Slashdot Mirror
Improving Company Morale?
Undaar asks: "I work as a developer for a web development company. We were pretty hard hit (as were many companies that do what we do) by the "economic down-turn". The company went from over 500 people to under 200 in under two years. It's more stable now, but people are consistently laid-off. Consequently people feel like they always have to look over their shoulder to avoid getting fired. Most lunches are spent complaining about lack of enjoyment/challenge from the job and the fact that upper-management seems not to understand what we do. Employers: what have you done to improve employee morale in your company? As an employee, what can I do to improve the morale in the people I work with? How can I make my work environment more enjoyable? What kind of constructive suggestions can I take to management so that they can help improve the situation?"
People that are happy at work tend to be better workers, so letting them use the internet and phone for some personal business during work can be a "good thing." That's not to say they should be allowed to surf for porn all day, but looking a few websites outside of business during 9-5 can help.
Also, be flexible with work hours. Not everyone needs to work the same 9-5. Let departments figure out their own policy and be flexible with workers.
It's gonna be like this, in our job market at least, for a while. Hopefully not too long...!
what have you done to improve employee morale in your company? As an employee, what can I do to improve the morale in the people I work with? How can I make my work environment more enjoyable?
I left and went to another company with people that are happy. Much happier when I recognized that I couldn't steer a ship from the White Star Line with a paddle. Just not possible.
If the company intends to screw everyone after finishing a couple pieces to make a liquidation plausible, then it's pretty cold to try to improve morale if you know something horrible's about to go down.
Just fire all the troublemakers as an example to others. Morale will skyrocket. ;-)
#1 *ALWAYS LOOK FOR A BETTER JOB*.
That is, until you find a job where you don't feel you have to look over your shoulder and wonder why management doesn't get it. When management doesn't get it, there's usually no way to fix it. It becomes entrenched in the fabric of the company.
There is only one way for such a company to change--promote from within. This brings up the people who already understand the business PLUS understand the real-world problems faced by the little employees. But such companies rarely do this. They usually hire outside people who have no clue as to what goes on day-to-day. And they keep crapping on their own employees.
I really recommend looking for another job. If jobs in your area are scarce, then think about moving. Being flexible always provides better opportunities. I know the job market is tough right now, and I would not like to be looking for a job. But I've been in that situation many times. And there is not much hope for this type of a company. Unless they promote from within and start investing in their current employees, rather than try to find the next replacement manager who is going to solve all problems, there really is no hope.
Also, all employers should have incentive programs that are based on performance. If your employer does not offer such incentives--even something as little as free movie tickets for the top-performing departments based on measurable results (like lines of checked code, or # of support issues resolved and verified)--then it is another sign of problems with management.
---gralem
You can't compensate for customers that don't buy anymore. But you can give the company some kind of purpose - so that people don't feel lost anymore.
A manager could redefine the company so that people see a future for it. It could specialize. People could get trained so that a department becomes better and better. Such a specialization could even help when the layoff go on, because it will improve the chances for a new job.
Even a low level employee could help building such a view. Try to find collegues gor exchanging ideas and build your own "center of excellence". With a sense of purpose and collaboration even mediocre employees can achieve good results - provided the motivation is there.
Assuming that such things as more money and raises are out, due to budget constraints, you tend to have two options:
1) Small gestures. If you're a project leader or some other type of manager, take the people who report to you out for lunch whenever a milestone is successfully passed. Or provide free soda. It won't cost that much, compared to, say, the cost of training a replacement. For some companies, it could also be being flexible on the hours slightly (so that people could come in an, and leave, an hour earlier or later). Or allowing them to play Unreal Tournament after business hours. (This may not be a good fit for all companies, though.)
2) Keeping them included. If something's happening, the employees are going to be hear about it. They can hear about it through the official means, or they can hear about it through rumors. It's better to hear it through official channels; otherwise, rumor-mongering just goes up. If people are going to get laid off, you're much better off being upfront about it -- there'll be uncertainty either way, but at least there won't be the idea that management is hiding something. If possible, present the news with alternatives (see if anyone is willing to work part time instead). The important thing is to let them feel like they have some small amount of control, as opposed to being subject to the whims of fate.
There is an art to managing technical people that makes them feel like their brain is wanted, and their strong, peon-labor back is not the most important part.
Here are some helps:
If you assume you know the market better than your technical people, all you'll do is torque them off. Programmers usually know the software market pretty well. They at least can tell the difference from a quality product and a lame one -- something most business people can't seem to figure out.
If you have to do lame, per-hour contract jobs (ie, SBIR), make sure the people who actually put in the hours get a bit of hourly income in addition to their normal pay. In other words, the management doesn't deserve the Gov's money when I did all the labor for it. And again, nothing motivates people to peon labor like money.
Treat your people like professionals, not children. Tell them what you need them to do by when (set reasonable expectations, not impossibilities), tell them what their assets and resources are, and then leave them the hell alone to work. Don't hold enless status meetings, don't hassle them about what hours they're working, etc. If someone's struggling or not doing their work, you'll have to deal with that, but don't treat that as the default situation.
My last "bad" company was constantly under deadline pressure. My development VP responded to this my having daily status meetings, wasting an hour a day restating what was happening and getting status info that he could have gotten automatically if he'd just learned to use the damned change tracking system. They'd also give you shit if you tried to go home before 9 PM (even if your work was done; you should be "testing or something"). What did I learn there? Treat people like irresponsible children and that's how they'll act.
So, basically, don't overmanage and don't be a dick. Treat your people with respect that you'll get it in return.
There's one more thing I'd suggest, but in my experience this is either something you're good at or something you're not: I'm a firm believer in team building, but in an informal way -- when you go to grab lunch, ask your people to come with you. If you're going to grab a beer after work, invite your people along. In my experience, this works great and has a lot better effect than going to Dave & Busters once a quarter or something.
Every year during my review, I just pray the words "slashdot.org" aren't mentioned.
Our company's engineering department runs an annual "coding contest" with a nice prize or two. Last time, teams of two had two days to build the fastest-running solution to a series of problems.
