
Ask HN: What does your company do to keep you motivated other than pay? - zeal-technology
Personally a lot of my motivation comes from my company&#x27;s culture and personal alignment with the company&#x27;s vision and mission.
======
Klathmon
We are treated like adults.

We work from home 4 days a week, we are more than free to go run errands or
something if we need to, we have the freedom to spend some time on learning or
on a "side project" which could help the company, some people have even gone
over on vacation time with no issues, some people start at 7AM and cut out
early, others start at 10 or 11 and leave later.

As long as your shit gets done and you are available for most meetings or
calls you have a lot of freedom, and in turn I'm personally more willing to
put in the extra time if a project is falling behind, or a product breaks at
7PM and the guy on call could use help. And for a while it was a big reason
for me staying.

Yeah, another job offered me more money, but when I needed to go take the car
into the shop would I need to take a day off? Will I be able to leave early on
Thursdays? Will I be punished for spending 3 hours learning a new tool when I
got stuck on my main project and needed to just switch gears for a bit?

~~~
wiredfool
I've left money on the table for flexibility. I've been WFH for a long time
now, and I'm far more effective than in the office. They don't mind errands,
and I don't mind working the occasional evening when out of time zone calls
come up. Some weeks it's most evenings till 11, but I can balance that with
working out in the mornings.

------
cableshaft
By having an immediate boss that's very nice, knowledgeable about tech, and
flexible, and gotten lucky about hiring a pretty solid group of employees.

But that only goes so far. The money isn't really where I want to be, the work
isn't too interesting anymore, and I don't see much room for advancement, so
I'm not sure how much longer I'll stay here.

Company vision and mission statements mean very little to me, since they're
almost always meaningless crap to put on a letterhead and not much more.

Oh, also my commute is just over 15 minutes. That's nice too. I can stop by
the house for lunch sometimes and see my puppy. So that helps.

~~~
zeal-technology
It sounds like not providing a way or opportunity to advance your knowledge
and career is hurting you and your culture. Do you think you would stay if
your employer would provide more opportunities to work on newer projects or
more cutting edge stuff?

~~~
cableshaft
No, probably not. They're really not aligned with the type of work I'm trying
to get back into. I'm wanting to get back into mobile or move into VR space,
and they're making web and phone apps for healthcare and insurance companies.
I don't see that getting aligned ever.

I am actually learning new things and working on new projects right now, that
might keep me a bit longer, but not too long. I'm not in a hurry to leave, but
I'm starting to reboot and refresh my knowledge in the other fields again.

~~~
silentcylon
I know for me that I broke off into my own side projects and contracting work
that interested me. I found that being able to tackle a contract that I want
or a side project that could possibly bring me some money in or teach me some
new things has kept me on the tip of my toes.

~~~
cableshaft
Well...my big hobby right now is board game design. That's taking a lot of my
free time and not leaving as much to keep sharp on programming tech (although
I have been spending some time on that, just not hours a night).

I'm hoping to get my first one or two board game designs signed this year. I
have a meeting with a publisher scheduled in June (hopefully more soon) and
I'm trying to get everything polished and playtested for that.

~~~
zeal-technology
That is awesome! Do you have a community within work that supports this hobby?
I know that we take time to support peoples hobbies and lives outside of the
scope of our product and jobs. This can be a huge motivator and brings us a
lot of joy and bonding for the team. We are people first and we take pride in
our different skills and hobbies supporting each other any way we can. We
would love to play test a board game!

~~~
cableshaft
Not really, no. There's a couple of coworkers that play board games, but other
than that, about the most support I get is "How are those games coming along?"

I don't actually try to talk about it that much, just in case someone gets it
in there head that board games are somehow a conflict of interest with web
development (large corporate environment).

But that's alright, there's actually a decent game designer scene in the
region with some regular meetups, and a few friends of mine will happily help
me tear apart my designs (a couple are designers themselves).

------
nerdywordy
Flexibility. Outside of pay/benefits, I feel like flexibility is the ultimate
perk.

We're a small software SaaS & consulting shop. 15ish employees. The atmosphere
is relaxed, and there aren't cheesy corporate posters anywhere.

On the flip side, we also don't have bean bags or an open office.

We work standard 40-45 hours/week. We stay motivated and fresh by working
remotely every now and then or by taking a long weekend whenever needed.

I've been offered better paying jobs at fairly large enterprise companies...
but the flexibility offered here means to much to me.

Motivation doesn't really take gimmicks. You just need to have a work
environment that doesn't encourage burnout or neglecting your life outside of
work.

