Software company internal low
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You want to be as flexible as you can – the best developers are creative people and will be stifled by aggressive monitoring or timekeeping rules. At my company we have a guideline number of hours we should do each day, and moderately flexible times (as long as you are around 10-4, you can extend your day at either end); we don't have strict Internet usage rules and although we currently have a rule against listening to music, it's not enforced as long as you have headphones on.
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if you are about to start a new software company , what would your company internal law look like ? any hint will highly appreciated :) thanks
huzifa
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PraneethNSubasekara wrote:
Dont restrict listening to music while working
Wow I never considered a company would want to do that! I imagine the same attitude would supply nice open plan benches to work on. There door, the door, wheres the door, I'm outta here!
Never underestimate the power of human stupidity RAH
The manufacturing job I worked at between when I graduated and got a programming job banned music about a week and a half before I left because production rates had dropped (the fact that they'd just sacked about 70-80% of the midnight shift and replaced them with newbies obviously wasn't a factor :rolleyes: ) and told us we'd be allowed to have our CD players back when the numbers improved. My comment (to coworkers, not the pointy hairs) was the standard 'the beatings will continue until morale improves'. I'm not sure what eventually happened since we were even farther from the (virtually impossible to meet) nominal quotas my last full week there. :doh:
Did you ever see history portrayed as an old man with a wise brow and pulseless heart, waging all things in the balance of reason? Is not rather the genius of history like an eternal, imploring maiden, full of fire, with a burning heart and flaming soul, humanly warm and humanly beautiful? --Zachris Topelius Training a telescope on one’s own belly button will only reveal lint. You like that? You go right on staring at it. I prefer looking at galaxies. -- Sarah Hoyt
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SockPuppeteer wrote:
Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's Wifi
Nihil obstat
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Hey! come on! Be fair. Oh, wait a minute - you are being fair.
.\\axxx
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Well in my experiance, programmers have a pretty stressful life. Its is essenstial to give them adequet freedom in their workplace (not too much). Most sufable content should be monitored this is done with interest on the employees behalf and the companies behalf. The employee, because restricting access to social networking sites will definitly show a boost in effeciency and performance in the work they do. The company aspect is that its preferable that employess dont missuse company bandwidth for personal tasks. When it comes to worklife balance, flexi work hours should be naturally considered as this is a key aspect many employees look for in a software company. It would help them gain the work life balance they need. (Dont restrict listening to music while working) most programmers work better while blasting some tunes in their ears :) !!!!
I have to say, I disagree with the controls listed here. I just finished my MBA and work for a company with unfettered access to internet, social media, etc. Productivity is fine. Especially with smartphones, people will access facebook, twitter, etc. if they want. Unfortunately, access is slower on a smartphone, so it takes even longer to waste time. The theory is that, if you treat the employees as adults, they'll tend to act like adults. Some basic monitoring is okay, then address any outliers as needed. The only thing I would consider restricting would be obvious pornographic/gambling sites (just for your network's sake) and streaming media sites like Pandora, but only if you have a bandwidth concern. Judge the employees based on their productivity, not necessarily how they achieve productivity.
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Well in my experiance, programmers have a pretty stressful life. Its is essenstial to give them adequet freedom in their workplace (not too much). Most sufable content should be monitored this is done with interest on the employees behalf and the companies behalf. The employee, because restricting access to social networking sites will definitly show a boost in effeciency and performance in the work they do. The company aspect is that its preferable that employess dont missuse company bandwidth for personal tasks. When it comes to worklife balance, flexi work hours should be naturally considered as this is a key aspect many employees look for in a software company. It would help them gain the work life balance they need. (Dont restrict listening to music while working) most programmers work better while blasting some tunes in their ears :) !!!!