It sounds kind of gimmicky, but there's apparently nothing like a little competition and a prize to get the software engineers' blood pumping. It was really all the discussion about the problems before and after that was so great... it did a lot to get different groups of people talking like they never had before.
It worked brilliantly as a team-building exercise for engineers. Heh, and maybe it helped the management spot the engineers crazy enough to spend the time on the contest, and win.
I worked for a company that dot-comed in a blaze of glory, but even through the layoffs we managed to keep morale relatively high by simply showing the employees that we valued them.
I was a low level manager in the NOC and found that by keeping the employees up on what was going on in the big picture, allowing them to have input in some of the decisions which directly impacted them, and not being afraid to roll up my sleves and work side-by-side with them they respected me more and were always willing to go the extra mile for me. The most detrimental thing to their morale were the company meetings where the C*O's tried to rah-rah the troops with buzzwords and press releases. People like to feel as though they have some controll over thir future and they know that upper management is the proverbial irresistable force, so keep them away from that and help them focus on the things they can change for the better.
In short the best thing for morale is the respect of your direct manager and as little of the corporate crap as possible.
Never underestimate the power of human stupidity -RAH
First, I agree with you totally. However, beoynd the web development/+5 years java experience/visual basic etc. etc. market, there exists a seedy underbelly to the IT world. That is the land of Legacy Systems.
There exist systems so large and arcane, that it takes a developer the better part of a calendar year just to understand some basics of how the system works (and I've seen others struggle for longer). There is ADA. There may be FORTRAN. And there is a whole lot of assembler.
These are systems that have their own operating systems written on top of the operating system. These have components that average 100,000 lines of code each- with another 100,000 lines of code for the test harness. Now multiply that by 12 support components. And we haven't even gotten to the actual APPLICATIONS that run on top!
For projects like these, management does have to watch their back. They don't have lots of money to keep useless developers on, but once a new project ramps up they say 'oh, we need developers who have a lot of experience with our system' hahaha! Hire back those guys you fired!
It is companies like these (think: big ol' gov't contracts) that have to play this dancing game of shelling out some money for pizza every now and then to keep people happy because if they let go of everyone now (or piss them off enough so they leave), they won't be able to staff up in time when the new projects come, and they won't be able to complete the new projects (because they are aggressively scheduled) and they never make a dime on new projects again.
In the future, I would want to not be isolated from my friends in the Space Station.
First off, if the company continues to lay off people in round after round, don't keep your head in the sand because you could be next. Be sure and have some feelers out for a new place to go NOW if it all possible...who knows, you could end up with a better job.
I've worked at places like you described. Unless the company, or at the very least, your immediate management itself commits to making it a better place to work, it's not going to happen.
Things the company can do (not in any order here):
1) Free drinks
2) Flex time
3) Comp-time for overtime work
4) Food brought in
5) Lighten up on the dress code
6) Flexibility on web access
7) Promotions.... even if it's just in title
8) Explain what the hell the plan is.
9) Increased vacation time
Things the company should NOT do:
1) Organized pot-luck (how depressing)
2) Hand out company-logoed crap
I'm sure there are more for each list. I just can't think of any at the moment.
You and the rest of the folks you work with can do things outside the company (go out to movies, play sports after work, lan-parties...whatever you're all into...you get the idea), and that'll help the moral with the folks you work with, but it's not going to help with the place you work.
Again, the downside of all this, if moral is great, and the company continues to lay people off, getting ripped out of there at some point for a layoff will hit you like a ton of bricks. And one hell of a lot more because you liked to work there.
Yeah, nothing says democracy like being forced to join a union.
And don't take away the casual dress policy (if you have one). Nobody wants to have to wear a damn tie just to sit behind a desk all day. It makes no sense.
I was in a healthcare-related tech company that went under and in the last couple of months, you could see it coming. The bosses had no clue what they were doing and wanted all of us smaller people to come up with AND execute the big ideas.
Maybe the business should offer some info on how to make a great looking resume.
...All I can say is that my life is pretty strange...
There is almost nothing worse for morale.
Management may make one last round of layoffs, if really necessary, and then set a challenging goal and declare that there will be no more layoffs for one year (unless someone is really not getting any work done, of course).
Stop worrying about the risks of nuclear power and start worrying about the risks of not using nuclear power.
My own experience is with a company that started with 4 developers and 3 management types...we got up to a whopping 18 people at our highest (only 8 of those webheads) and now we have 3...morale in my company was the lowest that people quit in batches...all thanks to a management that didn't pay attention to what the developers had to say...we were just slaves that cost too much :)
;) but I think I outlined the points I wanted to share that make me the work-a-holic that I am...one who enjoys giving tech support just as much as getting that new delphi component to work exactly the way I dreamed last night at 3am and then decided to code at 4am...
In a way, thankfully, the owners woke up and ripped the company to shreds after finding out what was happening...now we are three developers...and yes we went from 40 hour weeks to 70 hour weeks along with our salaries dropping by as much as 60%...but we are loving it...we went from being developers with absolutely no control of what we did to developers ready to conquer the world...
It's not about team-building, it's not about pats on the back, it's not about high salaries (but high salaries don't hurt )...it's about making a difference in a world that is regaining some of the idealism we thought was lost...open-source projects lets everyone be the king of software...watching a feature you dreamed up make it into the site or the software is better any day than having your boss give you a peptalk about doing a good job...
For those who read this and are not sure where I was going or where I went, you're not alone...I'm not sure either
Sorry, dude, but you've never worked in a unionized workplace.
Getting rid of people that aren't doing their job or are complete assholes is a complete bitch.
Ever been to a tradeshow where they have unions in the convention center? You can't even plug in a freakin computer, let alone carry one in, without a union guy. If you do, and they catch you at it, they'll close the whole show down until the "problem" is fixed. Oh, and as a bonus, all that work costs you BIG bucks for them to do it.
Oh, yeah...unions..what a GREAT thing...pffft.
I timed out on big companies and corporate BS about 6 months ago, having worked for 3 big companies ( > 2000 employees each) and never coming particularly close to "job satisfaction".