~~~
blaedj
I've come to realize that flexibility is very near the top of the list for me
as well, to the point that a pay increase would have to be pretty large for me
to give up flexibility.

------
TenOhms
My company's culture (large multi-national) demotivates me and their PR-speak
vision and mission statements mean less than nothing to me. Am I weird?

~~~
jotato
Nope. I couldn't care less about our "vision" or whatever management is
calling it now. I am at my employer under a "business" relationship. In
exchange for my experience, time, and expertise, I will accept a salary. Don't
try to rope me into "loyalty" or say we are a "family". We aren't - end of
story.

~~~
silentcylon
Do you ever wish to work on something that hits more personally for you? Would
that motivate you more than just the pay?

~~~
jotato
I have. If I truly believe in the "product" and am treated like I am an owner
and not a minion than it is different.

 _edit_

by owner, I don't mean of the company; rather the product. I find developers
spend most of their time in the app and know when something works or doesn't.
They can have a "hunch" when a feature is off, or the experience is wrong.
being empowered to make decisions and tweaks without someone else getting
upset is invaluable

~~~
zeal-technology
I would whole heartily agree with this. I see a lack of company delegation and
trust to give Ownership over to its people when those people are full well, if
not more than the company, able to make the important decisions. Ownership and
Owning it, whatever it may be (project, product, architecture, etc) is
important to driving self improvement for people and advancing their careers.
I think it is great that you acknowledge this and feel this way. I hope that
your company realizes it and values your drive, opinions, and decisions.

------
edw519

      free Thanksgiving lunch (where we have to listen to executives talk)
      free Christmas lunch (where we have to listen to executives talk)
      free Years of Service Lunch (where we have to listen to executives talk)
      free Company Picnic (where we have to listen to executives talk)
      free ice cream at I.T. All Hands Meetings (where we have to listen to the VP of I.T. talk)
      free "Skip Over Your Boss" lunches with VP of I.T. where he gives the same answer to any question asked
      free "Start, Stop, Continue" lunches with VP of I.T. where no suggestions are implemented
      free "Value Stream Mapping" lunches where we plan big processes that will never be implemented
      free "Operational Excellence" lunches where we plan little processes that will never be implemented
      free breakfast at every layoff (where the VP of I.T. tries to explain why he laid off the best programmers)
      free breakfast where Big 5 consultants explain what they will try to implement that can't possibly work
      free week at Caribbean resort (but for executives only)
      

Oh wait, I don't work there anymore. Never mind.

~~~
silentcylon
Sounds like you made the right decision. Also sounds like they didnt treat you
like adults or People for that matter, just employees that are nothing more
than employees.

~~~
brokenmachine
The worst part is I bet they did all the "we are family" and "this is our
vision" stuff at those management snoozefests.

The thing I really hate is all the meaningless catchphrases. My SO did an
interview for a job paying less than market rate because of the "perks"
mentioned in the ad, which they could list none of at the interview.

They also espoused "work-life balance", while simultaneously expecting her to
do unpaid overtime at their whim.

She did not apply, and the job is still advertised, now two years later.

------
scarface74
I know the question says "other than pay", but money is the most important
reason I work. I'm not going to take a job that pays less than what I'm making
and I'm not going to stay in a job that pays $10,000 less than my market value
under any circumstances. That doesn't mean that I will automatically leave for
a job paying $10K more, that may be an outlier, but I won't settle getting
paid substantially less than average for my skill set.

My second priority is a "seat at the table". I won't work at a large company
or one where I'm not visible to the people who decide my pay.

My third priority is whether what I'm learning is relevant in the market. My
peace of mind doesn't come from my job - it does come from knowing that I have
an in demand skill set that has historically allowed me to get a job in two
weeks to a month.

Fourth, is of course freedom and flexible and a results oriented culture that
is more concerned about getting things done than whether you work from 8-5.
Meaning if I need to work from home occasionally come in late sometimes, leave
early, etc it doesn't matter as long as I'm meeting deadlines.

------
pimterry
Embracing open-source. The vast majority of the code I write at resin.io isn't
just disappearing into some black hole to make the company money, tied to the
companies decisions and destiny. It's public, so others can find and use and
learn from it, it's part of tools that will be useful for a long way into the
future, even if our startup disappears, and it's transparent to all our
customers and users too. If I ever want to show some future company my past
work, I directly can.

