How do I write my first company handbook without it becoming dead documentation nobody reads?
The short answer
Write it as decisions and defaults, not policies. One living doc that answers 'how do we do X here' (leave, expenses, tools, how we make decisions, how we give feedback) beats a 40-page PDF. Keep it in the tool your team already lives in, link it in onboarding, and make updating it part of shipping any new process. If a section has not been touched or referenced in 90 days, it is probably wrong or dead, so cut it.
Go deeper, your way
3 hand-picked resources, 3 link-checked. Pick how you want to dig in.
📄 Article
✓ Link checkedFreeIntermediate
Why we picked it
This is the reference implementation of your thesis: the handbook IS the process, not a description of it. GitLab's rule that any change (policy, process, decision) gets written into the handbook before it is communicated is exactly your 'updating it is part of shipping any new process' point, made operational by a company that runs on it. Do not copy its 2000+ pages: read the handbook-first page for the discipline, then steal only its table-of-contents structure (how we work, decisions, comp, tools) as a skeleton for your one living doc.
Why we picked it
This is the 'why does nobody read our handbook' guide, and it names the real failure mode: fewer than 1 in 20 docs get updated monthly, so teams quietly drift back to Slack and the doc dies. Its fixes map directly onto your answer: assign a named owner per section, embed an 'answer with a link' habit so the doc becomes the reflex, keep it inside the tools the team already lives in (Slack, Linear, GitHub) instead of a new platform, and use staleness signals to cut dead sections, which is your 90-day rule made concrete.
Why we picked it
This is the lean counterweight to GitLab: a real, Creative-Commons handbook you can fork today, written as short human sections (Getting Started, How We Work, Making a Career, Our Rituals, Benefits) instead of a 40-page policy PDF. 37signals deliberately ran with no handbook for over 10 years and only wrote one when new hires felt lost past ~50 people, so it captures exactly the decisions-and-defaults tone you want. Copy the section list, delete what does not apply to a 5-person Indian team, and add your India specifics (leave policy against actual holidays, PF/ESI once you cross thresholds, notice period).