:o)
The one thing that most annoyed me, considering myself to be a good, honest, hard worker, was the fact that there were people at all these companies who were not, and were not sacked.
Why should I turn up to work everyday and work my ass off, to pay not only my own salary, but that of idle layabouts who do nothing to earn theirs.
That and too much documentation.
I now work for myself, so I only have to worry about myself becoming dead wood, and I don't do any documentation
My boss allows me to work from home on Mondays and Fridays. I avoid a long, stressful commute to work, and I save 40% on gasoline. Overall my productivity has increased, and I feel better.
I work for a very large computer and printer manufacturer (can't say which one, but the initials are HP), and it's so far been my experience that the company isn't at all interested in morale. Why? They don't have to be. With so many people unemployed, they can get away with neglecting or even mistreating the employees and hide behind "you're just lucky to have a job". Anyone who gets fed up and quits is a bonus for the company, because they don't have to worry about paying any severance package as they would for a layoff.
This may save them a few pennies in the short term, but once economic prospects improve, they're going to lose a lot of good employees who have long memories.
This is soooo true. I have flex hours, I can work 6am-2pm, 2pm-10pm, or 9-5. I can work at home, or my office, thanks to things like a VPN and Avaya IP Softphone.
When your work load starts to be equal to that of 2 or 3 (or more!) head count, and you know that if you push yourself that you can do it... there are a few things that happen: 1) you realize that doing this work will save your job for the months to come so you do it, and 2) you realize that your boss doesn't really care if you sit in an office or the recliner in your home... as long as the work gets done the boss will be as happy as pig in shit.
--------
Free your mind.
That turned out to be the best way to improve company moral. It also improved my moral.
I was such a good complainer, they put me on a team that was directed to manage both the west coast development and east coast sales and support. What did I find out? Improving a corporate structure is a fruitless experience.
Working for myself IS sometimes a pain in the ass. Too much paperwork and sometimes I'm forced to invent an imaginary boss, as being the sole magilla can get tiring. But at least the fruits of my labor are my own. I can live with myself at night. I wake up to challenges just like before, but the dead-end of tilting at corporate windmills is over.
If they can go down from 500 to 200 in a year, and if they are unable to maintain a honest, open atmosphere throughout the company, then THEY are the problem. Why don't you request that management share the business plan with the rest of the company so that everyone can work toward a common goal (of course, they probably haven't touched the business plan since the last time they got funding)?
It costs approximately $10-15k (before you spend dime one in salary) to hire your average full-time employee in America. (This is an average, not a locked-in-cement dollar amount... It includes advertising, agency efforts, the manager's time, the HR manager's time, how much time it takes to sift through 2,000 resumes for a $22k per year helpdesk job, any training they may need to provide to get the new guy up to speed, drug test, background check, reference check, etc...)
Given this fact, in the long run, it costs MORE to have high turnover in a company than you could ever spend on treating your staff like human beings... I'm not talking about pool tables and six-figure salaries, either. I'm referring to simple things like flex-time so people can actually see their kids and have interests in their lives besides work.
It seems to me that any company operating under this "Who gives a shit about you?" theory should be avoided... Sadly, in this employment market, the talent (that's us) doesn't have the option of voting "nay" to shitty employers by walking off to other jobs.
I am quite fortunate that my new employer is a private (profitable) corporation that doesn't have to whack $1,000,000 out of the budget every five minutes to meet short-term proft forecasts and prevent stock price fluctuations. My former employer made $36 billion in PROFIT the year they laid us off. Sorry, but if you have to fire 5,000 people one quarter, then need to have a "massive hiring drive" the next, that is short-sigthed mismanagement by drones in suits who put their 401k balances ahead of the company's long-term stability and reputation.
It is easy to say "We can cut 30% out of tech support and still field the same number of calls" but "# of calls" is not the same figure as "# of calls handled satisfactorily." As the quality drops, long-term sales prospects of the company's newer products slowly evaporate as CIOs and IT Managers say "Why the hell should we deal with those slow/incompetent jerks, when XYZ Corporation still offers good service?"
(Ever spend big money with a vendor after their "support staff budget cuts" led to lousy service? Me neither...)
Sadly, I'm afraid you're correct that we're going to have to deal with this sort of idiocy for a while longer... It is amazing to me that in strong economic times, managers complain endlessly about their "free agent" employees, louldy wondering where "loyalty" went?
Then, in the down times, selfsame managers do their best to shit all over said employees... Perhaps if employers didn't (ab)use their power over their employees in a lousy employment market they wouldn't be so eager to jump ship at the first opportunity.
Who did what now?
I know you're probably just being sarcastic, but this is a management tactic and one I firmly disagree with.
Here's something that every university-level management program ought to stress on the first day of class: The real leaders in your organization are not just in the management chain, and all those in the management chain are not real leaders. Effective "troublemakers" are really the natural leaders in your organization who are alienated or dissatisfied for some reason. The smart thing to do it listen to them and recruit them to your side.
I'm not talking about the know-it-all engineer who runs his mouth constantly (we all know this guy, don't we?) because nobody really listens to him, anyhow. No, I mean the person who seems like they're friends with 90% of the company, who people like and respect. Think about it -- you know the sort of person I mean.
A good manager will figure out who these natural leaders are and understand that they're the key to guiding whatever organization they manage. These people can either destoy morale or make your team a team. As a manager, it's your choice.
Every year during my review, I just pray the words "slashdot.org" aren't mentioned.
What to do:
What NOT to do:
Just a few thoughts. I'm still a newbie. If you're an employee, and you want to increase your company morale, forget it. I suggest finding a new employer.
I don't make the rules. I just make fun of them.
I agree with the internet and phone use for personal business. Most of the time I have to take a vacation day to compelete such tasks and no work gets done. On the flex hours, I would agree to a degree. In the past I have had a question for someone only to realize the that person would not be at work for another two hours (or has already left for the day). But I do not have a problem with 30 minutes to maybe an hour. 30 minutes can drastically affect commute time because you are no longer in sync with everyone else.
The alternative is already here, and has been getting stronger and stronger by the year. Do you really think we aren't currently, and have been, going back to this alternative the past 5 years?
