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  • Are you comfy?

    Are you comfy?

     

    Reading an article like A Field Guide to Developers by Joel Spolsky makes me wonder:

    1. What part of this story is ‘American’ and what could/should be implemented right here, right now?
    2. If you answered the previous question with ‘all of it is very American’, my guess is you are a manager. If you answered ‘we need all of that right here and now’, I think you are a recruiter or addicted to being pampered. (Or is that my latent manager alter ego?)
    3. How do these ‘environmental conditions’ MoSCoW (Must have, Should Have, Could have, Would have) for me?
    4. How do you, dear reader, MoSCoW them?

    My ‘environmental priorities’
    (Read the article to understand what these topics mean)

    Must (can’t do without)

    • A spot where I can work without getting interrupted when I don’t want to be interrupted.
    • A clean, bright office but not sterile or lamp lit
    • Top notch chair and table
    • Smart colleagues
    • Independence and autonomy
    • Work on something interesting
    • Use cool new tools
    • Identify with my company
    • Getting paid competitively

    Should (can do without but only after being/getting convinced)

    • Free reign on Amazon.com
    • No politics
    • Flying first class
    • Pick my own projects
    • Multiple screens

    Could (it would be pleasant to have these but I can do without)

    • Nice office location

    Would (good to have but I wouldn’t even notice if it is lacking)

    • Limo pick up
    • Being treated like a star

    The funny thing is that having all must have would make me feel like ‘being treated like a star’.

    While assembling this list I was rather shocked to find out what my Musts and Shoulds are. I like to think of myself as someone who isn’t hooked to a lot of stuff and adapts easily. However, the way I prioritized was by thinking about the effect the ‘thing’ would have on my work. My guess is that I would be more productive with these around. The fact that those makes me happy, content and comfy is just proof of the fact that I would be more productive and deliver a higher quality.

    Oh, and by the way, I am not telling you which are the ones I have and which I don’t: I am not allowing this post to turn into a battle of the employers.
    Please consider that when responding with your MoSCoWs 😉

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3 comments

  1. Funny, my MoSCoW would very much look the same as yours 🙂

    manuelr

  2. “as long as the salaries are basically fair, they will be surprisingly low on their list
    of considerations, and offering high salaries is a surprisingly ineffective tool in
    overcoming problems like the fact that programmers get 15″ monitors and
    salespeople yell at them all the time and the job involves making nuclear
    weapons out of baby seals.”

    Another added value is that people will stay. As with customers: keepping developers is cheaper that attracting new ones.

    rolfh

  3. Indeed Rolf, the main reason Joel wrote the article was Human Resource Management and recruitment.

    ernow

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