Improving Company Morale? 615
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?"
How not to do it... (Score:5, Interesting)
Just take all the advice and reverse it.
Similar situation (Score:1, Interesting)
Our management is bad, their management is mediocre, and the management at the top is terrible.
How do we fix our morale?
The one thing which has helped me is realizing that management isn't always the enemy. Some of them are stuck in the same shitty situation as you, the engineer, are. Others are trapped by their own management. And yes, some of them are just rotten, but don't blame the messenger, but usually, don't blame his/her boss either!
Morale is your own responsibility (Score:5, Interesting)
What not to do (Score:5, Interesting)
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.
Alcohol (Score:5, Interesting)
Workplace democracy (Score:5, Interesting)
freedom (Score:4, Interesting)
Another tip is to take your co-workers out to a bar
Hmmm... (Score:3, Interesting)
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!
Don't underestimate the little things. (Score:4, Interesting)
Do what you enjoy doing... (Score:3, Interesting)
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.
Re:You answer your own question... (Score:5, Interesting)
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.
Thoughts from a newbie. (Score:3, Interesting)
For a little comparison, the location I work at has about 100 employees and about 1000 company wide.
Try gaming (Score:5, Interesting)
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.
Demming's work in Japan (Score:5, Interesting)
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.
no easy answers. (Score:3, Interesting)
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
Re:Alcohol (Score:5, Interesting)
I'm 95% kidding, of course, but alcohol not being on the same list as comming to work on crack definately helps some. You're not afraid to order a draft beer or two with your sandwitch.
Plus, another big one is how comfortable the employees are in their work environment. We don't have an official uniform. I wear sandals and my Itchy and Scratchy t-shirt to work. BUT I feel more productive because I don't have to deal with wearing a company logo polo shirt and dress shoes.
A lot of smaller technology firms could benifit from expanding "dress down friday" to everyday. Really, how often do you see your customers? I know of one customer who currently lives in the same town as our office, and he signed up because he knew me. As long as we remain professional on the phone, what does it honestly matter?
Also: Music. We're allowed to quietly play music at work. Note: QUIETLY, because we have to be able to hear phone conversations, but, we all like different kinds of music (techno, country/classical, punk). Being able to have background music does help.
Plus, being able to browse websites not strictly related to work helps, too. We just call it "selective trolling" - keep the work URL in the
My company's motto (Score:4, Interesting)
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.
Re:Workplace democracy (Score:2, Interesting)
How To Win Friends and Influence People (Score:2, Interesting)
In other words "How can we deceive?" (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:The exceptions... (and they DO exist!) (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:The exceptions... (and they DO exist!) (Score:4, Interesting)
On the other hand, as far as hiring and firing in this market goes... A lot of people seem to have bought into the myth that employees are interchangeable. Maybe to a certain extent someone's technical skills are interchangeable, and that's debatable, but their personality and their "soft skills" are not. Believe it or not, soft skills matter in every part of the company. So, getting the right person is often more important than getting exactly the right skill set.
It's odd to see how opinion seems to break down into extremes, like indispensable or interchangeable, in adverse conditions, when, really, any good manager with a good sense of perspective doesn't believe in either of those opinions.
Find a slower paced job... (Score:1, Interesting)
werd.
You need to read, "First Break all The Rules" (Score:2, Interesting)
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?
Re:Don't take away freedoms to "improve" productiv (Score:5, Interesting)
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 [barnesandnoble.com] 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.
AES Corp? (Score:1, Interesting)
Not the same comany apparently, but it reminded me of AES Corp. [aesc.com], as described in Fast Company [fastcompany.com]'s article, "Power to the People" [fastcompany.com].
My Brush w/ Morale Improvement. (Score:4, Interesting)
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.
Re:Workplace democracy (Score:2, Interesting)
Good read.
Reduce layers of management (Score:2, Interesting)
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.
the management won't like it... (Score:3, Interesting)
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
One layoff per year (Score:3, Interesting)
Workers Self Management. (Score:2, Interesting)
That's how you improve moral, comrade
The Hacker FAQ (Score:4, Interesting)
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
Why must it be a "geek" activity? (Score:3, Interesting)
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.
How this for a moral buster! (Score:5, Interesting)
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
All it takes is a bit of initiative (Score:1, Interesting)
You can't sit on your butt at work waiting for the managers to do stuff for you. Five years ago when money wasn't the issue it is today, you'd probably get sent off on team-building excursions, but today you're going to have to do that yourself, and pay for it yourself, but it's worth it.
Just organise a paintball day, or (if you're feeling rich) a weekend in the hills doing orientation, capture the flag, whatever.
Just do whatever it takes to make your colleagues feel like they're not alone, like you're all "in it together" which, at the end of the day, you are.
