The World’s Best Workplace

How built-in culture helps DAOs blur the line between work and play.

Unless you’re secretly a billionaire — or Elon Musk — you probably want to work at your dream job one day (read: every day).

There are a few challenges with doing that.

1. You’ll have to figure out what your dream job is, which is a little more challenging than it sounds.
2. When you’ve figured out your dream job — and you might’ve guessed this — finding that place and getting hired for the role you want is a LOT more challenging than it sounds.

I’ve always known that I didn’t have it in me to work a toxic full-time job.

I also know that those sorts of jobs permeate Nigeria’s job market, giving workers fewer good options than they deserve.

Being able to pick the sort of jobs I work at is a privilege I am forever grateful for; most of my working life has been with amazing companies and organizations with kind, caring coworkers.

Good for me, right? Why should you care?

Well…

*With epic storyteller dramaticism*

I found the one place where you will ALWAYS love your job.

I’ve discovered the world’s best workplace, guaranteed to make you laugh, cry (good tears), and scream to the skies that you’re the happiest person on Earth.

The World’s Best Workplace: Web2 vs. Regen DAOs

First off, “Web2” is a fancy way of referring to the internet as we know it. Big tech companies control the platforms and tools we use every day — from Google’s search engine to Meta’s suite of social apps to the app you’re reading this article on.

They own the platforms. They make the rules.

This contrasts starkly with “Web3,” which uses peer-to-peer technology to let people access anything on the internet without giving up power to one person.

The next thing you want to know about is the meaning of “DAO.” A DAO is a community of people working on Web3 who prefer to be autonomous.

They don’t like big tech owning all the most used internet software, and they don’t want to follow rules that may not be in their best interests as users.

“DAO” is an acronym for Decentralised Autonomous Organisation:

• “Decentralised” = “There isn’t one person in charge. Everyone can be in charge.”
• “Autonomous” = “We make our own rules.”
• The word organization shares that it’s not a company but a group of people aligned to one goal.

There are hundreds of DAOs, and each one is creating projects that help you do anything from save the environment to travel luxuriously.

Here’s the last thing you should know.

“Regen,” aka regenerative, means a lot of things. Their sum is “practices that use Web3 to improve the world for everyone’s benefit.”

Therefore, a Regen DAO is a decentralized, autonomous organization that uses Web3 to improve the world for everyone’s benefit.

I mentioned earlier that, on Web2, the people who own the platform make the rules. That can be a bad thing, and here’s an example from my life.

In early 2020, I applied to volunteer with a large org working on a cause I care deeply about.

My role was at the grassroots level — I would interact directly with the kids we were helping through the organization’s key program, report to directors in my region (community leaders I looked up to), and help reach more young participants.

I was stoked.

… for all of two weeks.

Barely a fortnight after I joined, the org was draining me. I got near midnight calls and messages from program participants (I didn’t sign up for these, but someone needed to take them) and was pressured into working as late as 3 am on tasks assigned to my team.

I was burning out.

Fast.

On top of all this, I had life and online school to think about, but the org didn’t have a system to let me reduce my hours or share my needs, and my only other teammate was even more burnt out than I was.

The most stressful part of the endeavor — and the one that made me quit first thing in the morning after a crying, screaming breakdown at 2 a.m. in my mother’s dining room — was that the deadlines were unachievable for anyone but Kyle XY.

I had come into the org wanting to use excellent marketing to further the cause but rarely had time to think of my personal social content goals, much less post anything for them.

Our manager was toxic. They beat volunteers down verbally and then gaslit workers into thinking of the verbal abuse as “constructive feedback.” This manager’s superior communicated with and deferred to them in all things, so volunteers had no one to turn to.

I quit. Obviously.

But that situation could have been so much better. You’ll find the key problems from that story in almost every company at various levels of solved-ness. Let’s call them the Workplace Ruinators.

Workplace Ruinator #1

I couldn’t do the work I actually wanted.

During recruiting, it’s essential to be sure the person being hired cares about (and enjoys) the things they’ll be doing.

Take Cal, for example. (Cal is our gender-neutral example of a worker or candidate throughout the rest of this article.)

Cal isn’t able to do the work they want to do for a couple of reasons.

Reason One

The hiring company or recruiter didn’t understand or explain the full scope and requirements.

You can’t explain nuances you don’t know about to a potential hire, so Cal began their new role and was immediately blindsided by work they thought wasn’t their responsibility.

Sucks for you, Cal.

You sort of hate your job. But not really.

I haven’t encountered a regen DAO with this problem because most DAO models work using “contributors” instead of “hires.”

A contributor has more role flexibility than a hire ever can from the get-go. In most cases, you can look at what a DAO is doing and contribute if it appeals to you.

Then you choose how you want to contribute. The DAO may pay you per project, with a salary, a stipend, or a mix of each, depending on how it operates.

What happens if you change your mind about how you want to contribute?

You switch it up. Contributors tackle a problem or provide a needed service within a DAO: You’re golden as long as you can help.

Workplace Ruin averted.

Reason Two

Cal thought they could suck it up.