It all creates a sense that my work isn't a temporary thing to solve some
business problem of ours - I'm creating more-permanent and broader value, not
just to resin, but also to me, and our customers, and the open-source
community as a whole.

~~~
zeal-technology
This is a great point! It is also something me and my co-workers have
experienced. We love to build things that not only benefit our company and our
goals but our personal careers too. Building and improving our people's
careers is really important to us. Something that can be open sourced and
keeps our code afloat is looked at as a win.

------
thetest3r
I work for a religious university (so the pay is meh). I would say that it's
the relaxed culture in IT (I can come in any time between 8-9), good benefits,
and free classes.

You're supposed to use the free classes to work on your masters but I use it
to take the "fun" classes you can't during a normal college run. And the boss
is okay with it :D!

~~~
zeal-technology
That is really cool! Any kind of learning experience to better yourself tends
to be a really good motivator. People tend to feel stagnant and want a change
if their job is the same over and over and they are not learning anything new
or being challenged.

------
nfriedly
I really like IBM's Business Conduct Guidelines [1]. I think they help to
creat a culture of doing things "above board" which can avoid some major
motivation killers.

Bayond that, I enjoy quite a lot of autonomy in deciding how I complete my
work, and often even what work I perform. Starting a new project that I want
to do is obviously more motivating than one I don't care about.

Code reviews help me stay motivated to write code that I'll be proud of rather
than cheap hacks. Open Source work is kind of an extension of this.

I know you asked for "other than pay" but unexpected bonuses and raises are
also nice motivation boosters in my experience.

[1]:
[http://www.ibm.com/investor/att/pdf/BCG_C_2016.pdf](http://www.ibm.com/investor/att/pdf/BCG_C_2016.pdf)
(PDF)

~~~
zeal-technology
Autonomy is huge for us and being able to do work when you see fit tends to
produce better code in our case. It also fits better into our daily lives and
motivates us much more. I agree with unexpected bonuses and raises can be a
good motivator too, but I have seen that the effect wears off faster than
something that fits into your daily life and improves it.

I also agree with the above board approach! You are spot on there.
Transparency through the good, the bad, and the ugly are really important to
us. I think that with transparency comes strong trust and more respect in the
work place.

We like to see and feel the motivation of each other "Owning it" or taking
lead and pushing on a project emotionally and with Grit. If someone becomes a
driving force for a project they think is important it creates a great sense
of motivation for them and others around them. It is a core value that really
pushes us to be better people and better developers.

------
cle
Every few months we (the developers) are given a week of freedom to
build/learn whatever we want (within reason). It is so refreshing, and every
time I grow so much faster than when slogging along the rest of the time, and
we often invent novel technology that adds a ton of value.

~~~
zeal-technology
This is really cool! You see this more in video game companies to spur
thoughts and creativity and improve each other. Do you guys team up at all
ever to work on new ideas? Out of the new things you learn and build how have
they benefited your career? And have they helped in your work for the company?

~~~
cle
Most people team up. I usually spend my time exploring new technologies and
new paradigms to help simplify our stack. I've been doing it for a few years,
and many of our foundational services and technologies came directly out of
these free weeks.

A lot of people take it as an opportunity to solve annoying problems that we
don't have time to solve "on sprint".

Definitely helped my career, because I can focus on building skills that I
personally want to develop, in addition to building something ambitious
without worrying about failure.

------
framebit
I worked at a company that had a great work culture. My manager was awesome,
there were tons of side benefits, in general everybody worked reasonable hours
and got to leave work at work. But they were bleeding talent because they
weren't keeping up with market rates for salaries.

The side benefits and the extra motivations are important, particularly for
long term satisfaction and sustainability, but those things alone won't cut it
if you're paying 70% of the market rate in the area.

~~~
zeal-technology
This is true and I think it is important to really value people. Trying to cut
that because you can is not really nice nor motivating.

------
Overtonwindow
Not much... Fear of homelessness and not being able to pay my bills keeps me
motivated.

------
Bahamut
Flexible work (I can work from anywhere where I can access the internet
reliably...sometimes even when not reliable, i.e. while flying), and the
ability to take PTO whenever I request it without issues, even 2 1/2 weeks at
a time!