The middle class of the United States is shrinking faster than ever, and significantly faster than most other democratic countries. We have the smallest percentage of people in our middle class compared to other top democratic countries. The upper class is also shrinking, but becoming more powerfull. The poor people are increasing in numbers like nobody's business. While this might not have anything to do with unions, they (unions) certaintly aren't preventing it.
I believe unions had their place, but now are pretty much obsolete considering that the coporations have congress people literally, and legally, on their payroll.
Two infinite things: your stupidity and mine. But I'm not sure about the latter. If my sig offends you, I'm sorry.
Why should they care about your morale?
The market is different, they have the upper hand currently with the high unemployment rates.
If you are not productive, or a trouble maker, they can find a replacement for you.
A few years ago it was different, and they had to keep people at any cost. But that is not the case now. Be happy you are even employed.
---- Booth was a patriot ----
Morale is also management's responsibility, my friend. We do not work in a world where people will keep having crap shoved down their throats and say "Sure, it's crap...but at least I'm not hungry." Management that doesn't know how to pick up marale and inspire employees is really just marking time till the employees sabotage their plans, reduce productivity or just plain leave. Suppose Patton hadn't cared what his troops' morale was, how far do you think he would have gotten? Bottom line: your post is inaccurate and you, obviously, are not in management.
I really think that the layoff business has grown past the point of absurdity. The companies that will do well are those who are just hunkered down and are hanging in there.
Of course, I was laid off recently, so what do I know, right?
Flexible hours... Some companies have flexible hours. However, there are so many related issues it is not even funny.
The notion of flexible hours in startups has become "come late, leave late". If someone wants to start the work day at 7am in the hopes of getting out by 4 or 5 and get a life, there is almost palpable tension from the glares of coworkers who amble into work sometime at 10am or 10:30am. More so, if the bosses themselves are late comers.
The flexible hours thing is almost abused in some places. It is much less pressure, if people are asked to be in at certain time, get out at a certain time (unless there are deadlines and other situations).
Imagine having no work to do and still having to sit till 7pm because the dudes that come at 11am will stare you into submission...
S
The only thing that will help in your situation is Job Security. If you don't have that, nothing else will help. Nobody is going to be gung ho if they don't know if they are going to be there tomorrow. Of course you could try the dot com way and hand out worthless stock options like they were toilet paper.
What exactly is your point?
I'm a coder but, in some ways, it would be good to see that salespeople are taking the least bit effort to understand what it is you're doing. By understanding the technology better they can sound more educated about the stuff they are selling. Perhaps it behooves you to read a book or two about management, sales and marketing (I recommend Sales for Dummies).
"Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere." - Martin Luther King, Jr.
Those are the two things everyone has to do to be happy.
1) Be thankful that you have a job at all. There are a lot of guys that would kill for your job right now -- even if it's not exactly fun.
2) Be patient and wait for the economy to pick up. It HAS to pick up at some point.
Being thankful and patient are a choice. They are contagious, and when you, as an individual, apply them to your own job, your co-workers will eventually pick up on it as well. Conversely, if you choose to complain and make that the norm, your co-workers will also pick up on that and morale will suffer accordingly.
You can start by getting over _your_ idea that your morale is independent of what the company does.
Enjoyment and challenge on the job is something that can be taken away from you when you are continuously set up to fail, not allowed the freedom you need to do good work, deprived of the support you need to make projects succeed, and have your knowledge of how to make things better ignored.
One partial solution is to gather a group of people together and determine that you're going to fight against your company so long as it does things wrong, but that's not something to take lightly. It's very much about making a last stand when things can't get any worse.
If you've never worked for a company that loses money hand-over-fist because of clueless management, you have no right to come on "holier than thou" because people notice that this, and its consequences, is not good for their morale
Remember that you are just a developer, and it is not your job to improve morale. You may want sales to improve, but it's not your job to go poking into improving sales.
;).)
Management will notice your attempts, and if they are failing to address the morale problem, and you are trying to edge into their turf by trying to address it yourself (from their perspective, questioning their policies and pointing out their inadequacies.) You are likely to be the next one laid off if you try to push for change.
That might not be a bad thing, I don't know what your severance package is (I really liked mine.) When the company is going downhill, IMHO the only way to raise employee morale is to disconnect that morale from the company. The one constructive thing I would suggest you do is network with your fellow employees. Get to know as many of them as you can, especially those doing things unrelated to you. And once you or them are laid off, keep in touch.
I had a similar experience, although it was coupled with years of re-orgs and muddled direction. I tried to push for change, but my morale broke, and I just accepted things and hoped for severance. I'd been marked as a trouble-maker, so once things got tight enough, I was out. They had to re-hire me as a contractor, and I am 10 times happier about working, and probably 3 times more effective than when I was dragging my feet from low morale (paying me almost 3 times as much too
You want to increase morale in the company?
Stop laying off people. This has proven to be a serious morale booster. If your company has faith in our employees by not laying off people, they will respond exponentially.
Find other ways to cut spending. Start with Voluntary leadership salary cuts instead of laying off people. Have the CEO not take the yearly fatty bonus or have the upper management take a voluntary pay cut.
Also, start investing in research and development into new technologies and new money making ventures for the company.
Watch your morale grow after this.
Save the World! Use a Quote!
Recognize the quality veteran employees you have by promoting them.
Nothing distresses the rank and file more than to have a new manager every one or two years who appears, changes the direction of a project (or kills it outright), and then leaves and is replaced by another manager who shakes things up.
You need people who know the company's history, its people and abilities, and have a vested interest in the company's future.
Anyone can get bored in ANY job. That is the simple truth. There is no big explanation. Just realize that. An astronaut can get "bored" about his job believe it or not.
I came to a point, where I felt the same as you stated both yourself and co-workers feel. I was unchallenged. I came in 9-5/5 days week and did my work. I could do a better job but I did JUST enough to get it done. I had a hard time concentrating and was always worried I'd be the one to be let go of. Understand there are millions of people in IT that would happily take your job who aren't burnt out. But don't let that intimidate you. I found the reason for my unhappiness was the fact I was always worrying. So I didn't enjoy my job. Nothing was "fun" anymore.
