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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?"
Two years ago I wrote this: Management Techniques of the Bottom 95% of U.S. Corporations.
:)
Just take all the advice and reverse it.
150 Opening BINARY mode data connection for slashdot.sig (129323052 bytes).
It's going to be very hard in your present situation. A ping pong table or lunches aren't going to cure the problem: that you've been laying off in stages, causing people to believe that more stages are yet to come. My only suggestion is to open the books a lot, to let people know that you are cash flow positive and that they don't have anything to worry about. If you aren't cash flow positive, then make another cut, but cut very deeply, deeply enough to get the company in a survivable state, and then open the books.
If you can't cut, then you'll need to readjust salaries. DON'T OVERPROMISE. Don't say things like "you'll take a cut here, but when things get good you'll get this kind of bonus" and then later make projections like "we'll be doing well by 3Q03." People remember this shit and when you don't follow through, every promise you make is suspect.
If you don't do something drastic, what will happen is this: the best developers will find a new job fairly quickly for today's economy (about two months). You'll be stuck with the worst ones: the inarticulate, the inexperienced, and the difficult to work with. And then your company will really suffer.
-no broken link
No, seriously. That really helps at my company. Granted, it's only a small company of around 30 people, but every last Friday of the month (and occasionally others) they bring us beer and sometimes margaritas. Everyone hangs out in the kitchen and lets off some steam and it really does help. There's usually leftovers too, so my friend and I sneak back there about 15 minutes before quitting time on other days and have our own little party. Several times the owners have walked past on the way to the bathroom and occasionally they join us.
I read an article about 10 years ago which was about some guy in Brasil, I think it was, whose rubber company was about to go down the toilet financially. So he went to his workforce and said "Here's the situation - we're up shit creek financially, either I make half of you redundant, or we take half pay, until the situation improves - you decide" and put it to the vote. The workforce apparently decided on the half pay option, but productivity soon improved and they could afford to pay their old salary. The guy went on to experiment with introducing worker democracy on a wide scale - salaries, job descriptions etc. and apparently the company became very successful. I've always thought that sounded like an interesting idea, has anyone else heard of this?
I reserve the right to be wrong.
Perhaps your company already works this way, but my company gives it's workers a lot of freedom. I come in and leave as I please, with no fear of reprisal. This leaves me relaxed in the office, and I have never resented by bosses because of it.
;)
Another tip is to take your co-workers out to a bar
"I only speak the truth"
Karma: null(Mostly affected by an unassigned variable)
When a boss needs to cut things to show he's ding things to keep costs under control, he invariably heads for 'the little things' first. Like that espresso machine. Or the supply of bottled water. Or Mountain Dew. In many cases these are what employees will consider made the place 'livable', and when the perceived quality of life drops, morale soon goes out the door as well. Especially when all the old guys tell all the new guys "Back in the day we had blah-di-blah blah"
I demand a million helicopters and a DOLLAR!
I think the key to enjoying work is to love what you do. I work for a startup and absolutely enjoy what I do, which includes creating, designing and documenting wireless communications systems. Sure, the pay could be better, and sometimes I wish that the company was better funded, but I think what I get from work is more than just a paycheque. I get to do things that I want to do, and work on special projects where I see I can make an impact. And that has made all the difference.
So what can employees do to make their working experience beter? How abou finding opportunities in your own position where you can make a contribution. How about finding a different job that you like and where you can do what you want to do? If there aren't any positions around, find new opportunities for your skills and experience and start your own business. Everyone has special skills and knowledge that are applicable to the marketplace. The important step is finding and indentifying these opportunities.
I figure I've been quite lucky in the grand scheme of things to be where I am, and I acknowledge that. However, I think that we all can do our part to find work that is stimulating and rewarding.
Kahil Gibran in his piece "The Prophet" wrote that "Work is love made visible. And if you cannot work with love but only with distaste, it is better that you should leave your work and sit at the gate of the temple and take alms of those who work with joy."
Gibran continues, "For if you bake bread with indifference, you bake a bitter bread that feeds but half man's hunger. And if you grudge the crushing of the grapes, your grudge distils a poison in the wine."
The key to enjoyment at work is to find a place where you can do what you love to do. And that in turn will enhance your morale.