There is also a lot of respect for each other, and genuine listening to what
people recommend & action based on feedback.

~~~
zeal-technology
Respect goes a long way on all skill levels. I respect those I work with and
both those people and I benefit from it. With respect for one another no
matter the skill level, we help push each others careers forward.

------
aeharding
Core hours, WFH day (Thursday team works from home, although you can take
other days on a non-regular basis), 40 hours per week max set by boss.

Treating me like an adult with a life outside of work, basically.

~~~
strictnein
Why Thursday for a WFH day instead of Friday? Just curious.

~~~
aeharding
No reason in particular, but I like it because it breaks the work-from-work
week up.

The important thing is that the whole team is WFH the same day so we can
depend on other days for meetings and whatnot, and nobody feels left out when
they are WFH.

------
kzisme
Being my first full time job out of college I don't have much of a say, but
compared to retail jobs and previous internship(s) it's great.

The company culture isn't stuffy - I can essentially come and go as long as I
get my stuff done that I need to. I wish it was less bureaucratic and "office
like", but I think we're growing away from that.

Tech wise - the .NET stack has grown on me in the time I've been here, but I
still worry that I'll only be exposed to languages I'm forced to use at work
as opposed to languages and technologies I want to use/learn.

Everyone I work with is great as well, but the one thing I miss about
college/small college town is the community/connected feeling. I don't get
that feeling at all currently, so I'm trying to pinpoint why I'm not feeling
that anymore.

~~~
zeal-technology
I can tell that this is great insight for someone just out of college so
before I start, props to you. Coming out of college and into my first job I
found it beneficial for myself when starting to work on a problem first
consider all alternative ways to solve it. I would consider things like would
this be better off done in a different language? Using a different library?
Using a different devops tool? Can I use some new technology that could help
me learn something new? This helped me to broaden my expertise. At the same
time remember to balance these choices. You may hear push back from people
saying do not just use a new technology for the sake of it, you need a good
reason to which I can also agree with.

Feeling connected and a sense of supporting community is really important to
be happy with the work you are doing. I found that sense of community by
making a friend at work, someone that I would hang with outside of work and
could relate and support me in decisions. This friend also pushes me and we
have some fun competitions sometimes to better our skills that we use for work
or to learn new ones. I have since looked to make friends in more co-workers
to build my community and network of people that give me this feeling and that
I hopefully provide for them too!

I know this part sounds cliche and old but if there is no luck with co-workers
or even friends then there is always the community you are talking to here! HN
is a great way to improve and become active in community. HN is not the only
one too, meetups around your area could be more common than you think. Take
the time to get out and meet other people in your field and take it upon
yourself to expand your network and community.

Overall I would say keep up drive for new experiences and career building. You
might even try to suggest ways to improve and build community within your
company! Take it upon yourself to see if you can push the company to implement
your ideas! :)

~~~
kzisme
Thanks for the insight!

One thing I was able to do recently that gave me a good perspective is attend
a conference (CodeMash). I was able to talk to many people and see a few talks
which was a great experience.

I'd say out of the building I'm in I'm one of the youngest working here (that
I know of).

~~~
zeal-technology
That is awesome! Remember that many people want to learn regardless of their
skill level or experience level and everyone has something you can learn from
them. Take advantage of both and try to connect with those around you. :)

------
jcahill84
I'm an engineer at a massive media and technology company. What keeps me
motivated is the freedom to experiment and develop ideas on my own, outside of
the iteration's expected deliverables. We have a very open culture, where
engineers can spin up production servers with the click of a button, deploy
things, and tear it all down without interacting with a single approval chain
or ticketing system. So that's really it outside of pay... Freedom to learn
and experiment on your own is a really powerful motivator for me.

~~~
zeal-technology
I think it is awesome that your company allows you to use infrastructure to
test new ideas and learn. It sounds like they have trust in you. Do they
encourage you to experiment and try new things? Are these new things ever
totally different from what your company does?

