Ingredients for a happy worker

It’s no secret, anyone who has ever worked with developers and programmers will agree. At some point in a developer’s career, you will go through the infamous grumpy developer phase. Most agencies will have had one at one time, a grouchy, hunched up sour faced developer slumped over their desk. Naturally, colleagues don’t have time to (or quite possibly cant be bothered to) make an effort and find out what is bothering them. We are many therefore we are placed in a blind spot until the phase passes, if at all it ever does.

This is how it is, from a developer’s perspective. Simply, we are bored. But why? You have a job doing what you set out to do, you wanted to become a developer, an agency like you enough to offer you a job from a list of candidates. Boredom sets in when the realisation of everything you were taught about how to properly develop an application goes out the window and is replaced with the profit driven corporate machine. Suddenly, you have no choice but to cut corners to the point where the project is practically round. You want to still maintain an essence of standardisation, but cant be bothered when you see no one else around you doing the same. So begins the “churning” phase. A set of instructions handed to you by the head of development on that project (a title acquired as a result of being the one nearest the printer) with a deadline that’s not worth making note of. All you can see are long days, long night, long weeks resulting in a long face.

Developers are creative people. We like to flex that part of our brain that takes a problem and comes up with a solution. Like any profession, if it’s something you worked towards, you do not want to see it turn into a production line where all you do is “churn”. There are only so many contact form submissions you can do, login scripts, content management systems and whatever else before you succumb to boredomitis and find yourself in that corporate blind spot where colleagues no longer pop round for that chat or send you that funny email (again).

A cured grumpy developer’s 5 point guide to making developers happy:

1. Give ‘em something interesting to do
   Exercise that part of the brain that makes a developer think about a problem, scientific tests have shown that it is directly connect to the part of the brain that makes developers smile
2. Give ‘em something to look forward to
   Training, either professional or a simple “time out” period. Time out is giving a developer a day every so often to learn something new.
3. Use new and emerging technologies (sensibly of course)
   Learning new languages is only worth it if you use them. So use them.
4. Share skills
   Some developers like to move to other areas of work, staying in the same spot, working on the same bit of a system, using the same language can takes it toll.
5. Talk to developers
   Pre-empt any turn in developer mood by making them feel like there is always something big on the horizon. New projects, new languages and skills, training, night out.

What can developers do to make themselves happy

1. If you want to learn something new, then make a song and dance about it. Justify it using business speak, if there is a profitable reason to learn something new then suits will listen.
2. Not happy with the way things are, rather than moaning quietly to colleagues. Shout loudly to managers, and keep shouting. Force home the changes you think would make a more productive, happier environment.
3. Not happy at work generally and you cant see a way out. Move on. Freelance, set up a money making site of your own. There are a world of opportunities still, so grab one and run like a bastard.
4. Learn skills in your own time giving yourself the opportunity to work in other areas. Front end development, database development. Agencies would rather turn down freelance or contract help for an extra pair of in-house hands.
5. Create projects of your own. Find what you are passionate about and start a site on it. You never know, with the right amount of traffic and advertising, you could end up making enough money to live off.

And I should know, I used to be a grumpy developer, and now I freelance.

(and to all the colleagues that suffered, I apologise wholeheartedly ;) )