These are the good old days you'll be telling your children about. Make them worthwhile.
Or, if you must lay off, act like you don't want to do it.
I've been through or in six rounds of layoffs at four different companies since I was an intern in '98. The very best handling I've seen was when I was with SGI (the company formerly known as Cray at the time) as an intern.
First, you could tell that the boss genuinely hated, hated laying off her people and felt like she'd failed them somehow. Second, when the layoffs actually happened, she held a meeting with the survivors to tell us about it so we didn't hear it through the grape vine. Finally, the department took the whole afternoon off. We had the option to go home, but instead we grabbed some beer and a couple of pizzas and went to a local park, played frisbee and hung out (the people who'd gotten laid off were invited too, which I thought was classy).
At my last company, they laid off like theives in the night. They'd call people in out of the blue, then send out an email apparently designed to scare us all into working harder and longer. One time, we laid off a dozen people and the CEO's wife (who was executive something or other) went out and bought a new Lexus the same day. It's amazing nobody took an AK-47 to that shithole -- they definately had it coming.
Every year during my review, I just pray the words "slashdot.org" aren't mentioned.
At my last job, we were required to play at least one game of fooseball per day, and we had an office-wide Counter Strike game almost every day after work. Even the vice prez played. It was really great for morale and team togetherness.
Also think about what kind of extra services you can easily offer your employees using existing resources. Set up a webserver where employees can host personal web sites, for example.
-73, de n1ywb
www.n1ywb.com
Do some reasearch on Demming and the paradigm shift from the factory model of production.
The more workers feel like they "own" the company; they are proud of it and understand their contributions and sacrifices, the better their output.
This also has a tie-in with business process. The more that business process reflects the way that workers actually work, the more people are willing to comply with it.
In the future, I would want to not be isolated from my friends in the Space Station.
My oberservations (UK)....
The worst boss is one with a chip on their shoulder because they are a boss; they tend to not talk to their people and make political based decissions to further thier career.
The best boss is "part of the team", they get involved, understand the problems, make decissions to impove the buisness / team.
Social activities are great for breaking down cross team walls. I once worked at a company which was stuck in the middle of no-where and everyone drove miles to get to work. There was no social life as a result. I really missed talking to other teams and understanding their problems, and for others to understand my problems.
I've never understood why people moan about external contractors.
1. If you think they are getting paid too much stop moaning and be a contractor! Oh you like the stability of a being a a permie...
2. External contractors generally provide a lot of benefits. They have seen it all before, got the t-shirt etc. You can get a lot of great advice from contractors.
3. When you hire a crap contractor, sack them! I have worked with too many contractors who cant code for toffee, the management know they cant code and they are kept on until their contract comes to an end.
by 2p
Al
"The way to an engineer's heart is through his/her stomach." It'a all about lots and lots of cookies.
You should also try loosening up the dress code. At my company (govt comm software and hardware, 1000+ employees) the normal dress for engineers is jeans, sneakers, and a polo shirt. A lot of people even get away with jeans and t-shirts.
Try compressed work weeks which allow employees to work more hours in fewer days than the usual 8-hour per day schedule. The "4/10" work week is where employees work 10 hours per day over four days. My company uses the 9/80 work week which occurs over a 2-week period as follows: employees work seven 9-hour days in a 2-week period, one 8-hour day and then receive one "free" day off every other week. We have every other Friday off. It only takes a couple of weeks working 9 hours a day before you don't even notice that extra hour a day, and you'll never want to go back to the old schedule.
If things are bad then trying to raise morale is nothing but an attempt to deceive employees. To try to convince them things are OK when they're not. But employees aren't so stupid. Nothing tells an employee that their company is in trouble more than morale boosting exercises from management.
Doesn't it make you feel good to know that our freedoms are protected by politicans, lawyers and journalists.
Yes, and what is the biggest focus in IT right, now? Getting rid of these exceptions in order to cut costs. I could justify keeping around a couple of extra Java/XML guys for future growth, but my first priority is to get the legacy folks on-board with something standards compliant, or at least less arcane, or get rid of them. And those folks are followed closely to the door by those people that refuse to share knowledge. You make yourself indispensable by being a leader, not by hoarding knowledge. In reality, nobody is indispensable.