~~~
jcahill84
I think that's where they would draw the line. Generally the "new things" are
really new ways of doing things we're already doing, or may do in the future.
It's definitely a gray line though.

~~~
zeal-technology
I think a company hackathon or project week can be really cool. Team up with
co-workers or just yourself that follows a topic like improve the office
somehow or create an idea that can help an opensource project or improve
development or another teams process throughout the workday. This can motivate
people and at the end you may have something that solves a common day to day
pain point for your co-workers.

------
madmax108
The ability to work on personal growth instead of simply taking the easier
(and cheaper) way out. Sponsoring tickets and stay for any conferences I want
to attend (not only as a speaker, mind you). Want to work on some Deep
Learning problems? Feel free to boot up a couple of AWS GPU instances for
yourself. Want to tackle that new product using a tech stack that is new as
opposed to what we currently used? Go ahead... Take the time to understand the
pros and cons and then make the call. Yes, old technology gets the job done,
but personal growth comes from experimenting with stuff.

The ability to work how I want to. Though we aren't ROWE yet, we're pretty
much there without trying to. Every meeting has a video link for remote
participants, and while we do do SCRUMs, going for a week saying "I'm just
trying something out to fix bug XYZ but haven't really gotten anywhere" is not
looked down upon. I live with people who have to report to their manager when
they have to take half a day off to visit the dentist. I'm glad I don't have
to do any of that.

Being made part of the vision. Massive dogfooding happens here. Everyone from
the CEO to the newb contribute to vision. It's easy to say vision of a company
is bullshit, but when you can see what you want to achieve, and know how you
want to do it, it really makes going in to work more fun!

\+ the usual casual leave policy, amazing coworkers (pros of a smaller team),
great pay

The ups and downs are there, but I'm in a kickass place that I'm not looking
forward ti leaving anytime soon!

------
sirn
I can't say much about being motivated, but for me lack of opportunity to
learn and try out new things can be very demotivating. Nothing stop me from
doing so after work in a side project, but that still doesn't make the 'I wish
I could use this in my day job' thought disappear.

(My current hack is to learn something that has no use in the day job after
work.)

~~~
zeal-technology
I think that hack can be very good for advancing yourself. There are some
people here that have said their companies encourage that and allow them to
experiment with new technologies and learn different things. Maybe present the
benefit of learning side projects or hackathons with the team and pitch it as
team building to your company. See if you can get them to bite!

~~~
sirn
Sorry, I think I didn't worded it properly.

I think encourage learning and reward learning are a very different things
that need to coexists with each other. The company can encourage learning
(e.g. buying books), but without giving an opportunity to try out what you
learn, the learning part can be demotivating because it has no effect. It's
even worse when company has neither.

For example, when you believe what you learn can solve the problem the company
is having but you're not allowed to do it. Even when the reason is
understandable (e.g. the change does not worth the cost, or need to prioritize
something else), it can still be very demotivating.

------
forgotmysn
I've never heard someone say that they are motivated by their company's vision
and/or mission.

~~~
pcsanwald
I am. I work for a small fitness company and my main motivation is the product
we're building, and what we want to do with it. That was my whole reason for
joining in the first place, and it remains the most motivating thing for me.

~~~
zeal-technology
That is the I am at my company too! It is important for me to make a
difference in work culture. I think that when something that fits your
lifestyle and life goals provides you the ability to do it for work, it does
not really feel like "work" and it is very motivating and moving personally. I
think you are in the right spot if that is the way you feel. :)

------
jtwaleson
Nothing, and that's great. Something I really enjoy about my current 250
people company is how many things are not arranged properly or at all. This
gives me many opportunities to step up, identify issues and address them with
management teams etc.

I had the opportunity to join Facebook a couple of years ago for much better
pay and moving to the Bay Area (a long time dream) but decided not to do it
for mainly the reason above, as well as alignment with the company mission
(which is creating a product that solves problems, not creating free services
and running ads like Google/FB).

Edit: "nothing" as stated above is a hyperbole. Actually there are many things
that the company does or allows that make it a great place to work. What I
like most is to help improving it further.

~~~
silentcylon
What process to you use to improve it further? Do you test things out a lot.
How do you know what you implement is working?

------
silentcylon
I think one of the more motivating things I have seen is to understand that
people are giving the majority of their time to the company throughout the day
and the year. A company that can become a part of an employees life and not
have its employees dedicate their life to the company is a big feat. I have
seen this achieved by a company that gives proper flexibility for employees so
that work fits into their lives and not the other way around. Such as when you
do your work is less important than how well you do your work. Or where you
work is irrelevant if you collaborate well. I think companies in general
should provide more opportunities to explore and experience the world to their
people than they do today.

