 3 days per week in the office, and many members of the team work a hybrid work schedule.
We are doing incredibly important things at Astranis that will have a huge and immediate impact. If we are successful then by the end of next year millions of people in some of the most underserved parts of the globe will have broadband internet thanks to Astranis satellites. Unfortunately, space is an incredibly unforgiving environment. If we don't work extremely hard then we will not succeed, letting down our customers and the people around the world who are relying on Astranis to bring them internet access. So we all make the decision every day to work extremely hard, and we are very proud of our team for being so dedicated and willing to step up. We believe they will be incredibly rewarded for it — financially through their equity in Astranis, for their career through the experiences and skills they gain in a once in a lifetime opportunity, and in terms of satisfaction knowing that they're making a real meaningful difference in people's lives. Again, that tradeoff isn't for everyone, and we encourage anyone who feels that they are more well-suited for a 9-5 environment to seek employment elsewhere.
We care deeply about employee satisfaction and team morale, which is why we are investing heavily in supporting our team and preventing burnout. We are always open to suggestions on how to best do that. If you would like to meet up 1:1 to offer ideas in this regard or discuss, I'm happy to do that.