On the other hand, as far as hiring and firing in this market goes... A lot of people seem to have bought into the myth that employees are interchangeable. Maybe to a certain extent someone's technical skills are interchangeable, and that's debatable, but their personality and their "soft skills" are not. Believe it or not, soft skills matter in every part of the company. So, getting the right person is often more important than getting exactly the right skill set.
It's odd to see how opinion seems to break down into extremes, like indispensable or interchangeable, in adverse conditions, when, really, any good manager with a good sense of perspective doesn't believe in either of those opinions.
Flexible work hours and an open plolicy regarding internet and telephone use is a very good policy, but the absence of this type of policy is a symptom of a deeper problem within corporate "culture," by that I mean the treatment of employees like any other "just-in-time" business resource.
Many companies today layoff and re-hire (euphamistically called "contract hire") employees as they're needed. Contract prices today are generally no where near where they were a few years ago because of the surplus number of contract workers and the new rage to outsource work to drastically cheaper overseas labor pools. Corporations spent the 80's and 90's trying to convince people that it really was in their best interest to function as resource units, even suggesting that it put the individual worker in the driver's seat, but in realitiy of course it was always in the corporations best interest. An excellent book on this subject is Thomas Frank's One Market Under God which chronicles the enormous PR and marketing resources expended by big companines to cultivate thier self-serving pseudo-populist image. Great insight also into the backgroud behind all those MCI and IBM commercials featuring throngs of third world looking people and the proverbial work-at-home CEO mom. Does Microsoft really stand in awe of us? I don't think so.
Few people are doing well contracting today. Employers need to realize that paying employees well and not treating them like children, indentured servants or worse as a simple "resource" like computers or other equipment but instead like fellow human beings, is the best way to make everybody happy and productive.
The company I work for had a new salesperson. This guy had previously sold ERP systems, and now he was going to try to sell our companies development services.
This really happened - I was walking by his office and spotted him reading a copy of Java for Dummies. Yes -- a salesperson.
He explained that he felt he should know at least a little something about programming if he was going to try to sell our services as developers.
Un-freakin'-believable!
How many of you have spent endless hours explaining geek crap to sales/marketing/management nitwits who didn't have a clue and didn't care that they didn't have a clue?
Well... needless to say... he was canned a few months later by a clueless superior.
The only thing that we learn from history is that nobody learns anything from history.
in the current economical climate, you have to be flexible. a good idea is to have plenty of redundancy among the programmers/functional people and have a mean, very slim sales team and some supportive personell (secretary). the main costs in IT companies are salary costs, so pay the people that do the work.
;-). if you see a solution, just propose it to your manager casually. if you focus on that kind of strategies,and put energy into discussing improvement, you have at least a higher chance to enlarge your influence on the situation.
:)
:) personal experience!
now in real life, this will never happen. what you see is management that stays and "lower" employees who get fired. therefore, the people who have to do "the real work": functional design, programming, implementation, customer support are getting overworked and are underpayed to support the huge cars and salaries of management.
the only real solution is to cut down the amount of management positions, and have many employees that can do "the real work"...
i know this isn't of much help. all you can *really* do is to sit back, work like mad, and hope economy will be rising soon, and clients will want to invest again.
now, for some basic personal improvement lessons: stop complaining. the amount of energy you put into worrying about things you cannot do anything about is enormous -> think about it. focus on what you can achieve (how little these achievements may be). as Covey says (recommended reading!): enlarge your circle of influence. and be "proactive" (the most annoying buzzword ever
do it nicely though, the managers are in huge stress, covering their ass all the time. don't say "i think this is wrong, we better do...", but instead use formulations like: "we thought a bit about the idea you proposed the other day. it was very interesting (blah blah blah), and then slowly introduce your opinion about it. make it seem as if it's his/her idea, with just some minor optimisations. you will fail a dozen times, but the 13th time something might stick. and if a lot of ideas start sticking, you and your co-workers might even be able to really change something.
and don't worry about being acknowledged. what you and your co-workers want is a better environment, and not a management position, right? (at least not for now
trust me it works
All companies should make reading the Hacker FAQ mandatory for all employees. Even IBM uses the Hacker FAQ!
My personal favorite:
0.2: How should I manage my hacker?
