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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?"
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.
Whores. Lots and lots of whores.
And don't be stingy with the cocaine, either.
God invented whiskey so the Irish would not rule the world.
It's gonna be like this, in our job market at least, for a while. Hopefully not too long...!
"Firings will continue until morale improves"
;)
- The Management
Sorry, couldn't resist
-- Gxis! Ed.
Two years ago I wrote this: Management Techniques of the Bottom 95% of U.S. Corporations.
:)
Just take all the advice and reverse it.
I work for a software dev company down
here in O.C. It's the same way here.
The way I relieve my stress is applying
for better jobs and talking more sh!t
about management and their crappy decisions
that landed up the company in this situation.
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.
"In fact I know this place called Mary-Anne's Hammocks - the nice thing about it is, Mary-Anne gets in the hammock with you! Hahah, I'm just kidding, Homer."
Hank Scorpio rules.
150 Opening BINARY mode data connection for slashdot.sig (129323052 bytes).
#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
Read this. The leader in your company should be the first to take on long hours, pay cuts, all of the worst jobs. Set the example for your employees and most importantly, do it with a smile on your face.
This guy is way out there
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.
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.
Obviously you haven't been getting enough floggings.
I know the secrets of the video game champs
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.
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)
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.
Random and capricious firings, demotions, reorganizations, and project cancellations help. So do bamboo canes. I would also look into 50% pay cuts for anyone who isn't management. Keep the staff isolated from each other and the outside world, make sure no one knows how the company is really doing in presales negotiation or postsales execution, and then you'll have a really tight rein on them.
Oh yeah, mustn't forget Gestapo-like surveillance techniques and frequent reminders that you don't trust your employees not to squander company time and resources! Crack down hard on anyone who likes to mail jokes around, block access to humor sites and job-boards, and occassionally reject or alter outbound mails "by accident". Finish this off by identifying your employees by number first, name second -- a login and email address like jc7385@company.com really lets them know how much you care.
"Nothing was broken, and it's been fixed." -- Jon Carroll
First off, I'd _allow_ and/or _encourage_ Geek activities (This _is_ a Geek workforce we're talking about, no?). Say, maybe you could have an after hours LAN party? And of course you'd need to allow /.ing, etc, during work hours. of course, not to excess.
Also, assure the rest of them (Falsely or not) that their jobs are secure, that the company needs them, etc etc. THis tends to be important. Also, reward productivity. Maybe $50 for a good worker? Not expensive, but it will boost moral.
Hope this helps!
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 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
Having problems with negative talk during lunches?
Get rid of the lunch breaks! If your local labor laws won't alow that, then just make sure each employee has a different lunch time. You may have to vary start times to fit them all in, but that is why the day has 24 hours.
People complaining around the water cooler?
Remove the water cooler! If the local health laws require a source of water, then intall a money collection device. People will think twice about gathering around for a BS sessions if it costs them $.25 a swallow.
Negatiove E-mails making the rounds on your corporate network?
Are their computers REALLY needed?
Isn't web development really more of an artistic thing? I think only one person would really need to have a computer, the rest can just draw there ideas on paper with crayons and submit them to the guy with the computer for entry. And those silly PHP or Perl monkeys spend WAY too much time changing code, tweaking , degugging and stuff. I think most bugs are there because they are not careful or they are poor typists. You could hire a touch typists from you local high school to enter all their code for the day in the evening. Tha way they would be sure to be accurate the first time. Your empyees will be so busy they won't have time to have morale.
You are correct in your assumption that lay offs cause bad morale. NEVER LAY OFF EMPLOYS! Alway make thier job so horrible, so degrading, so painful that they just quit. It will save you a bundle on unemployment fees and severence packages. If you planned ahead you are allready located in an area like Utah, that has a horribly depressed tech sector so a few employees will stay because they know that the only other oppurtunity is flippiung burgers at McD's.
~Z
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.
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.
Best thing for morale?
How about you quit?
