For over 10 years, we didn’t have a handbook. In those 10 years, when a new person joined the company, they were expected to figure things out for themselves. But when we grew from a company of 10, 20, 30 employees to a company of over 50, our “introduction by immersion” style stopped working. New hires felt lost and isolated, and their first weeks or even months on the job were stressful because of it
Great stuff, especially the fact that it’s in the open. It might now be as mindblowing like Valve’s Handbook for new Employees, but it also gets the job done.
Take the section Titles for programmers for example. With this, every employee in the company has the same definition for – and can distinguish – junior/senior/lead/principal programmers, and are talking about the very same thing. It’s very important to name things, and to define what exactly they are. Otherwise they’ll lead to confusion, misunderstanding, and eventually a grudge or the like.