The same way you herd cats. It can be a bit confusing; they're not like most other workers. Don't worry! Your hacker is likely to be willing to suggest answers to problems, if asked. Most hackers are nearly self-managing.
Jonah Hex
Horror & SciFi Erotic Nudes
Taken from Fuckedcompany.com in Dec. (Jo Anne was soon fired afterwards, go figure).
From: Jo Anne Miller
To: Gluon - Site - All
Sent: 12/6/2002 3:03 PM
Subject: Commitment Message from the ALL HANDS MEETING
Importance: High
As those who were present at the All Hands Meeting this morning already
know, I am seeking the PERSONAL Commitment of everyone at Gluon to the
Release 2.1 development schedule. I expect a return email from all the
staff to tell me if they can step up and make the commitment to DO
EVERYTHING IT TAKES, INCLUDING POSTPONING DECEMBER VACATIONS to hit the
2.1 ready for field trial milestone of January 20, 2003 and ready to
deploy milestone of February 21, 2003. I also need to know if you will
volunteer to be here the week of December 23-27 and Dec. 30-Jan. 4.
Please consider this decision carefully. Don't say yes if you don't
believe that you and your fellow Gluon teammates can make this happen.
Don't say yes, if you aren't ready to find bugs, fix bugs, document the
product and get this ready to go out the door. Don't say yes if you are
too burned out to look forward to continued late nights, long hours and
stretch milestones.
Now more than ever, the Gluon team must have the start-up/do whatever it
takes mentality. If any of you are not of that mentality anymore, have
personal/family issues that prohibit you from making the full
commitment, please tell me that as well and I will do whatever I can to
assist you to find a job outside of Gluon.
I am attaching the four key slides from the all hands related to our
commitment to refresh your memory of what is required and why.
Looking forward to hearing back from everyone
Jo Anne Miller
Gluon Networks, Inc.
5401 Old Redwood Hwy.
Petaluma, CA 94954
707-285-4001
www.gluonnetworks.com
www.bleepyou.com
I worked a summer job in a laundry. One day midweek, I looked up from the %meaningless task% I was doing to see the owner of the entire chain helping fold sheets.
I asked how often he does this, to which he replied "Whenever I feel like a change".
The girls on the line really liked it. He didn't have his own table at mealtimes, didn't have his own parking space, and you could call him "dave".
Ace fella. And even though the job was shit, most people were happy at it.
yes, www.dotcomforwardslash.com is my real URL.
I got fired from ClientLogic without warning. The morale of the place among the workers wasn't very good. Seems everyone I talked to had some bitchfest about the place daily. The turnover rate was very high, because they were being bitchslapped around by Bellsouth. Their rules were archaic, and we were stuffed into cubicles, not one, but two at a time. Forced to run programs that crash every five minutes, and forced to be tech support, sales AND customer service. Not to mention that promotion was only a $.10/hr increase in pay. Add to that the fact that the vending machines were always broken and that they regularly lay off half of their staff where I worked, and you get low morale. I heard through the grapevine that we were getting paid $5 less than what we should have. And we were missing benefits. All so the company could profit a little more. ClientLogic was getting paid almost as much for giving us the privilige of working for them as we were busting our asses for them! And they slashed our benefits.
Job? I don't have time to get a job! Who will sit around and bitch about being broke and unemployed then?
My last job (incidentally, 70 weeks ago, unable to find work since) required me to relocate 3,100 miles from the Right coast to the Left coast, to work for them, leaving a very stable job behind. A week after I got there, my hiring manager was fired, along with 76 other people. We were 250 people at the time.
Over the next 14 months, we went through 5 rounds of layoffs, including the last one which liquidated my entire department, leaving me as the only person standing. Even my boss was let go.
In 18 months time, we had gone from 250 people to 30, and were on our 4th CEO. All three founders had resigned, two failed merger deals (one with a company that just recently bit the dust themselves), two sexual harassment suits pending against the first CEO and his team, and it only got worse from there.
We originally had free vending machines, but those were soon turned into pay-only machines. The senior management team had free parking in a mostly-empty garage space, and we had to pay $20.00-per-day to park across the street. The middle-management groups were internally promoting themselves, laying off more and more people, and making the remaining people work longer and longer hours, for less pay. We were earning (as developers) roughly 1/4 of what the managers were earning at the time. They were working 4-day weeks, 5 hour days, feet up on the desks, while we were camping in the offices overnight sometimes to meet customer deliverables.