After a few months of you still unsuccessfully job searching, everyone at the company will feel really appreciative that they still have their jobs. This will vastly improve morale!
Also you can return periodically to regale them with hilarious job interview anecdotes.
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
[excerpt from Dilbert strip] ...
Dilbert: Any idea why morale is so low?
Wally: We think it's your breath.
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
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
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.
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
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.
"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.
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.
Welcome to every company everywhere.
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.
I highly suggest you read the book How To Win Friends and Influence People . I don't have time to write a review, but there are a couple at the Amazon page. Basically, this book will teach you how to lead people and get them to do what you would like them to do.
He who laughs last is stuck in a time dilation bubble.
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.
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.
Hell, moral at our company is as low as it goes. I thought it couldn't get worse, then they said they were cancelling the biscuit supply! (major cost saving, apparently). Never mind saving money by sacking all our crappy IT managers who have no technical knowledge and keep buying new servers for every 3rd party app we get (on the 3rd party company advice - so their margins go up).
Free meals? Whe had a christmas meal and our boss insisted we have 7 pizzas between 8 of us (I wish I were kidding!!).
I improve my moral by bitching about them *and* doing everything I can to move! My boss tried to improve my moral by asking if I could work this Sunday!
Sorry, had to get that off my chest...I *do* feel better now.
We have grown from 4 employees in 1999 to 270 in March of 2003. Employee morale and engagement is incredibly important to us as managers in the company.
There are no shortcuts to creating employee morale and engagement. Free lunches won't do it, pep talks won't do it, even stopping the layoffs won't improve morale and engagement.
Creating an environment where people know what is expected of them, where they can grow, where management cares about them, where they are recognized, where they are valued and where they have the tools to do there work will improve morale and engagement.
Accomplishing this is hard work and it is up to your company's managers to make this happen. As with most things in life there are no shortcuts. It is hard work. Hope you are up to it.
Here is a list of the 12 key items that you need to discover from your employees from the Gallup book.
Look here:
http://gmj.gallup.com/book_center/FBATR/
Item 12: Opportunities to Learn and Grow
Item 11: Talk to Me About My Progress
Item 10: I Have a Best Friend at Work
Item 9: Doing Quality Work
Item 8: My Company's Mission or Purpose
Item 7: My Opinions Seem to Count
Item 6: Someone Encourages My Development
Item 5: My Supervisor Cares About Me
Item 4: Recognition or Praise
Item 3: Doing What I Do Best
Item 2: Materials and Equipment
Item 1: Knowing What's Expected
What Is a Great Workplace?
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.
"For fun I go to the interview, they offer me the job, then I drop a bomb on their stupid asses. I want 95k/year, 6 weeks paid vacation"
He met to end this with:
And then my mom comes and picks me up in her minivan and takes me to my real job at McDonalds.
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.
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.
Robbie? Dwayne? Is that you? If so, please report to the IT Director for Summary Firing.
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.
Free. (as in Beer)
:)
As in lots of it.
Fellowship 9/11
It's guaranteed to improve morale.
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 ----
Peter Gibbons: So I was sitting in my cubicle today, and I realized, ever since I started working, every single day of my life has been worse than the day before it. So that means that every single day that you see me, that's on the worst day of my life.
Dr. Swanson: What about today? Is today the worst day of your life?
Peter Gibbons: Yeah.
Dr. Swanson: Wow, that's messed up!
Whenever the offence inspires less horror than the punishment, the rigour of penal law is obliged to give way...
I find that morale is driven by common purpose. When layoffs are occuring each individual must decide whether to try and find a job elsewhere or to become part of a solution.
Workers at the coal face have a lot of comments to make, and after may long bitchy lunches often have some very good ideas on how to get the company out of it's financial woes. These workers working as an integrated team to bring the company back into the black are the key to sucess and morale.