But sitting in front of a terminal asking a fairly obvious question on Ask Slashdot instead of actually *doing* something about morale, isn't going to get you anywhere. If you're going to wait for it, it's not going to happen.
Re:Morale is your own responsibility (Score:5, Interesting)
This sort of presupposes that such oportunities/challenges exist in your work place. Their are environments, typically only in small businesses, where management is so clueless that you can actually find yourself in hot water for proposing ways to get the company out of the IT shithole you're in.
Case in point: I'm currently working for a bookstore at a university. A few years back we purchased a point of sale and inventory management system. The product we purchased so poorly developed it's egregious. In many instances it just doesn't work, and where it does work we have to go through so many hoops to get it to work, it would be better ditching it altogether. Now, this product also has various web services that are meant to run on our AS/400 server. They allow our customers to perform various activities such as: order a textbook, reserve a textbook, request a textbook adoption (for faculty), and so on. Now, as with most of the products supplied to us by our vendors, these products barely work. This is exceptionally damaging to us as an institution as these are programs that our customers interface with directly. So, I have recently proposed an alternative to management. That we set up a linux server running mySQL, apache, and PHP. We could then create web applications to replace the faulty applications we are now using.
I've spent quite some time with this proposal: In fact it's turned out to be forty-some page memorandum, complete with research and estimates on how this change would effect our company.
Now, here's the kicker. Management turned out not to be interested in even looking at the proposal. It seems he's more interested in protecting his image than the company. We've spent over a quarter million dollars on equipment and software alone, not to mention outrageous support fees. He's expressed the opinion that since we've invested so much into this product already, he can't just back out now. You see, it would make it look like he made a bad decision. Not just a bad one, but a very costly one. Since the University is considering outsourcing the bookstore, it is important that his image remain intact. Even if it means that we can barely funciton.
So, for the time being I am stuck with: Data entry, employee training, finding workarounds, and writing shitty reports and query utilities with Visual Basic (the only thing I've been able to use out of concern for future maintenance--it has to be able to be modified by Joe Random Coder). Damn it. I swear, it seems like nothing I do will actually have any impact. Why, then, should I care?
FYI: I am a graduate student studying mathematics. I've been with this bookstore for 5 years now. I was hired as an undergraduate student studying Comp Sci. I am now working full time and have education benefits for me and my wife, which is what is keeping me with this employer. And yes, I am at work now.
ages ago (Score:5, Interesting)
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.
Re:Management Doesnt Care (Score:2, Interesting)
My Great Suggestion! (Score:2, Interesting)
Yeah. (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Are you kidding? (Score:1, Interesting)
I think it is important to point out that this is not some coloquialism. In fact(i.e. substantiated by actual numbers), approximately half of all software projects fail. That means they are cancelled. They never produce anything useable. And yet, it is perfectly possible to have a development team that operates near 100% success. Why the discrepancy? I reckon it's because of those ">90% of software developers" who don't know what they are doing. With the massive layoffs everone is hearing about you would think that they would be the first to go, but I don't think that's the case, and just about everyone I know in the industry don't think so either.
This is a pretty big fucking problem. If this trend continues, the ratio of knoledgeable people to nitwits is going to dwindle to 0, and the number of failed projects is going to shoot higher than 50%. Managers are going to continue to ship projects over seas; if the project is going to fail anyways, why the hell not?
So what do we do? Well, if you don't care about the software industry, then get the fuck out. If you do care about the industry then do something to get the people who don't care, and the people who are incompetant, the fuck out. If management doesn't believe that talent has any bearing on developers, if they believe that you can't really do much about having half of your projects fail, if they believe that it isn't possible to produce software that is nearly bug free, if they believe that you can't estimate cost and time for software projects, then get them the fuck out too.
Re:Things to do, and not to (Score:1, Interesting)
Take a look at this list - 2/3 of the suggestions involve something that will have almost zero financial impact on the company. However, each of these suggestions involve the company giving up some small amount of control over their employees.
I think this gets to the root of the problem. There are companies where management is capable of treating their employees as professional, working adults. There are other companies where management is convinced that the employees are, at best, barely-manageable children.
Surprise! When you treat your employees with respect, they in turn respect you. Dressing up your lack of respect in "business reasons" doesn't hide anything - your employees will know how you really feel about them, and will react accordingly.
Re:Morale is your own responsibility (Score:3, Interesting)
That alone is reason to complain. It's comparable to being a slave and always looking over your shoulder for the angry slavemaster with the whip.
You think that's downsizing? (Score:5, Interesting)
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?
Re:Treat your people like professionals (Score:2, Interesting)
I gave the person almost exactly the same answer you did. His response, you'll love this. OH thats not possible.