Every day, people would come in wondering if "..they were next". That's not a nice way to come to work, not wondering if you're going to lose your job, but when.
In November 2001, I decided to pack up my things, and resign. The company wasn't going to survive a 6th round of layoffs, and now with the board in control, they had changed direction, completely tarnishing their name with the Open Source community. I moved back 3,100 miles to the Right coast, and haven't been able to find a job since (yes, it's incredibly tough out here).
After I left, they worked on a product, and after the remaining developers completed version 1.0 of the product, and delivered it, they were all fired, en-masse.
How's that for morale for you?
Heh. I don't have to imagine that because the staring into submission doesn't work on me. The easiest way to get me to dig in my heels is to try to exert peer pressure.
They chose to come in late. Screw them guys, I'm going home.
--Fesh
Kill -9 'em all, let root@localhost sort 'em out.
My experience suggests that things are more two-tiered. In my last IT job, in which I was hired as a new graduate, the company would periodically retrench people during down times and to cut costs. After about a year, I was retrenched also. The HR chick told me that it was nothing to do with performance, but it was obvious to me that they would not retrench people who they considered had performed well.
These guru programmers - and there was a sizeable number of them - were told, in performance reviews and elsewhere how valuable the company considered them to be. They were frequently given payrises, promotions and bonuses also. The company would charge through the nose for their services. They could have had no fears about losing their jobs.
While I would have preferred not to have been retrenched (after being hired as a graduate!) this approach has worked wonders for the company, enabling them to produce high quality work and greatly enlarge their client base.
I am not a lawyer but my sister is, so don't mess with me
You might be surprized. I had friends that worked at a certain car dealership in Columbus, Ohio, where management would take the top monthly saleman out for a "winner dinner", consisting of a meal at their favorite eatery, with the hooker of his choice.
When those boys hit the doors in the morning, they were ready to sell some cars.
Remove the spamfreak to speak.
So instead the employee should be given a free reign to decide when he wants to work. IMO, flexible hours lead to better productivity as it gives the employee the chance to choose a work schedule that suits him the best.
As a currently very happy employee myself, I can tell you what specific conditions exist at my job that make me happy. Most of these conditions are a function of the job being A) unionized, and therefore solid with good benefits and a living wage, and B) in government, so there is a well-thought out bureaucracy in place to keep things running smoothly. BUT, the specific happiness inducing effects shouldn't be too hard to replicate in private industry -- IF the bosses want them to be. So, as a public service message from moi, here are the factors which lead to happiness:
1. Pay your employees a living wage, and AT LEAST give them medical and dental. Note that this doesn't mean you have to make them rich! But if you're not paying them at LEAST in the 40K range, they're going to be too busy worrying about getting their rent money together, to worry about YOUR work. In places like NYC or Boston, better make that 60K or your employees will be living in cardboard boxes.
2. Don't breathe down your employees' necks. Where I work, the bosses leave you alone as long as you produce. So, if your employees aren't missing deadlines, leave them alone and let them do their stuff. When managing programmers (as with herding cats) less == more. Just tell them to keep you posted on their progress, at least once a week (say, Friday before COB). If you need to find out how something is doing, ask casually (this is good because it shows interest and lets the programmer know he's not forgotten). The trick is to LET the programmers produce instead of trying to force it. You'll find they come to YOU to tell you how things are going, because people like to talk about what they're doing. And they'll like you more (this does matter).
3. Don't be anal about when programmers come and go. We're not the most precise people when it comes to getting up in the morning, or going home at night. We may get in a half hour late and leave two hours late at night -- you get a free hour and a half, and we barely notice. But if you enforce business hours, we get pissed and come in and leave on a much more exact schedule.
4. Casual dress code. This means, generally, something comfortable but tasteful, like jeans and a polo shirt. Don't enforce the whole "dockers and sky blue shirt" thing (god, that is SO over), or (worse) suits. If you're uncomfortable, you're worried about stretching your shirt collar, not coding that loop. This doesn't mean you have to let them walk in in a kilt and a see-through rubber shirt, either. But, let them be comfy.
