Developers strive to get the perfect job. Challenging, fun, interesting and something to be proud of. I know it’s something I strive for personally. Of coure it’s absurd to assume everyone strives for this same feeling of elation, drive and satisfaction when developing something. Some people want different things (to only work 8 hours a day, for example). But from a management perspective, it’s more difficult to find people to fit into your team than it is to find talented people who can do good work.
That’s why gigaom’s article is so good. Not only does it reference the headed-by-Irish-founders mobile payments company stripe, it makes solid, concise and disgustingly clear points as to why things are they way they are.
The big query here is their “Sunday test”, which is a measure of how social, interesting and dedicated a person is all in one go. The premise is that if I do extra hours on a Sunday, would it be fun to come in to keep me company? If yes, then I’m a good potential employee. It’s remarkably telling that this is point number one.
In so many places I’ve been, companies I’ve worked for and things I’ve been involved in, people are put into spots they don’t belong just to fill the void. Moreover, those voids are never emptied for the sake of the greater good (another point the article brings up). I was a bit of a misnomer as a manager last year because I had so few staff for such big tasks, but the staff were great, dedicated and have gone on to do great things – and will go on to do better things in future. But I refused to take on staff for the sake of taking on staff.
Perhaps the personification of my attitude is when everyone calls staff “staff”, and I called my team “colleagues”.
(Apologies if the post comes across as self-serving. My intention was in no way to “big up” my own abilities as a manager, or anything else)