Give me the choice of what I do with my time. Let me have some say in the crazy deadlines your coming up with. Do not bitch at me when I do not come in on the weekend. For every one of those it was 'oh thats not going to happen'. I looked back at him and said you are not open to any sort of change and little 'fun side' things will not help moral. You do not respect us, or our families, or our time. If I see no respect coming from managment even when I give it to them. I am ending up not really caring what happens.
Latter on that day he even told me that I do not care what other people have to say. I always listen and am willing to change my views if I am wrong. What I could not get through to him was that NO ones opinions are respected where we work.
Re:Don't take away freedoms to "improve" productiv (Score:5, Interesting)
They chose to come in late. Screw them guys, I'm going home.
Re:Are you kidding? (Score:4, Interesting)
My experience suggests that things are more two-tiered. In my last IT job, in which I was hired as a new graduate, the company would periodically retrench people during down times and to cut costs. After about a year, I was retrenched also. The HR chick told me that it was nothing to do with performance, but it was obvious to me that they would not retrench people who they considered had performed well.
These guru programmers - and there was a sizeable number of them - were told, in performance reviews and elsewhere how valuable the company considered them to be. They were frequently given payrises, promotions and bonuses also. The company would charge through the nose for their services. They could have had no fears about losing their jobs.
While I would have preferred not to have been retrenched (after being hired as a graduate!) this approach has worked wonders for the company, enabling them to produce high quality work and greatly enlarge their client base.
how about not trying to destroy morale (Score:2, Interesting)
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.
Re:My Brush w/ Morale Improvement. (Score:3, Interesting)
That guy was trying to get a better holistic picture of your organization. Maybe if you learned a bit about sales, you'd come to understand the types of features the customers want, or how to "sell" your suggestions to management.
*Shakes head sadly*. No wonder non-techies think techies are such assholes...
Re:Best way to improve morale (Score:3, Interesting)
When those boys hit the doors in the morning, they were ready to sell some cars.
Re:Don't take away freedoms to "improve" productiv (Score:3, Interesting)
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.
This Works-But Company must be willing (Score:1, Interesting)
Step 2: Run out and buy the paperback version of "Seven Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R. Covey. Read it and practice it yourself for 30 days (count starts after you finish the book). It is worthless sitting on a bookshelf . Don't be afraid to use a highlighter. It also may be tax deductable.
Step 3: Convince your boss, HR and/or upper management to by a copy for EVERYONE in the company with a requirement to read it. Yes it includes the dock workers, maintenance people, and the janitors. You will understand after you read the book.
Step 4: Have the company create a plan based on what they have learned from the book and implement it.
Results: Morale and layoffs will no longer be an issue and the company will grow to eventually own its market.
What happens if you follow the book but the company refuses to buy into it?
The company is no longer worth your time. You need to find another job with a company that will appreciate your real worth. This company does not. Try their competitors first. If they hire you, and follow your suggestions, they will own the market and your former company.
If you can't get a job with a competitor, then use the books advise and find a different company to work for that has principles and values. Your paradigm has been shifted and you no longer need to be a victim of your previous job.
If you abandon the book or Step 2, you deserve what you got.
The solution sounds easy but it is the most difficult thing you will ever have to do - especially Step 2. If you can make it through Step 2 your are home free.
How to make your employees happy: (Score:5, Interesting)
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.
Re:Morale? (Score:5, Interesting)
Welcome to every company everywhere.
Actually, that's not entirely true [computerworld.com]. 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:
We all have problems ..., an old system that works (Score:3, Interesting)
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
Cash, flextime, recognition, VPN, culture.... (Score:4, Interesting)
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.
Who Owns Work? (Score:3, Interesting)
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.
Re:Are you kidding? (Score:1, Interesting)
The best managers that I have worked for have all been former coders, but from the big iron days. They knew the ebb and flow of code writing is the same regardless of platform.
I have also had pretty good virtually non-technical manager that were skilled in following some methodology from end to end through the project. They may not have been someone that you could bounce ideas off of or probe for some classic technique that you may be overlooking, but they understood the work to be done would not get anywhere by yelling and saying "just get it 'working' by EOB!!!!"
Also, there have been many times that programmers had hire salaries than direct supervisors, and I am not just talking about the days when we could just name a figure. Some of the companies I have worked for truly knew that their existence depended upon the quality of code being produced, and just Monstering for a 'Will Code for Food' programmer would not get them where having a solid team of coders who actually cared about their work, and who proudly take ownership of their code. Quality is worth it at any price!
Re:Are you kidding? (Score:5, Interesting)
Are you kidding? In software development that requires highly qualified people, it is never easy to replace them. It can take months to dive into a new codebase; every day spent on grokking a new project means less constructive work done on it.
Sure, you and I know that, but management is not willing to believe it. They would much rather believe that programmers are plug-and-play widgets that can be replaced at will.