5. Cubicle decoration (within the limits of good taste) should be encouraged. A cluttered, chaotic cubicle is a happy, productive cubicle. A pile of paper on a desk is a sign of activity. Don't sweat stuff like this.
6. Coffee. Lots of coffee. Don't skimp on the sugar and half-and-half, either, or no one will drink the coffee and that's like no coffee. Any old coffee pot will do as long as the coffee is a reasonable, good brand and when people notice the pot is empty, they can set a new one on to brew. I can't stress the importance of caffeine and sugar to programmers enough. They WILL find ways of acquiring it; if you don't supply it, they'll be taking breaks to make coffee runs. Which do you prefer; three minutes to fill the mug at the office coffee pot, or fifteen minutes to walk a block to the Starbucks, with you playing Spy Games to figure out who's going where and when?
7. When nothing serious is going on, let the programmers do pilot projects that will eventually be good for the department. You can direct this a little; if you know, say, that you're going to be using some specific set of email tools, mention it to a programmer who isn't too busy and ask him to fiddle around with it and see what he can make it do. Then, keep the source code around for when the project ramps up. Remember: idle hands are the devil's playthings.
That's about all you have to do, really, to keep people happy. Leave them alone, let them do their thing, keep up the supply of interesting things to do, don't push them unless you really have to, feed them lots of coffee, and let them dress comfortably.
Farewell! It's been a fine buncha years!
Welcome to every company everywhere.
Actually, that's not entirely true. To the original poster's questions:
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?
Here's what I've learned in my brief time spent on this earth about management and leadership. I've learned most of what I know from real-world inferences derived from what not to do. However, I have read a fair amount of leadership, management and sales literature (it should probably be said that I'm a software engineer by training/trade). I've found it boils down to a few things along one main theme:
You've probably already spotted the theme here: people, people and people. Unfortunately, if upper management doesn't buy into this, you're fucked. There's very little you can do (unless you're in a leadership position yourself) to combat this.The best you can hope for is to be laid off so you can collect unemployment while you search for a new job. Think of it as bozo cancer which has metastasized. If you are in a position of leadership, here's some things you can do:
moto411.com
Three types of employees:
(1) those that make all things possible (hardware, software, science, technology, art, literature, commitment, loyalty, satisfaction, drive, profit, ...),
(2) those that clock-punch, do-a-job, are socially functional, expects a $ for a $ effort, will plagiarize (Type-1's subordinates' work) for career advantages.
(3) those that are pet-rocks of CEO/SES/..., have exceptional (almost sociopathic) social skills, will take all the credit whenever things go right, point the finger at others when things go wrong, their prime purpose is to manage their career, because (they believe) only Type-3's can be successful bosses/managers (right, they know not their job).
I have known all three types at every position in Government and Business. Sometimes the Type-3 will be the CEO/SES, have other pet-rocks for affirmation, and believe that Type-2 folks do everything that is needed, because of Type-3 management ability, and Type-1 jerks/fools are the cause of all problems.
Following the above logic (THIS IS TRUE!): [A] Management says: (1) everyone is replaceable (get rid of the problems), (2) worker-bees cannot be promoted into management, because we need them to do the work, (3) pack-mules are great they get the work done and you can load them up with the important task. [B] Employees say: (1) screw-up move-up, (2) It is not what you know, but who you blow, (3) give head to get ahead. I have heard both "A&B" quotes from Type-3 management people, but employees (all three types) stick to the "B" quotes.
My observation is that a Capitalist Republic is little better than a Ferengi Republic, though either can be camouflaged as a Democratic Republic, Capitalism remains an economic model, (thank the gods) the Ferengi are fiction, and Democracy maintains the "Great Expectations" for all.
Any of these models/philosophies are better than all previous governing or ruling attempts by humanity. Kings/Emperors (Louie, Caesar, Napoleon, ...), Dictators
(Mao, Marcos, IdiAmin, ...), Megalomaniacs (Hitler, Stalin, Caligula, ...), Democracy
(USA, Australia, Britain, ...) proves that we (humanity) can all do better
without business, religion, dictators, ... running a country or subjugating
people.
