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"I'm sitting out in the room with everyone else," Sheridan points out. "I get no special treatment; there's no corner office."

That layout is by design. Sheridan says obliterating layers of management can leads to faster decision-making — and more important, motivated and empowered employees. At Menlo, the whole office, or sometimes subcommittees, decide who gets hired and who gets fired. Promotions, raises and budgeting are all decided by the team. The company's emphasis on transparency extends to details like the budget, which is posted on the wall for everyone to see. Email communication is frowned upon in favor of face-to-face talking.

"We've seen more of a trend toward flattening organizations," says Stephen Courtright, a Texas A&M business professor who specializes in studying self-governing offices. He says because the tech industry needs to adapt quickly and competition for the best employees is fierce, giving employees freedom helps them move much faster.

"Those industries are just unstable, rapidly changing, and they are trying to harness creativity and innovation. So it is that speed of the technology environment that has prompted organizations to rethink the way they structure the organization," Courtright says.

But it doesn't fix all problems. The gaming company Valve also boasts of being bossless and has gotten a lot of attention for it. But Jeri Ellsworth, a former programmer at Valve Corp., said her time there "felt a lot like high school."

"What I learned from Valve is that I don't think it works," Ellsworth told Wired magazine, in a podcast. "I think that if you give complete latitudes with no checks and balances, it's just human nature [employees] are gonna try to minimize the work they have to do and maximize the control they have."

At Menlo, the employees say the culture prevents that. "It really doesn't happen that way," says Menlo developer Eric Schreffler. "And that's partly because of the people who were here from the beginning."

As more companies shift to flatter structures, Courtright says workers should decide what rewards you're seeking at work when making job decisions.

"In a flat organization, moving up the chain of command is not the reward for performing well, because in a flat organization there's not a big chain of command to climb up. Basically the reward in a flat organization is being able to work on new and challenging creative tasks," Courtright says.

And that newness is what keeps Menlo's Lisa Ho coming back.

"We say we're a learning organization, so we're always learning and trying new things, which is very cool," she says.

Lydia Ko, the New Zealand golfer who last year became the youngest person ever to win an LPGA event, has played her way into the record books again. By successfully defending her title at the Canadian Women's Open this past weekend, Ko, who's now 16, is the only amateur to win two LPGA events.

But as The Two-Way reported last year, because of Ko's amateur status, she's unable to receive the winner's prize of $300,000. So, as happened in 2012, the money goes to the runner-up.

By firing a 6-under 64 in her final round Sunday, Ko matched the course record at Edmonton's Royal Mayfair Golf Club and erased the one-stroke lead that Sweden's Caroline Hedwall held after the third round. Ko finished the tournament 15 strokes under par — five ahead of the second-place finisher, Karine Icher of France.

Ko's consistently strong results are leading many to wonder when she'll turn pro — and stop watching those winners' paychecks going to other players. Ko is currently No. 1 in the world amateur rankings, by a wide margin.

"I've got some people above me like my mom and dad, they're the boss. They're going to help me to make the right decision and to turn pro at what time," Ko tells Golf Canada. "I think as I'm only 16 still, it's quite hard to make huge decisions. When I turn pro it's like a job. Money is all about it and everything like that, every shot counts."

While some American lawmakers have urged increased involvement by the United States in the Syrian civil war, so far the Obama administration has been reluctant to intervene in a major way.

The question has taken on a new sense of urgency following an attack last week near the Syrian capital Damascus that left hundreds dead. The Syrian opposition says it was a chemical weapons attack by the Syrian government, a charge the government denies. The Obama administration is now weighing possible responses.

More From The Debate

Each Friday we round up the big conversations in tech and culture during the week that was. We also revisit the work that appeared on this blog and highlight what we're reading from our fellow technology writers and observers at other organizations.

ICYMI

A new University of Michigan study shows that using Facebook makes us both sadder moment to moment and less satisfied over time. It was our most popular post of the week, and in response, you shared some really thoughtful comments about what social comparison does to our psyches. NPR's Larry Abramson demonstrated the power of metadata analysis when he let a team at MIT Media Lab look into his Gmail account to piece together his life and contacts. Laura Sydell talked with Vine's co-founder about what makes six-second videos so appealing. And our weekly innovation this week was the eco-conscious Uji shower head, with a light that changes from green to red to encourage you to get out of the shower faster.

On the air, Laura reported a fascinating feature on the Digital Public Library of America, where the digital collections of libraries are getting combined on one site, for free access. Steve Henn profiled Mike Convertino, who built a career making cyberweapons for the U.S. Air Force. This week's All Tech chat on All Things Considered featured the end of buttons and the move toward gesture control.

The Big Conversations

The tangled web of national security and technology kept reporters busy this week, with the release of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act court's decision that parts of the NSA email surveillance program were unconstitutional, the sentencing of Bradley Manning and news of the U.K. police's meddling with Glenn Greenwald, the Guardian journalist who broke the details of sweeping U.S. surveillance programs leaked by Edward Snowden. On Monday, the U.K. police detained and questioned David Miranda, Greenwald's partner, at Heathrow Airport. The incident led The Guardian to reveal a previously unknown incident in which the U.K. government destroyed hard drives with those NSA leaks that Greenwald obtained.

Friday, the conversation shifted to Microsoft and a big personnel change at the top. Company CEO Steve Ballmer plans to retire within the year. Who will succeed him is likely to dominate conversations into the weekend. In the meantime, Steve Henn has some tips for the next Microsoft chief.

What's Catching Our Eye

Quartz: Think Google Glass invades your privacy? Here's a wristband that records audio 24 hours a day

Well, I suppose this could be helpful for NPR reporters ...

The New York Times: Facial Scanning Is Making Gains In Surveillance

Getting closer to a Minority Report-like society: "The plan, according to a 'privacy impact assessment,' was to use 30 volunteers whose facial data would be mingled in a database among 1,000 mug shots to see whether the system could reliably recognize when any of the volunteers were present," reports The Times.