PraneethNSubasekara wrote:
restricting access to social networking sites will definitly show a boost in effeciency and performance in the work they do
I don't agree with that one because: 1 - Employees that tend to engage a lot in social networking will still do it in their smartphones which will make them lose even more time with it. 2 - Social networking is just one part of what employees that like to drift away from work will do. Ban social networking they will just keep on browsing something else not work related. You have to fix the culture, not ban social networking. Monitoring employees internet usage and warning employees would be a much more effective way to boost productivity. 3 - I believe social networking can actually improve productivity as it is a good way to relieve stress sometimes and to take your mind away from a profession that is very brain intensive. Having a few minutes of relief in social networking can give the brain a break so it can have a fresh start in a few minutes. This of course works if the employee does not overuse social networking and uses common sense, which brings back to point 2.
PraneethNSubasekara wrote:
The company aspect is that its preferable that employess dont missuse company bandwidth for personal tasks.
I agree, but I don't think banning it altogether is any good. Video streaming of course shouldn't be allowed as it can compromise the bandwidth other employees might need. But some personal tasks should be allowed so the user does not have to leave the office just to pay some bills. This can be really bad for the employee's motivation. Small personal tasks like internet banking and others should be allowed IMO, as long as it does not compromise the client or the company's security and NDAs.
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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internal law? what is that?
A train station is where the train stops. A bus station is where the bus stops. On my desk, I have a work station.... _________________________________________________________ My programs never have bugs, they just develop random features.
Super Lloyd wrote:
internal law? what is that?
That's what pretexts management can use to hang people :laugh:
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Well in my experiance, programmers have a pretty stressful life. Its is essenstial to give them adequet freedom in their workplace (not too much). Most sufable content should be monitored this is done with interest on the employees behalf and the companies behalf. The employee, because restricting access to social networking sites will definitly show a boost in effeciency and performance in the work they do. The company aspect is that its preferable that employess dont missuse company bandwidth for personal tasks. When it comes to worklife balance, flexi work hours should be naturally considered as this is a key aspect many employees look for in a software company. It would help them gain the work life balance they need. (Dont restrict listening to music while working) most programmers work better while blasting some tunes in their ears :) !!!!
Pardon me, but that's not my experience. Programmers work with their brains, not their hands. The brain has a mind of his own, and doesn't react well to monotony or any kind of restrictions. Also, the brain doesn't stop working on job stuff when you go home - unless you hate your job. Therefore, in order to get a high productivity and quality code from programmers, you need them to love their job, nothing more. You can chain a programmer to his keyboard in an empty room for ten hours a day, and he may be producing more lines of code than someone working from home, or working only when he pleases to, but that's not what you're after. You want as much functionality delivered each day as possible. A bored or annoyed programmer may deliver more lines of code, but these lines will definitely implement less functionality, contain more technical debt, more bugs and require higher costs for maintenance. Trying to get programmers to be more productive by using restrictions is like pulling a plant by its leaves to make it grow faster.
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SockPuppeteer wrote:
Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's Wifi
Nihil obstat
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PraneethNSubasekara wrote:
HR managers
Okay that explains it, HR are a bunch of anally retentive, brain dead, vacuous idiots who are a complete PITA, and no I'm not prejudiced, that is fair and balanced assessment of HR, and their managers are the worst of the lot!
Never underestimate the power of human stupidity RAH
Shouldn't that be Mycroft Holmes IV? (It's scary when you meet yourself.)
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if you are about to start a new software company , what would your company internal law look like ? any hint will highly appreciated :) thanks
huzifa
As flexible as it can, probably it won't ever exist. :)
CEO at: - Rafaga Systems - Para Facturas - Modern Components for the moment...
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if you are about to start a new software company , what would your company internal law look like ? any hint will highly appreciated :) thanks
huzifa
"Play nice, keep learning and don't be an arse." "Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's dev rig. Ask, and ye shall receive (as long as you're not being an arse about it)."
Anna :rose: Tech Blog | Visual Lint "Why would anyone prefer to wield a weapon that takes both hands at once, when they could use a lighter (and obviously superior) weapon that allows you to wield multiple ones at a time, and thus supports multi-paradigm carnage?"
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As we don't host anything on youtube our net nazi feels justified in banning the site, along with any other social media and all blogs, we had to fight the blog lock.
Never underestimate the power of human stupidity RAH
I strongly hate when someone blocks the access to any internet site (or protocol for that matter). :mad:
CEO at: - Rafaga Systems - Para Facturas - Modern Components for the moment...