Take a 2 week vacation if you can (take any vacation time early). But understand that you MUST finish up every loose end before you go on vacation otherwise its hard to relax if you are worrying if such and such project got deployed alright etc. Take the two weeks and just relax. Have a good time. Get outside lots. Avoid a computer for more than 10 minutes daily, if that, to check email. Make a list for the two weeks, that contains 3 things each day that you've regretted not doing or had little time to do, or just had always wanted to do it. After the two weeks you will feel amazing.
Now come back refreshed. Understand that everything is an opportunity. Push yourself to learn new things. You're in web development, but are you just an (X)HTML code monkey? If so you can make it enjoyable (trust me, there are much worse jobs). Learn new tools. Never stop learning. Never be content with thinking you know it all. Learn PHP if you don't know it. Learn Perl if you don't know it. Hell even learn ASP, CFM, Python and other scripting languages if you don't know them. I found the hardest part was "starting". I always wanted to learn these but I felt too "tired" by the end of my 9-5 that I'd just sit and watch tv, and hit refresh on slashdot all night long...hoping...just hoping something exciting would happen to my life. Take it into your own hands. Don't be someone who needs direction from your boss. Make your own direction (but within limits of your boss of course). Your boss will love it when you don't need to constantly ask "what next, what next". Trust me. I started writing a weekly summary of my work including achievements, if the timeline had changed etc. The boss loved it. I would brief him and take only 15 minutes of his time per week. They love this, they really do. Make it a terse, concise single page report that shows all you've achieved in the past week.
Work hard and play hard. That is my advice. To be an amazing programmer, sysadmin, or whatever the heck you want to be, you don't have to sit on the computer ALL day long. Become more "efficient" so to speak on the computer. Get rid of your instant messaging or at least only use them for 20 minutes/day. Schedule a time that you will regularly hit your daily sites like slashdot, web comics etc. Preferably at night (I know I'm doing this during afternoon).... but by the evening you will be able to get the gist of all the daily news stories... you won't have to hit "refresh" all day. Heck what I even did was stop viewing new slashdot stories altogether for a period of time. I'd only view the day before so I could get "all of friday" today. I cut down on instant messaging and IRC to a point that I'd spend more time with friends going to bars, food, etc. But I'd still get on to chat about code, chicks, various stuff for 30 minutes a day and that would be enough time to "spend" so to speak, all of my energy and rants. My quality of life has improved a lot in my opinion. I'm more happy, and I've had more energy and curiosity to learn new languages and methodologies than ever.
I know this is somewhat off topic but who cares. Many people in IT suffer from depression and/or stress. They sit in a chair all day or at least a large portion of it. The human body simply
11 things developers can do
(not in any particular order)
1) Read "Code Complete" and "Design Patterns". Others will be thankful... trust me.
2) Have pride in what you do. Programming IS an art. It requires talent, practice, motiviation, inspiration, creativity, and experience to write good code. Know your craft.
3) Eliminate the KINGDOMS on your team. That is, one person should not solely own one part of the system... hence a "king". Make sure at least two people are knowledgeable about one part of a system.
4) Utilitize tried-and-true design patterns. These are your brushes and your paints.
5) Be politically aware in code reviews. Take constructive criticism constructively and remove your ego. If a reviewer is suggesting that you make a minor change, and the change doesn't harm anything... DO IT. Being inclusive of others' ideas in your code will make everyone happy.
6) When reviewing other people's code, don't be superficially critical. Programmers have different styles. A car, on the outside, may not appeal to you, but it doesn't mean that it isn't a well built/designed vehicle.
7) When designing (or refactoring) portions of code, have design reviews (informal or formal) with at least one other developer. Bounce all your ideas and thoughts. Get ideas and thoughts in return. Use your whiteboard for goodness sakes. That's what it is there for.
8) Praise other developers when they do well. Programmers need to know when they're doing good as well as bad. Programmers appreciate praise from other programmers more than they do from anyone else.
9) When you have to be critical of someone else's code, be constructive. Apply honesty with a feather... not with a sledge hammer. Instead of saying, "What the fuck??? You're not threadsafe and possibly creating multi-tons."... say... "Do you think that synchronizing this singleton might work here better... so we're threadsafe?"... for example.
10) Be consistent in your code. It makes your code more easily maintained by others.
11) Document. Please write comments. Don't be so egotistical to think that your code is self-documenting. Even in COBOL and Eiffel... the two most verbose languages on the planet... this isn't the case.
Before you hire on to a company, please, for the love of Pete, find out how it's funded.
If they started from nothing, got three rounds totalling $100Mish from VC over the past 2-3ish years and don't have a shipping product to show for it, absolutely don't work there. VC money means that the company needs to be on the fast track to acquisition or IPO, which means that layoffs that cut burn rate will make the company more attractive to investors while the product is busy slipping.
If it's funded by an angel investor or angel pool, then find out everything you can about their personalities, their investment portfolios, how much they're worth and how much this venture, based on its burn rate, is likely to be straining them.
If it's funded by the people managing it, these, in my experience, are usually the best companies to work for. It's their daily routine on the line, in addition to their cash.
Find out if management has worked at companies where they've conducted layoffs before. They will likely do it again.
Find out if the company has ever missed payroll. If they have, do not assume this is a bad thing. Particularly if everyone stayed on board, this can be a positive thing, and it means management doesn't fire people at the first sign of cashflow problems. If missed payrolls happen all the time, then figure out, based on how often it happens, what your actual salary would be, counting the missed paychecks. It's really no different from saying that you are going to be paid a lower salary. As long as you are planning for missed payrolls, they won't really be missed.
Find out how you are going to split profits on the product. If it's just an ephemeral hand-waving promise that profits will be split, don't take the job. If it's just stock options, don't take the job. If it's going to be a subjective percentage of a pool based on performance, consider taking it if the deciding personalities strike you as fair, well-balanced people. If it's going to be a fixed percentage base with subjective bonuses, then absolutely take the job. None of this is real unless you get it on paper. So make sure you have that piece of paper the day you show up for work.