Now back from the abstract to the concrete topic. It is not in the interest of some management teams to have (as equals) mutual respect with employees. Firing a few employees every now/then proves to anyone who may consider themselves equal that they are totally replaceable by other subordinate worker-bees, pack-mules, sub-human. Many capitalist businesses and religious institutions today (globally) are still fascist institutions. Religious institutions (all faiths) around the world continue to fall into three groups (1) the good and pious (I like and protect them) that do their best to help educate, feed, house, ... humanity,
(2) the pick-pocket (take the money/people and live well) evangelist always
knowing the words of god and asking for money, and (3) the shake-&-bake (shake'em
down and bake'em when done, [EM=Evil/Enemy Mankind]) religious leaders that can
always justify murder in the name of god. Consensus communities (Democracy) like "Open Source",
WWW, ... are now proving that there may be better more profitable (to the company, economy,
ecology, humanity) economic models. Dang again, there appears to be only
one in three people that I will ever respect, trust, or care about (luckily
that third, of humanity, cares about me and the rest of US).
These consensus communities, using inter/intranet collaboration technologies in the future, will create the stronger, more competitive, and profitable businesses. Network sciences and knowledge-bases of the future will keep track of who is doing what and providing success for US. Business (to stay competitive) will promote the (then disco
Unaccountable leaders are masters, and unrepresented people are slaves. How do US and EU fare?
There are MANY things good companies do to attract and keep the best folks in the industry. Performance-based cash bonuses a couple times a year go a long way. Flexible hours are key. Public recognition of hard work / successful projects is good for everyone. Encouraging developers to work from home as needed, 1 or 2 days a week, is great. And establishing a culture of trust and teamwork and sense of shared purpose is also very important.
This may sound like a fantasy, but my company provides all of these things, at least to some degree. Yes there have been layoffs -- but it is management's responsibility to make sure that its talent pool remains strong. So they eliminate the weak, and reward the strong, and amazing things happen. My coworkers and I work 50-60 hours a week on average, and more often than not finish the week feeling good about what we accomplished.
Also, while most of the corporate HR cultural initiatives have been somewhat bland and, well, corporate, individuals are fully empowered to take initiative themselves to make it a cool place to work. For example I started an indoor soccer team, and we've had several foozball tourneys, etc.
Anyway I wanted to share some thoughts on how some companies (mine at least) are doing it right.
La via sola al paradiso incommincia nel inferno
Jobs are interesting things, the product of capitalism and industrialism. The important thing to remember is that jobs are owned by the bosses not the workers. And although they come with attractive bait, i.e., decent paychecks, privileges, benefits, etc., they are still totally temporary and can disappear for reasons known only to the owners.
The work, however, is owned by the workers! This is not new. But after some five or six American generations in which a huge proportion of the population - especially the highly educated population and more especially the highly privileged population - have relied on jobs to provide their opportunity to work, it is difficult to unpack the work from the job.
Those who manage to keep the job separated from the work will also manage to find satisfaction regardless of the conditions of employment. It isn't easy. But it will liberate you from anxiety over why your boss is such an obvious fool.
Are you kidding? In software development that requires highly qualified people, it is never easy to replace them. It can take months to dive into a new codebase; every day spent on grokking a new project means less constructive work done on it.
Sure, you and I know that, but management is not willing to believe it. They would much rather believe that programmers are plug-and-play widgets that can be replaced at will.
We once had a coder (call him Joe) who received an offer from another company and gave our employer a chance to match it. They told him no, so he took the other job. Jane was chosen to take over Joe's projects, and she was skilled but had no experience with the projects. A few weeks later, there was a minor-version OS upgrade for security reasons, and a critical application broke. The latest version wouldn't even compile any longer.
From my office, which was very close to management row, I was able to hear the (very loud) wisdom of the top IT manager. He ranted at length about how it was unforgiveable that things stopped working just because some guy name Joe was gone. He yelled about how if we had proper documentation (which we did) anyone should be able to walk in and perform Joe's tasks. He shouted about having proper processes and how that would make individuals irrelevant. It was quite an eye-opener for me.
At any rate, Jane called Joe, and he was nice enough to walk her through far enough that she was able to prove it was a problem with COTS software and have it resolved. The end result: four days down-time on a critical application and a whole slew of useless new rules on project documentation that waste a great deal of time. Management is generally clueless.