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if you are about to start a new software company , what would your company internal law look like ? any hint will highly appreciated :) thanks
huzifa
It would be a wonderful world if every employee came to work every day wanting to be productive. I think all personnel problems can eventually be reduced to the question, "Does the behavior you're doing right now help the entire team get work done?" You want team members who can always answer the question positively. You have a personnel issue whenever some behavior fails this test. Sounds harsh, but this is a very touchy-feely restatement of the company-use-only policy that is in very wide use. Think about it. Everything from excessive facebooking to sexual harrassment can be described in terms of its negative effect on the team. I would say that "use of company resources (disk, bandwidth, paid time, office space, pencils, postage machine, etc) is for business purposes only", and then interpret abuse on a case-by-case basis. Company-use-only is the only rule that doesn't lead you into trouble. Unless your managers have super-human hiring skills, there will eventually be some jerk who wants to push the limits. Company-use-only keeps that jerk on a short leash. The jerk will inevitably raise the question of fairness if any other employee was ever known or suspected to do that you're busting the jerk for. This just means the manager has to address the underlying problem that the employee is a jerk, and stop hiding behind codes of behavior. You have to say, "Maybe so, but your behavior is negatively affecting your/others productivity or cost, and your behavior needs to change." This works reasonably well in the United States. In other countries, the workplace law may require elaborate codes of conduct attempting to list all acceptable and unacceptable uses. If you live in a country like that, your best bet is to emigrate to a country with better law before starting a software company.
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if you are about to start a new software company , what would your company internal law look like ? any hint will highly appreciated :) thanks
huzifa
Due to the legal environment today, any company, large or small needs an Employee Manual that spells out the relationship between the company and the employee. It is far more involved than simple internet policy. The courts have held that a company is responsible for an employee’s activities on the internet, which is why you will normally find restrictions on what an employee may or may not do on the internet. A company can also be held responsible if an employee gets drunk at a company sponsored event, etc. The company needs to establish policy’s that cover non-discrimination, sexual harassment, work hours, overtime, benefits, sick and pregnancy leave, intellectual property, travel reimbursement, etc. Even if there are no benefits beyond those legally required, it needs to be spelled out so there is no ambiguity a lawyer can use against the company later. A decent employee manual will run fifty pages or so. Much of it is CYA on the company’s part, but necessary. Outlines of acceptable employee manuals can be found on the internet. Here is a link to a Employee Manual[^] template from the Small Business Administration.
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Well true enough its hard to imagine, but when it comes to companies run by a older generation they do consider listening to music a waste of time.
PraneethNSubasekara wrote:
but when it comes to companies run by a older generation
That would need qualification. The "older" generation these days is quite familiar with software development. It could be that in some countries or some companies those in charge have a different culture in mind but I don't see that as a general truth.
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hahah LOL not that I'm talking with experiance but I've actually met HR managers who do consider that music in their companies is doing harm rather than good.
If it is piped inoffensive music then yes it will dull the mind and have negative effects. Most people go well on their own choice of poison. Mind it is harder trying to talk to someone who has music blasting in their ears. Employers should worry about the negative effects on hearing - employment tends to force people to sit with earphones for longer than they would otherwise choose.
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SockPuppeteer wrote:
Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's Wifi
Nihil obstat
-
Well in my experiance, programmers have a pretty stressful life. Its is essenstial to give them adequet freedom in their workplace (not too much). Most sufable content should be monitored this is done with interest on the employees behalf and the companies behalf. The employee, because restricting access to social networking sites will definitly show a boost in effeciency and performance in the work they do. The company aspect is that its preferable that employess dont missuse company bandwidth for personal tasks. When it comes to worklife balance, flexi work hours should be naturally considered as this is a key aspect many employees look for in a software company. It would help them gain the work life balance they need. (Dont restrict listening to music while working) most programmers work better while blasting some tunes in their ears :) !!!!
PraneethNSubasekara wrote:
most programmers work better while blasting some tunes in their ears :)
Personally, I don't. I do tend to zone out and not listen to outside activities. So I think either it lets them do the same or gives an excuse why they weren't listening.