Most employees believe in the myth of salaries, and their precious, surprised little faces when they learn that there is no Santa Claus never cease to amaze me. Income comes into most companies in large, unwieldy piles of cash, not perfectly metered little bundies of biweekly love. So understand that salaries are a fiction, that exist to create the illusion of stability while lowering the employee's compensation for work over the long haul. We have come to depend on them because we, as individuals, have lost the discipline to save and manage money.
Always, always, always ask how much cash is in the bank right now. Always, always, always ask what the company burn rate is. Do the simple math, and plan to start looking for a job 2-3 months before that money runs out, assuming that they won't make a single penny in the interim or enjoy any further loans or investment.
Watch company growth. Ask every month or two what the new burn rate is. Do curve-fitting to get a more accurate idea of when the bank account goes empty.
Most people take salaried jobs because they don't want to sweat over the company bank account. Sweat it. You're just burying your head in the sand if you don't. Let the fear of that going zero motivate you. And let the excitement of seeing a percentage of those proceeds motivate you.
Morale is usually a function of how well the product is coming together. If it's making exciting progress, catching up, or God forbid, surpassing the competition, investors will usually continue to jump on until the product ships. This is always the first-order response for morale. People love working on good product.
Odds are, if you're in a web development company, your demand has dried up, you're competing with several other development companies also desperate for wo
Shut up. Any business deserves this type of treatment. Most of these jobs are actually worth well over $100k but corps refuse to pay that. Instead they take their labor overseas and hurt our economy that much more.
The more people that act this way and tell the man where he can stick it the better our economy will be. I'd much rather take my order from a well mannered, hard working and professional employee than someone working for minimum wage because that's the only job they could get.
I'd also rather work at the local 7-11 than Sun Microsystems. At least down at the 7-11 I can hang out with the store owner and know I'm not going to be in the next round of layoffs.
Corporations treat people like numbers. Its about fucking time they started getting treated the same.
Before I lost my job to a layoff, (my job was outsourced oversees) I was doing the work of several, and constantly worried that layoffs and outsourcing were coming.
I'm now considering a whole new career in a completely unrelated field...
A clever person solves a problem, A wise person avoids it. -Einstein
Like the other guy said, what is your point? Not eveyone is a coder, and the coders I do know don't know how to sell shit.
You should congrat the guy for taking initative. Most sales guys talk the shit and have no idea what anything is. Thats why companys like MS and Cisco have special traning for the sales people.
Think, do you want to code and sell?
hmm... for fun I enjoy launching DDoS attacks against 127.87.42.5
So be careful what you say and don't come across as implying they're clueless managers. That's not going to help them and it could hurt you.
Two points:
1) There may be less work pressure, but some of us have lives outside of work. Where I work right now, my ay typically runs from 10-6 or so, with a couple of extra hours work in the evening. So I'm putting in more than 40 hours a week - but I get to avoid the morning and evning traffic, and spend more time with my family. It's a heck of a benefit to me, and has cost my company little or nothing.
2) In today's economy, there are always deadlines and "other situations". If you haven't read it already, go find a copy of Yourdon's "Death March". It's an easy read, and the final chapter - "Death March as a Way of Life" - it pretty much on-target, in my experience. Whatever you're working on is always absolutely, vitally, critical anymore... because if you won't treat it that way, there's someone else who will.
Just remember, it's your employer's job to make sure you are happy and have meaningful, challenging and fun projects. You are the customer, and they must do all within their power to satisfy you so you'll deign to come to work the next day.
Come off it. This is a job. It is only as lifeless and painful as you yourself make it. There is fun to be had in debugging someone else's work, if you decide to have fun with it, or even the most tedious/boring projects.
Please note that those employees who are happy are generally more productive, and get fired last.
If you're waiting for your employer to "make" you happy, it'll never happen, you jaded cynic.
If you feel you cannot be happy without them being proactive about it then you'd best look for a job elsewhere.
Believe me, they'll say "Good riddance."
-Adam
The key to flex time is to notify your co-workers when you will be arriving. I have co-workers who arrive at 6am and leave at 2 or 3 and other co-workers (boss included) who arrive at 10am and leave at 6 or 7pm. As long as everybody knows when people will be around, everybody seems to be very understanding.
It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men. -Frederick Douglass
It's more stable now, but people are consistently laid-off.
This is the problem. You have to lump the bad news and spread out the good. Employees are willing to understand layoffs. People are surprisingly understanding of how a buisness needs to adapt, and how that adapation can, unfortunetly, lead to layoffs. As long as you take care of those being laid off (e.g., solid serverence pay, extension of health benifits, assistance finding a new job, etc.), both those let go and those staying behind will show suprising resiliance.
However, if your consistently laying off people, that means upper management does not have a clue of what is going on, and will undercut any confidence in the company. People need to be able to focus on their day to day responsiblities and get their job done; not worry if they're going to have a job in 48 hours.
All the other suggestions, flex-time, etc. are great, but you have to fix the fundamental problem before you can get to those. If you have a bad transmission, you don't try to fix it by getting a pair of fuzzy dice.
-Bill
SlashSig Karma: Excellent (mostly affected by moderatio
Jesus, that was a depressing post. It reminded me what it was like to work. Running your own business is tough, and today's been a shitty day, but good god, it's so much better than a fucking cube job where you have to worry about what you wear, what say, what you browse, and even what you fucking ingest. Mother of god, if I went back to something like that, I'd shoot myself in the fucking head. A bland, lame beer at TGIF ever month? Whoop-de-fucking-do. Is that what passes for "fun" after one has been lobotimized?
What, are you nuts? You can't break an employee by beating them. They just get all upity about their dignity and what not. No, as long as everyone keeps their jobs no one is really scared.
Look at it this way: It takes 20 years and a pension to make truely loyal employees. It takes about two years, regardless of beatings, to make a technically competent employee. It only takes about six months of unemployment to turn a man into the cynical, sniviling yes man that management desires. Which do you think management prefers?
DMCA, Hollings, Palladium. What might have sounded like paranoia is now common sense.