I think the keys to making this work though are honesty (If the workers aren't given a realistic view of what's going on up at the top then they won't come up with good solutions at the lowest levels) and responsive management. Responsive management is tricky, and particularly when the number of employees drops significantly in an organisation management is looking after it's own collective butt, and often not concentrating on getting out of the rut. Management is usually a lot quicker to drop actual productive workers than they are the management group which made the poor decisions in the first place. In an example in my own company we had an office lose 20 software developers out of 30 while only one token management position fell. To compound the problem the key management individual who was responsible for the group's downfall was hired into a more lucritive group to save him from his self-made destruction.
Management can't be responsive to the front-line workers when there are too many of them, or when they're worrying about their own positions. They may come to see the situation as the same "us and them" battle that the productive employees see. Management and general employees must take hits in equal and honest poritions, and must communicate effectively to save jobs at every level.
Benjamin.
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
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
A company can only survive about one layoff per year. It's much better for morale to have one big one than lots of little ones. It takes more planning by management, but that's what management is for.
This reminds me of our "official" company motto: The random firings will continue until morale improves"
http://www.che-lives.com/cgi/community/topic.pl?fo rum=13&topic=485
;-)
That's how you improve moral, comrade
hey,
...
...
...
... I don't think there is a way people can be motivated enough, to make them forget what happened in the past ...
...
...
...
I have got to admit > I've experienced it two times now, and I don't want to sound to pessimistic or anything - but here is my view of the situation where you're in
1. the overall morale is bad, and personally I don't think there is anything that will be able to change that - as long as one person remains in the company that has experienced the bad time and bad morale ; someone will always refer to the other times
2. once people are giving up, there is almost nothing, that can change that, except the people themselves ; there will be events from management to boost morale, there will be team meeetings and whatever other things managers will come up with - it will not help, unless the people themselves are ready for it
3. after some time, management changes will start happening - since upper management does not see a lot of changes in attitude settling in
Sadly enough - this will only add to the frustration and wondering of the cublicle dwellers - since they will most probably not be informed about the changes and the reasons thereof
4. because of all frustrations getting the upperhand - more people will leave - and less work will be done because of employers talking to each other etc etc
I think what I'm referring to is a spiral > I'm afraid there is nothing much that can be done about it, especially with so many people involved - you talk about a company with 500 people in the past, and 200 remaining
Dilbert comics come to mind by the way
In the two times I experienced this - I remained until the end - until the complete demise : I got fired, and the company went bankrupt both times, in some way
What I learned from this - jump ship when you can, especially if yout got some serious qualities, unless it is a small firm and you got a really innovating product or service worth losing your own motivation for
good luck !
mentor
Knowledge first. Social contact later.
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.
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
Your job does not define who you are. Being "computer geeks" does not mean we should not do anything outside that realm.
Oh, and don't BS me that my job is secure. A lot of really good people got let go in the last round of layoffs. If more are coming, tell me. If they're over, tell me that too. But don't ever "assure" me that my job is "secure" - there is no such thing anymore.
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
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
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.
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.
I can see how that works
"Can everyone who still works here come to my office for a meeting?"
"Where are you going Skyshadow?"
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.
Memo to management:
1. I want to be left alone to do my job. No OSHA training (I can use a fire extinguisher without any explanation from the "Risk Manager," thank you), no safety training (I could not care less about the MSDS sheets - I'm in an office, for God's sake), no sexual harassment/sensitivity training and no drug awareness in the workplace meetings. Do not waste my time on bullshit meetings/classes that have nothing to do with my job.
2. I come in early, work late and work on weekends. If you see me leaving or arriving outside of my scheduled hours, don't worry about it: you're way ahead on the deal.
3. If I can only use my email or web connection for business use, fine: quit allowing people to send broadcast emails about Relay for Life, Blood Drives and Girl Scout Cookies. Either it's for business, or it isn't. Don't allow other people to clutter up my mailbox for "good causes" if I can't send/receive jokes.
4. I am low maintenance, but is it too much to ask that you *not* turn off the fucking hot water heaters and ac units to save money at 4:00 pm every day? Some of us work outside normal hours.
