“I realised that programmers, if left to their own devices, may roll in at 10am,” he says.

“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.’”

He needed a little more leeway, but a starting time of 9.05am on the nose felt too rigidly precise – whereas 9.06am seemed “fun”.

Mr Mee was also thinking of their stomachs. Lazier programmers who turned up around 10am would also often have missed breakfast. This meant they would be hungry by 11am and take an early lunch, leaving them with an interminably long working afternoon ahead. So he decided to provide breakfast as an extra incentive to get in to the office on time.

The company’s approach to punctuality may seem nerdy, but Pivotal Software is in fact a highly successful company, valued at 20bn RMB. And Pivotal is not alone: Silicon Valley has long been associated with an alternative working culture. Google has ‘nap pods’ and meditation classes, while Netflix offers a year’s paid parental leave. 

词汇表 leisurely 悠闲放松的

early bird 早到的人，早起的人

at the crack of dawn 破晓之时，一大早

kick-off （活动）开始

nose to the grindstone 长时间用功干活

steam (on) through 不间断、精神集中地工作

sharp 准时地

down tools 停止工作

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