A couple of simple rules have always helped me with the morale of my team. If morale is poor, I nearly always point at one of these things and realise that I/my company is not doing it: 1. Clear, achievable deadlines
2. The best tools and equipment for the job (within reason obviously)
3. Insulation from the most insideous company politics and hopeless project managers.
4. Wages in the upper bracket of the industry for each role
Never, ever lose a file again. Ever.
One of my previous companies outsourced our whole department to a bunch of people in another state for half the pay we were getting. That sucked. But they gave us three months to try and get another job within the company. Most of the 25 people in our department took this time to play Quake and Warcraft over the company LAN. A few of us worked on our resumes and web sites. And then our boss told us that free training was being made available. Only five signed up, and three of them never showed. I showed. I took every class they gave me, and if one guy didn't show, and his slot was something I didn't have already, I took that. On days with no classes, I spent on the web studying FAQs and reading Slashdot to see what was new and fresh.
Because of this, I got a job within the company just days before the end. I got a great pay raise, too. Doing something I never did before, which while it turned out that it was run by a terrible manager, it gave me the stepping stone and breathing room to find another, much better job elswhere. I am now making almost 3 times the pay in the industry now, and love what I do.
I learned something from that experience. To keep learning. Take advantage of opportunites as they arise.
Sure, a lot of companies don't give a flying fark about you, your family, and you're just a number hidden in a @sum column in some spreadsheet. Some bosses suck so bad, they create a false vacuum in their cubicle that makes your ears pop. In fact, unless you are working for some small business, I can almost guarantee that a majority of the company doesn't know who you are or what you do. There's nothing you can do about that. You can't control what others do, only how you react.
Right now? I am learning Linux, BSD, C, Perl, and a ton of other things. I fully realize, at any moment, no matter how good a job I do, I may get laid off. I can't control that, and worrying about it, or acting like a victim, flopping about like a defenseless overturned turtle isn't going to help. I could be justifiably bitter, playing Quake Arena on the company LAN until the accounting department makes a formal complaint about the noise. That is a choice I can make. It is also a choice I can make to see if I can do my job better with a new programming language. In the last two years, I saved my department several hundred thousand dollars by migrating to Linux, even though I was told "it's not worth it," and "no one will agree to it, we're Windows material all the way, right or wrong." But then M$S would not give us a site license. Our budget was sliced in half, and we couldn't afford to upgrade *and* pay M$. I said, "I have the prefect answer."
That's when column AJ1230 on the spreadsheet noticed me, and that did a lot for my group's morale. :)
More often, in my experience, it is the other way around. I've always been a night owl. My last job had an equal number of late comers and early birds. I was almost always the last one out of the office at night, sometimes including the night guard who locked up everything around 10PM.
I envy the person who can work at home whenever they feel like it. I had this luxury for about 2 years. The trick of course is that both you and your manager (or customer) must have a good idea of what the job is that you are doing so that you can agree on when it is 10 percent done, 50 percent done, or finished. These days, there are way too many manager that have never done any of the technical work that they manage. They don't have a clue what you are doing or how you do it. They don't know good quality from bad quality until the end user complains. I would rather work as a greeter at Walmart than work in one of these organizations again. I have no respect for the managers involved, and if you sign on to one of their projects you are doomed to fail even if your own work is beyond comparison.
At some point, and maybe we have already reached it, production of good software must be it's own reward, since the captains of industry don't seem to know good from bad. Results are slowly comming in from projects farmed out to cheap labor overseas and it ain't pretty. This has nothing to do with intelligence or talent of those workers who do work over there for a fraction of what we are used to getting paid. It has instead to do with the total inability of management to conceptualize (much less document) the products that they are trying to turn out.
It is unfortunate but true, these failures will not result in the perpetrators getting fired for incompetence. Rather they will be so monumental that they will cause businesses or at least divisions to be closed down entirely. As poor as mid management is at evaluating the quality of our work as programmers and technicians, top management is even *worse* at evaluating the results of mid-level managers. In almost every case the solutions will be too-little too-late.
My Company:
- Long Hours (all employees are salaried and must work a minimum of 50 scheduled hours per week).
- Low pay (because of the economy, you are told from the beginning that they will pay you less than you're worth)
- Little Vacation (1 week per year, 3 sick days)
- Psycho Managers (very senior management love to fire people, even have one that brags about it)
Your Company:
- Expect more (schedule 40, if possible, higher more people especially if you're profitable or economically well off)
- Pay what they deserve. A little less, due to the economy is fine, but not a lot less. As soon as the econ picks up, they're history.
- Time off is essential. The more you hedge them in, the more they notice and want to get out.
- Management must care, and be open. We do have many (if not most) that genuinely care. You can't fake it - you're employees are not rats in a cage.
I work at a 24-7 operations center where people are constantly arriving and leaving. To coordinat work and projects asynchronos communication, such as email, voicemail, and ticket tracking software are used. 30 minutes is nothing and can easily be worked around if you do it properly.
How to improve your companies morale:
Step 1: Be part of a successful company.
Step 2: Do not lay people off.
Step 3: See Step 1.
Although you already answered your question, people feel like they always have to look over their shoulder to avoid getting fired. Bottom line - your company is the problem. No amount of booze, yoga, flex hours, massages or magic pixie dust are going to increase morale. Odds are the stigmatism from laying off 300 people is still in the air. My suggestion is do one of two things - find a new job or be content with your situation.
We tech-types HAVE to start running our own companies and ourselves. Get completely rid of the Wall Street wannabees (as in stingers),lawyers, trouble-makers, lawsuit-happy idiots, ego-maniac bosses, etc. What we have to do is learn to run companies ourselves. Take turns doing the paperwork, etc. No stock-holders to answer to, no desk-job stiff-shirt types- just us doers. We just have to do it- somehow, hopefully through the 'net, we can join forces. Not like the labor unions of the Industrial Revolution with the politics we need to rid out- but with unity of purpose!
Forgive me for living in the past- I too often refer to the Challenger destruction- but it was caused by stiff-white shirt bosses over-ruling the engineers who said "don't launch".