5. If one of my cow-orkers misbehaves, I expect that he be punished. I do not expect that new policies be put in place that have the effect of punishing those of use who did not cause the problem to begin with.
6. Don't lie to me. I'm a big boy, I can handle the truth.
7. Don't get mad at me when I tell the truth.
I manage a small infrastructure team (6 people). We take time out at lunch and at the end of the day (after 5) to play a couple maps of UT.
We name the bots after users we hate, or French presidents.
After 15 or 20 minutes of intense fragging, morale is restored.
HBI's Law: Frequency of calling others Nazis is directly correlated with the likelihood of the accuser being Communist.
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
Try working for a real employer, like the government. You can gain much more satisfaction by knowing what you do is of service to your country. Be a public servant!
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
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?
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
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.
Welcome to every company everywhere.
Ummm.. No. I spend my lunch eating.
Zoot!
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?
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
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.
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.
My current client seems to not understand this.
They have been implementing actively stupid policies.
First, they outlawed accessing email from yahoo and other web email services. Rationale? They couldn't enforce virus scanning on those systems. Why is this stupid? Because the same email virus scanners that our exchange server uses is also on every machine, so that the same scan gets performed on our exchange email OR our web email. (Policy states that if we don't keep up on the latest scanner patch, we will get fired.) Since I never run javascript and I've been paranoid about viruses before anyone else there, I'm ticked. Even worse, for the first 6 months there, they hadn't given me email on their system, so I had to use web email (before they implemented this policy.) I had signed up for various developer forums using my yahoo address. Various developer emails have been sent to me at that address that I can't access from work anymore.
Recently, I discovered that they decided that people don't need to be able to change their own network passwords. If we need to change it, we have to talk to the help desk. The help desk has total domain control of the network. We don't, although we're the ones who actually set up the web and sql servers, did various maintainence on them, and are the ones that the help desk come to when they can't figure out how to clear the cache on their machines. (I exaggerate on that last bit, but not too much.)
Why did they decide to not allow password changing? Rationale, according to the network admin (the little hitler) is that users can't remember their passwords if they change them. Rationale according to the cio is that management needs to know everyone's passwords in case anything happens. When I tried to explain that the domain admin can login to any machine regardless, and even change our password, it was waved away. I was asked if it's really all that inconvient to have the help desk change it. Even more annoying, the help desk doesn't know our passwords. They simply let us change them on their machines. All I can figure is that I'm either being lied to, or management has no clue what they are doing. Not a morale boost.
I'm amazed to see so many suggestions regarding promotion possibilities -- I wonder if you all work in a different IT industry to me. I'm only 30 (don't laugh), but I'm already as high up the technical career ladder as it's possible to be at my workplace (and changing jobs would be a demotion based on the job ads I've seen). To get any higher I'd have to become a manager, which doesn't yet excite me. Isn't there more to a career than just climbing the ziggurat?
Anyway, if you are a manager, the best advice I can give is to find a copy of Peopleware: Productive Projects and Teams, read it, and use its advice. It's a thin book, but it is +100 Insightful when it comes to employees. Some links on the book:
(This is supposed to be a humorous Kohan reference, in case any moderators think this is offtopic)
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.
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.
Aww, you hate your job?
There's a support group for that. It's called everybody, we meet at the bar.
See you there!
My mom says I'm cool.
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.
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!
When I was working at a dying dotcom that was on its way out, we found plenty of ways to keep out spirits up. "After hours" games of Counterstrike and StarCraft were a must. Some of us went out every night to drink and play pool. Then on weekends we would all go get totally plastered at the local pub, walk to someone's place and crash.
It worked really, really well.
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.
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
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!
Finished school 30 june, got hired 1st july after i told I learnt fortran. There is such a lack of skilled people wanting/knowing fortran 77 that they hire foreigner not speaking a bits of the language but a bit of english.
C. Sagan : A demon haunted world:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0345409469/
visit randi.org
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.
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?
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.
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.
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.