We once had a coder (call him Joe) who received an offer from another company and gave our employer a chance to match it. They told him no, so he took the other job. Jane was chosen to take over Joe's projects, and she was skilled but had no experience with the projects. A few weeks later, there was a minor-version OS upgrade for security reasons, and a critical application broke. The latest version wouldn't even compile any longer.
From my office, which was very close to management row, I was able to hear the (very loud) wisdom of the top IT manager. He ranted at length about how it was unforgiveable that things stopped working just because some guy name Joe was gone. He yelled about how if we had proper documentation (which we did) anyone should be able to walk in and perform Joe's tasks. He shouted about having proper processes and how that would make individuals irrelevant. It was quite an eye-opener for me.
At any rate, Jane called Joe, and he was nice enough to walk her through far enough that she was able to prove it was a problem with COTS software and have it resolved. The end result: four days down-time on a critical application and a whole slew of useless new rules on project documentation that waste a great deal of time. Management is generally clueless.
Re:Part of the growing class division in the US (Score:1, Interesting)
There is one thing is the executives including management don't like is employees who are independent especially in thought and how they live. The type of person most disliked is a person who is debt free. They are the most likely to walk if told to do something against their conscious. Society also dislike that type of person as well. Look at the tax code. If you are in debt, you are looked upon favorbly with tax breaks. The corporate executives have a large say in the writing of the tax code.
I have a good example of this prejudice. When I managed a small IT group, I had one employee who worked very hard but he also came from a family with some money. He drove a muscle car (Mustang) to work and lived in a modest but it was paid off. Every year when we did employee appraisals, my boss who was a big executive did not like this employee and saw to it that he got meager pay raises each year. Much below everyone else even the fuck ups in the group. When the job market started to do well, he left because of the treatment by my executive manager. My employee also invested in stocks as well and my executive manager confided with me that the stock market should be an exclusive club and this employee did not belong in investing.
When you work in Corporate America, there are many unwritten rules depended where in the food chain you are at. If you drive a certain vehicle which is outside of the norm of your position, you will be noticed by the executive and be punished accordingly. It could mean a denial of promotion or pay raise or the first in line on the chopping block for layoffs. Also rated are the type of activities you participate in outside of work. Executive will go to certain places to eat at where it is frowned on for someone lower on the food chain to go to. You won't see an executive go four wheeling or to NASCAR race or even other white collar professionals. If they do go and it is found out, they lose respectability with other executives.
Corporate America has a long way to go and until the "Management Class" changes, the rules will stay the same.
Re:Part of the growing class division in the US (Score:3, Interesting)
Wold you please site a specific rule which proibits the setting up of a new executive-less company as I have described? The only stopblock I can see would be funding, and as I stated, in the "everyone trades" environment of post-late-1990s, it's no longer valid as the "not in the in" little people can invest in such company even if big shots could theoretically conspire not to (and for that matter, given the strategic blindness of big trading houses vs. short-term gains, i'm 99% sure they'd invest too, as it would mean better ROI which is their mantra).
>>> Democracy doesn't just happen, either -- lots of dictators argue that the little people can't make decisions without the inspired leadership of their betters as well.
Invalid example - in a dictatorship, one of your first freedoms to go is the ability to escape. If a dictatorship has free emigration (whether by choice, or due to porous borders), people will jump ship to a better neighbour. As an immigrant from fUSSR, I can personally confirm that trend
In case of a company, nothing stops the people to jump ship and organize a new one.
>>> distinct class with a seperate set of privileges that are not granted to others.
Such as? Other than perhaps a membership in some exclusive golf club, what exactly are those priviledges? Remember, you can say the same thing, for example, about "privildges" of computer-savvy to have the perks of online auctions, comparison-shopping online or stealing^H^H^H^H^H^Hsharing digital content... or reading
>>> Coupled with the repeal of the estate tax,
OK, so if I came to this country, worked my ass off to start - literally - from zero, and made some money that i'm hoping I can leave to my kids, what exactly makes you think that some lazy welfare-sitting bum who has had MORE opportunities in this country than I ever did has more rights to what I earned than my family?
>>> increasingly expensive college tuition at "good" schools and we have all the fixings for a new American aristocracy.
Anyone smart enough to pass tests decently can get a bunch of scolarships. And anyone determined enough can get VERY good education from a cheaper, good - if not Ivy League quality - college. Look at the amount of first/second generation immigrants in graduate Math or CS departments at Princeton, for example.
Yes, you may have to work harder than some rich guy's child born in silver shirt, but other than this requirement to work really hard, there are no other barriers. You may not likely to get to be the President of the USA or Ford CEO, but the reasonably high executive position is quite possible for just about anyone with appropriate qualities.
-DVK