I find it absolutely amazing that everyone who's replied to your posting so far has interpreted it as if to mean that you were ridiculing this salesperson for wanting to understand Java when in fact it's obvious that you respected his behavior, especially when you referred to the superior who canned him as "clueless." I'm pretty sure this has been pointed out already, but not in a direct reply.
You expect us to learn all about the company business. Well then find out about what we do for you. That way you know if someone is blowing smoke or if the task/deadline you set is unrealistic.
It also builds resentment when you discover your manager is an example of the Peter Principle and drawing $$$ while you know more than he/she does about what's going on.
If you've never been modded as "flamebait" or "troll," you've never tried to argue a minority viewpoint here!
i have things in my mind, though i am not a programmer, i do technical and management at the same time :) (and we are a team)
:)
1. treat people with respect. they'll treat you and your company with respect back.
2. don't overwork the employees. though at times, they will really need to do a lot of things for days and days, treat them to a small out of town trip even for one night. makes everyone relax and forget work.
3. managers should mingle with the employees more. see their status and talk to them. avoid asking techies to make paper work (i'm sure a lot of you don't want to spend a day typing a report.)
4. as a team member, try to delegate tasks. this will avoid conflicts.
5. there should be a "war room" where everyone can put in their ideas and be seen or listened.
6. try to put an incentive program to the employees. it doesn't need to be expensive. a simple recognition award will do.
7. management should be a little flexible with time. they should try to understand if people will be needing an 8-5 shift (like secretaries) or a flexible shift (like programmers.) allow breaks during work. if the time shifts for different employees are different, everyone should be required to keep their mobile phones on.
8. employees should be set up as team based and not on a hierarchical manner. each member of the mean is responsible for the success of all. whether it is a manager, secretary, programmer, technician, they will be treated almost equally.
9. teams should be allowed to set their own goals. for example, a technical group decides that there is an increased number of support calls for a particular problem. they will find ways to solve it. (they do things on their own without having someone to tell them too - you don't want people to order you around do you?)
10. your team should go out from time to time, after office for some recreational activities.
11. don't order around other people (see related item # 9.) although there may times when a particular task needs to be done. these may be exceptions, but for basic stuff, try to ask.
12. find ways of making people do things at work not because of money but because they are challenged with what they are doing. for example, try to challenge your employees from time to time to do a difficult task. remember that they should find ways to grow. work should not be monotonous day in and out.
there are more. basically try to think that the employees are the company similarly the church is to the people and not the physical structure. employees are people - they are not robots to which management orders them around (see item # 1.)
johnlaw
p.s. read my signature. i hope you have that job.
Live your life each day as if it was your last.
The phenomena you describe I think is part of a larger (and growing!) class division in America. People who do real work (ie, that can point to a product and show their specific contribution, whether design, programming, manufacturing, etc) are being seperated from people whose real work consists solely of "managing".
People who "manage" have set themselves up as a self-ruling class that sets the rules and rewards for not only the the people they manage but for themselves as well. The important thing to note is the self-ruling aspect -- the management class very nearly always gets bonuses when workers get paycuts, for example.
The other aspects of the management class that trouble me is the way that the work done my managers is structured in such a way that many expenses are subsidized for the "managers". Many managers travel extensively and during this time have all of their expenses recouped, they dine out extensively and many often private expenses are paid for by the company (home office setups, club memberships).
It's not that any of the justifications for paying for these things (ie, meals on company trips) are illogical or wrong, but that the work is structured in such a way that an entire class of workers spends much of their working time in situations where logic dictates that their otherwise personal expenses are paid for by their employers, which is not an insignificant decrease in their overall financial burden, in spite of often exponentially larger salaries justified by the demands of "travel" and "evening dinner meetings."
Meanwhile the "do-ers" are forced to dine at the company cafeteria (short lunch periods) or brown bag it, pay for their own parking and justify office supply purchases for trivial items. Essentially they are required to bear the full costs associated with going to work, while the management class has them heavily subsidized.
What also concerns me about this is the social aspect of this; people spend so much time at work that they transfer the implied power and priviledge of their work places to the rest of their lives, presuming that a seperate set of rules applies to them vis-a-vis taxes, schools, residences, and even law enforcement and access to government decision making.
People who belong to the management classes tend to cluster in McMansions in the same wealthy suburbs and make effective use of their affluence to influence the political process to ensure their continued viability (undermining worker protections, tax cuts only they seem to benefit from, public works projects that they derive a preponderance of benefit from such as new highways to their suburbs).
I believe its just the further Brazilification of our economy and way of life.
... from "Ask Slashdot" to "Whine on Slashdot."
That's all it ever amounts to.
First, the free stuff (often gone into in other posts). Having a liberal dress code and flex time policy costs a company nothing and can greatly help morale. Don't go too far, though, there are good reasons for having people who meet clients/customers to dress up, and you can't have regular progress meetings if flex time has destroyed all overlap in people's schedules; but back office staff should be able to where whatever they find comfortable, and those who must crawl under desks to plug in wiring should not be forced to wear a tie and slacks.
Next, talk to the employees. If the company is having difficulty, make sure they know exactly what the problems are, so the rumor mill is quieted down. Equally important, make sure they know the plan to get the company back on track. Set goals and tell employees how they can help. Reward the help too, if an employee does something major to help, give them an on-the-spot bonus, or a contract protecting them from layoffs.
Next, if more layoffs are needed, do it humanely and fairly. First, ask for volunteers, and offer incentives for volunteering (better severance package), why screw A's life over if B wanted to leave anyway? Second, if at all possible, offer a decent severance package, some people don't have a financial safety net, and if they see people cut off with just their last paycheck, they will panic. If layoffs have several weeks severance, and some access to company equipment for job hunting, those who remain will be less demoralized anticipating the next round of layoffs.
Finally, management must make visible sacrifices too. If staff is looking at a 10% paycut plus triple the workload due to layoffs, and they see management with unchanged salary and perqs (or worse, more) and no layoffs, staff will be upset. If staff takes a 10% paycut, management should take 20% (and tell staff they're doing so). If there are layoffs, make sure management is not immune. If staff loses health insurance, so should management. It makes a huge difference for morale to know that everyone is in the same boat.
----
Open mind, insert foot.