Cal might apply to roles around (or far from) their area of interest, thinking something like:

• “I don’t really like aspect A of this job, but I’ll do it anyway because I need the money/I need the experience/I want to work with my hero or this company I like.”
• “This may be too hard for me to do, but I’ll apply anyway (insert above reasoning).

That might work out.

But, it might also backfire spectacularly — harming both Cal and the company they now work with.

The worst teammates or employees I’ve had didn’t want (or weren’t able) to do their responsibilities. They came on board with lots of energy (or an okay amount of energy) and were committed to their tasks. Of course, they made mistakes, but mistakes are expected — and easily forgiven when other teammates can help or provide guidance.

Then they stopped. Stopped making correctable mistakes (which is a BIG problem) or stopped asking questions and giving the “I like this job” energy that moves the needle and does innovative things that make stuff work.

I call this Zombified-Worker Syndrome (ZWS).

Having to do work you dislike is a direct cause of ZWS.

Coworkers with ZWS can stall work or make significant oversights. Whether their role is developer, designer, manager, marketer, recruiter, analyst, or something else, that's problematic.

How does this situation play out if Cal contributed to a regen DAO?

…It doesn’t.

Not every regen DAO operates with contributors alone. But when they do, you’re asking for a specific role in a project you’re genuinely psyched about, so you don’t have to deal with aspects of the job that make you go “eek.”

In regen DAOs, work is not assigned. You ask for it or are invited. (Invited here is an actual invite. None of that passive-aggressive, “We’re pretending you have a choice” stuff.)

And, if you’re on a project where you like some of the work — but not all of it — there’s almost always going to be a contributor eager to help by doing the thing you dislike.

All DAOs promote a fast, collaborative, “make it happen” culture. Picture yourself in that environment: a contract or full-time worker doing work you don’t like or cannot excel at.

Regen DAO leaders and other collaborators are glad (read: completely understanding and happy) to take such work off your hands.

Workplace Ruin (and ZWS) averted.

Workplace-Ruinator #2

It just wasn’t a good place to work.

Let’s assume Cal avoids all instances of workplace ruinator one, arriving at their new role with boundless energy, stoked to make good things happen.

Then they get a manager like the one I had.

They’ll dull their energy a little if they're anything like me: with a boss like this, shining too bright will get you burned.

They’re still excited. They do the work and push the envelope, but it feels like working in a vacuum.

Can they have fun at work? No. Do they feel like they can easily communicate with their manager? Definitely not. Can they share their ideas without anxiety? Never. Do they get healthy, constructive feedback? No. How about recognition for their work? No again? This job sucks!

That’s an environment that’ll stifle anyone, no matter how much you enjoy the work you do. Staying in toxic workplaces has potentially long-term effects on employees, affecting their work quality and mental health.

It does suck. For everyone. The company loses out on innovation and above-the-bar service, and Cal loses out on any fulfillment, confidence, or pride they would have felt from their work.

Another way a great workplace can become a horrid one is by not fostering inclusion. When Cal is free to bring their entire genderqueer, colored, or (*insert other marginalized identities that bosses should stop ignoring*) self to work, they are more confident, more creative, and generally a better team member.

How does this situation play out in a Regen DAO?

On having fun at work: Web3 is meme culture at its best. Regen web3 is even better: Everyone appreciates the value of a workplace where all contributors feel valued, accepted, and heard. And, like GitcoinDAOs Memeapalooza event, everyone has fun.

On communicating with managers and sharing ideas without anxiety: DAO contributors in leadership are paradigms of this culture; using a “Yes, and” mentality when faced with new ideas, facilitating collaboration, and ensuring everyone is aware of the resources available to them. DreamDAO co-founder Gary Sheng is a great example:

Gary’s reflections while learning in public.

Leaders like Sean Mannis of Gitcoin’s MMM (Merch, Memes, and Marketing) workstream push for workplace innovation that makes it easy to get constructive feedback and recognition from your peers and do work that fits in your life.

Sounds fantastic.

On inclusion and diversity

I can’t 100% say that every Regen DAO does its best to make a workplace that is openly inclusive. However, they do create environments that scorn prejudice and marginalization. They also create environments where anyone feels encouraged to propose a project changing things that may make people feel unsafe to be themselves.

Most importantly, all this is decentralized. Everyone gets a say in who leads, how they lead, and what they do. Gitcoin founder Kevin Owocki puts it best when he says, “The consent of the governed is the only legitimate basis for government.”

Final Thoughts

Doing work you genuinely love should be easier than it is today. As humans, we should only have to do work stuff that we actually enjoy in workplaces that make it easy to be happy.

I found these sorts of workplaces as an independent editor at Craft Your Content and a writer at Coin Central, both Web2-native companies.

It’s not impossible. It’s just easier when you work in regen Web3.

Things to note:

1. If you’re a manager at a traditional web2 company, consider that your team members (and company) will benefit from applying some principles in this post.
2. If you’re like me, looking for the world’s best workplaces, consider contributing to a regen DAO. Here’s how to contribute to GitcoinDAO, where I work.
3. If you do not consider anything I’ve shared, please consider avoiding situations that lead to Zombified-Worker Syndrome. You deserve better.

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