How TalkJS built a no-nonsense working culture - by removing benefits

That’s the counterintuitive lesson TalkJS, a leading chat API provider, learned after stripping away traditional benefits and processes in favor of autonomy and impact.

• Instead of adding more ‘stuff’, cutting perks and processes actually makes space for meaningful work.
• Employees often prefer autonomy over perks. A free book budget sounds nice, but wouldn’t most people rather have the equivalent in salary?
• Egbert Teeselink, co-founder of TalkJS, says: “Foosball tables are a terrible predictor for a fulfilling job. If the job is the most fun when you’re not working, you’ve got a pretty big problem. Wouldn’t it be better to ensure that the actual job is fun, instead of providing distractions?”

Drawing on over a decade of experience, Teeselink explains how a focus on autonomy and impact can help you build a positive work culture. Below, he outlines three steps to a no-nonsense work culture.

1. Cut the clutter

Most companies, as they grow, begin to accumulate more ‘stuff’: more management and more formal processes. Initially, this may seem necessary, but an abundance of principles and procedures can be stifling. It doesn’t have to be that way.

TalkJS, like most companies, started out with pretty little stuff. But so far, it’s only gotten less, not more. Teeselink explains: “We kept cutting things out. By now, TalkJS is a company with no deadlines, no mandatory meetings, no fixed working hours, and no bosses giving you tasks.”

Chris Meyns, Technical Writer at TalkJS explains how employees structure their day: “There are no set daily or weekly meetings, but people will post about what they're working on, or might want to collaborate on with someone. The only recurring meeting the team sometimes does is a retrospective (a leftover from the days the team did Scrum), and then there are one-off, small-scale calls to coordinate on specific tasks.

“Through monitoring the product itself, the product landscape, and customer feedback, the team will collectively identify new features to develop or improvements to make - those ideas get suggested, evaluated, and planned through messaging as well.”

Action step: Remove processes and interruptions that can obstruct workers’ ability to do their best work.

2. Build a self-organizing team

Teeselink warns that cutting out processes and ‘stuff’ on its own won’t automatically bring success, you also need to get people with the right mindset on board. He explains: “TalkJS consists of people who move the fastest when they’re not held back by process. People who don’t need to be told what’s the most important thing to do right now (and who know to ask if they’re not sure). People who prefer to dive deep and emerge victorious.”

Action step: Hire and retain driven, self-organizing people who thrive when working autonomously.

3. Fewer perks, more worker control

You might initially be thrilled if your company provides a free book budget, gym membership, and computer budget. But think about it: Would you be willing to trade salary for all of those fancy perks? Unlikely. These perks could have been money to freely spend on anything, instead of on a predetermined list.

Teeselink argues that it’s not an employer’s business to tell a worker how to spend their life: “If you want to spend all your money on booze and World of Warcraft swords, who is your boss to tell you to go and do deadlifts?”

“Like the processes, TalkJS has taken this one pretty far.” he continues: “For example, we don’t provide a company computer. After all, you have a computer already, don’t you? And you have it set up exactly the way you like. Why not use that one for work?”

This doesn’t mean that additional access to work support, such as due to disability, will be ignored. Chris Meyns explains: “When a team member requires additional tools to carry out their work over and above what they would already have set up for their personal workflow, then this can be flagged and the company will be happy to support this. These cases are dealt with as and when they occur.”

Action step: Pay your workers well and let them decide for themselves what matters to them in their lives.

By focusing on what truly matters - autonomy, trust, and meaningful work - TalkJS created an environment where employees:

• Spend less time on distractions and more time on high-impact projects.
• Feel trusted to manage their own time and priorities.
• See a direct link between their work and company success.

"People don’t want foosball tables if they are drowning in bureaucracy," says Teeselink. "What they want is the space to do their best work."

The lesson for other companies? Minimalism beats excess. By cutting unnecessary perks and processes, TalkJS unlocked a culture where employees focus on what matters not just what looks good on a careers page.

For businesses looking to improve workplace culture, the answer might be simpler than you think: Do less, but do it better. Minimalism towards perks and processes opens up a lot of mental space for doing real work, Teeselink concludes: “If your work is fun, if the outcomes matter to you, and if you’re well-rewarded, then you won’t need or even want all that ‘stuff stuff’. Cutting perks and processes helps you create mental space for doing better, more fulfilling work instead.”