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Ask Slashdot: What Makes a Good Work Environment For Developers and IT?
An anonymous reader writes: I've been unexpectedly placed in charge of our small technology department at work. We have three dedicated developers, two dedicated IT people, and one 'devops' guy who does some of both. It's the first team I've managed, and I'd like to do a good job of it, so I ask you: what makes a good work environment? I have my own likes and dislikes, of course, and I'm sure everyone can appreciate things like getting credit for their work and always having the break room fridge stocked. But I'd like to hear about the other things, big and small, that make it more fun (or at least less un-fun) to come into work every day. This can be anything — methods of personal communication, HR policies (for example, how can reviews be not-terrible?), amenities at the office, computer hardware/software, etc. I also wouldn't mind advice on how to represent my team when dealing with other departments.
Do not tell IT anything and then blame them and throw them under the bus when it doesn't get done. Give a wonderful Window at 3pm on a Friday for somehting that needs to be ready by Morning. Also having IT management do 15% layoffs each quarter do wonders for morale too
Never invite them to meetings as they are a cost center. Create a culture of constant reminders of this and you will obtain the best and brightest talent
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I need to say that just because you don't want those perks doesn't mean that the rest of us don't want those perks, too. We do want them. Maybe they don't bring value to you, but they bring great value to the rest of us.
I am what you would probably call a "hipster". I'm a Millennial, and when I was growing up my parents and teachers told me I could be anything I wanted to be. Do you know what I wanted to be more than anything else? I wanted to be a computer programmer. I wanted to be like Linus. I wanted to be like Eric S. Raymond. I wanted to be like John Randolph. I knew I could never be like Dennis Ritchie, but I would have been happy just to have had the chance to shake his hand and thank him for giving us C. I didn't even dare to dream of ever being just like DHH or _why or Zed Shaw, because those men were so marvelous that I could never hope to be even 1/100th as great as them.
I was told that the sky wasn't even the limit. I was told that if I wanted to become a god, I could become one. If I worked hard and did my part, great things would happen. So do you know what I did? I bought books about Ruby on Rails. I read them from front to back. I could recite to you ever single page. I knew every method call. I knew Active Record. I became one with Active Record! I learned HTML, CSS, LESS, Sass, JavaScript, CoffeeScript, and every other important technology. I didn't learn SQL but I did learn NoSQL. Web apps became my passion. I lived and breathed for web apps.
I never went to college. I didn't need to. I knew RoR. I knew HTML. With those powers I could do whatever I wanted. So I got a job. I worked on websites. I faced the deadlines head on. I took on every challenge I could possibly face. Web apps became more than my life. They became everything I was. Having never went to college, I never got a girlfriend, and so I never got married. I'd spend my evenings at the local Ruby on Rails meetup, hooking up with my fellow Rubyist men. When you're part of a community where women are shunned, you engage in sexual encounters with your fellow Rubyist men, even if you yourself aren't gay. Ruby becomes your life. Men become your companions.
I loved it at first. It was everything I dreamed of. Web apps were my passion, and being able to work on my passion 18 or even 20 hours a day made me as happy as you could ever imagine. But the years went by, and I realized that I wanted more in my life. I wanted a woman. But being a Rubyist through and through, I knew that was damn near impossible. I had only ever had experience with men, so I knew no woman would want me. I still had web apps, though. They were still my purpose. But I came to enjoy the perks of work more than ever. Ping pong is what keeps me going these days. Watching other people bring their dogs to work makes my day. Sitting in the open office space with maybe thirty or forty other web devs at the same table drives my creative juices. There's nothing like a table full of men programming in Ruby to really make one feel one's own inherent self value.
I don't expect you to understand where people like me come from, but please try to understand that we love these perks. Ping pong means a lot to us. Maybe you don't like smacking a small white ball with a paddle, but we do. We like working in an open office plan because it brings us the same companionship at work that we find at the Ruby on Rails meetup in the evenings. These perks make us whole. That's why we love them so much.
No problem. Next time you get a job, be sure to negotiate a higher salary because they won't be providing you with lunch. Let me know how that goes.
"First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
Dude, have you never heard of synergy? All that noise around you is nothing but synergy and it'll improve your productivity !!1!
thegodmovie.com - watch it