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Here are the changes that I made:
1) I labeled the coffee maker with instructions on how to make the friggin coffee!
(It worked, consistent coffee, and the 2 of us who made it increased to most everyone!)
2) Dual Monitors (it was a while ago)
3) Moving 2 developers OUT of a shared office into their own "closet" offices.
4) A Herman Miller chair for my office (which I paid for myself)
5) Getting the phone system changed so programmers phones did not ring as a rollover!
And I would say the first one gave me more joy, every day I found a fresh pot of coffee
that someone else made!
Ah... Make the changes.
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In the late 1990's I was working for a software company who had the 41st floor of an office building as a huge open plan area (4 offices on one side for the four "partners" who owned the company.
In the open plan area was around 25 developers, all on high salaries.
In the reception foyer just by the lifts, sat the Receptionist, a New Zealand girl who aspired to be a professional Ballroom dancer.
A consultant advised them to change the phone system so that incoming calls would ring on every single desk in the office, not just the Receptionist desk.
All developers were instructed that no call should be allowed to wait more than three rings.
So, maybe every 5 minutes, all the phones would ring. Every developer in the company would stop what they were doing so they could count the rings.
This company featured in a business magazine of time in a story about "25 fastest growing companies".
The next year they folded spectacularly.
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Tools to retain good developers.
To alcohol! The cause of, and solution to, all of life's problems - Homer Simpson
Our heads are round so our thoughts can change direction - Francis Picabia
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I need a fridge... And a coffee maker.
I have my HDTV, Rocksmith, exercise equipment, computers, futon, etc.; but I'm still missing some essentials.
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As I am an independent, I have set up my place of work to suit me.
Many years ago I had to go up into the ceiling space of my house to replace the battery for the alarm system, and realized there was a huge unused attic space up there.
I got a builder to "convert" it into a 6 x 4 meter office, two large windows (plus stairs) for the equivalent of 6 weeks of my then rate.
It is very quiet - it sits on top of the previously laid ceiling insulation.
After the first flush of enthusiasm, other people in the house can't be bothered climbing the stairs unless they really need to. So I have very few interruptions.
I have a 2 meter desk on one side, and a 1.7 meter work-bench on the other. There is about 20 meters of shelving in the room.
When I was a wage slave I was always amused that large companies would pay in excess of $100,000 for 48 weeks of 40 hour weeks (1920 hours) of my time and then stick me in some kind of crazy open "bull-ring" to go do my work.
A nice environment for a frenzied forex trader, but NFG for a software developer.
Guaranteed 50% productivity decrease.
IMHO, a serious developer needs a large, quiet space to work in.
Yes, he must go and talk with other people - the rest of the team, users etc. But it is a good thing that to do so he must get up and move away from his work-place.
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chriselst wrote: reasonable, change that could be made to your place of work to make it better?
Offices.
Now if we remove "reasonable" then timely business requirements.
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Surrealist coding: /* No comment */
Bad command or file name. Bad, bad command! Sit! Stay! Staaaay...
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Surrealist response: /* No comment */
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char *response = "\n\0 Comment" ;
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/* Slaps Griff with a large fish whilst dressed as a clown. */
Now that's surrealist cod-ing.
"These people looked deep within my soul and assigned me a number based on the order in which I joined."
- Homer
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Bad command or file name. Bad, bad command! Sit! Stay! Staaaay...
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Je vois que vous avez joué poisson-spoony[^] avant.
"These people looked deep within my soul and assigned me a number based on the order in which I joined."
- Homer
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That's not surrealism. It's just silly. Must do better.
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How many Cuils[^] would you like?
"These people looked deep within my soul and assigned me a number based on the order in which I joined."
- Homer
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|Real code|
GCS d--- s-/++ a- C++++ U+++ P- L- E-- W++ N++ o+ K- w+++ O? M-- V? PS+ PE- Y+ PGP t++ 5? X R++ tv-- b+ DI+++ D++ G e++>+++ h--- ++>+++ y+++* Weapons extension: ma- k++ F+2 X
If you think 'goto' is evil, try writing an Assembly program without JMP. -- TNCaver
"When you have eliminated the JavaScript, whatever remains must be an empty page." -- Mike Hankey
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den2k88 wrote: |Real code| If this were knighted would it then be: Sir Real code ?
Fetching my coat...
"Fairy tales do not tell children the dragons exist. Children already know that dragons exist. Fairy tales tell children the dragons can be killed."
- G.K. Chesterton
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DO ,1 <- #13
PLEASE DO ,1 SUB #1 <- #238
DO ,1 SUB #2 <- #108
DO ,1 SUB #3 <- #112
DO ,1 SUB #4 <- #0
DO ,1 SUB #5 <- #64
DO ,1 SUB #6 <- #194
DO ,1 SUB #7 <- #48
PLEASE DO ,1 SUB #8 <- #22
DO ,1 SUB #9 <- #248
DO ,1 SUB #10 <- #168
DO ,1 SUB #11 <- #24
DO ,1 SUB #12 <- #16
DO ,1 SUB #13 <- #162
PLEASE READ OUT ,1
PLEASE GIVE UP
veni bibi saltavi
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The NoCommentException has not been handled...
I never finish anyth
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An Andalusian dodge
- refusing to comment.
Life is too shor
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Minimalist coding:
Software Zen: delete this;
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I look at code each day and wonder if my coworkers are just a bunch of surrealists...
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Lack-of-pointillists, most of 'em!
Bad command or file name. Bad, bad command! Sit! Stay! Staaaay...
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I wished they were more minimalist
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It is pretty common for companies, at least in America, to provide free coffee to their employees via a coffee machine. I don't drink coffee so each job I have worked at I ask for free Snickers candy bars. No one has come through yet. Is it too much to ask that the minority (non-coffee drinkers) be treated fairly and equally?
There are only 10 types of people in the world, those who understand binary and those who don't.
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