------
strictnein
Flexible work environment and schedule. WFH every Friday. Flexible start and
end times. I'm typically in the office 9am-4pm, and just work some nights to
make up the time, which is a schedule I prefer.

~~~
zeal-technology
Taking time during the day or when you want can be a huge improvement over a
9-5 job. Sometimes I will work late at night if I need to get things done,
otherwise I don't sweat when the work is done. This also allows me to not
waste time when I know I wont be able to focus. I would rather be efficient
and work when I know I am going to get stuff done and do it well.

------
bungie4
My company has a personal wellness consultant firm for anything that troubles
you. They offer a selection of gifts after 1 year, 2 year, 5 years etc with
the company. All of can be found at flea markets and the finest asset
liquidation companies around the country. Our chairs were bought at an auction
25 years ago for pennies on the dollar. They were used then.

As for the work, I'm a systems analyst, process engineer, senior dev, dba and
data analyst, but yet I'm paid like a junior dev.

What keeps me motivated. My family and my hopes for a bright future.

------
known
AKA
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maslow%27s_hierarchy_of_needs](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maslow%27s_hierarchy_of_needs)

~~~
zeal-technology
What about self-advancement aka learning :)

------
desireco42
Money is pretty much main thing. Unless you are Basecamp and have that kind of
fantastic treatment of employees, anything else is just pay and let me do my
job, so control.

~~~
zeal-technology
What would be the one thing you would like more companies to do that Basecamp
does? Which one would improve your work life the most?

Also for anyone else, I am just going to leave this here:
[https://m.signalvnoise.com/employee-benefits-at-
basecamp-d2d...](https://m.signalvnoise.com/employee-benefits-at-
basecamp-d2d46fd06c58#.vd80v25vl)

~~~
desireco42
So, it is a question of threshold. With Basecamp you know they are committed
to your wellbeing, it is not a specific perk, it is the attitude where you are
certain they are with you and then you obviously don't have to think much, you
can give yourself to work.

~~~
zeal-technology
This hits home for me. Having the attitude and atmosphere like this is very
important! It makes such a difference to feel that the company and community
has your back. It also takes so much stress out of work and adds to
excitement. Well said.

------
switch007
A boss with a deep technical background, who has read Peopleware and embraced
it, whom you trust, who'll admit fault, and works to enable you to do your
best.

One can dream!

~~~
silentcylon
A boss who can push me technically and is always helping me advance my career
was huge for me. I know that has been the case with many people I have talked
to. If you are not helping your team or co-workers to better themselves than
they are not going to feel motivation from you.

------
peterhi
Problems. We have more things that need to be done than we can ever possibly
do. So we get to pick the problems we feel are the most important and simply
have to solve them - however we want :)

There is not a lot of money to throw around so we can't go crazy, but that is
what makes it such a challenge

Some things fail, some things work but don't amount to much but we have enough
hits to keep the business ticking over.

Love it!

------
analogwzrd
Not much actually. The pay is excellent, but it's difficult to put yourself in
a situation where you can actually work on something interesting. There's not
much in terms of career development, training, or autonomy. That kind of stuff
happens, but it happens because you find the right people. The company has
nothing to do with it.

------
st3v3r
Not a whole lot, actually. The people I work with are fun. I could totally be
done with working on this project, though.

~~~
zeal-technology
Have you asked your employer to set a new project, something challenging for
you in the future? Maybe they are willing to switch things up to keep you
happy?

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sbov
I would summarize it as: respect for the employees and treating people as
equals rather than subordinates.

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chetankothari
The summary of how our company keeps us motivated is very well illustrated
here
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PBdHucJeqpQ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PBdHucJeqpQ)

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st3v3r
Here's something to keep in mind with all of this, though: These are ways to
keep developers/IT happy. They are NOT to be implemented in lieu of pay,
though. If we're not getting pay raises, we will jump ship.

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toddan
Nothing I motivate my self. Without the company I would get no experience to
build and no where to exercise my skills in an production environment where I
make an contribution.

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GordonS
Unfortunately, like many companies, absolutely nothing.

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zeal-technology
What would be one thing that would motivate you that your company could
implement?

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GordonS
Personally, I'd like to be given time for continuous learning, rather than
having me utilised (at least) 100% all the time.

This would be a win-win, since I can keep my knowledge current and my employer
gets someone with skills that our clients want. But instead, all the current
management cares about is utilisation figures and overheads.

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zeal-technology
Unfortunately we see too much of managers worrying about figures and
utilization rates. These numbers are not always the best to go by. We like to
try and empower each other to implement ways to improve our culture and build
a better workplace that can benefit us in many ways. I hope that your company
can realize the benefit this can have on the whole companies morale and
productivity. Empowering your people to learn and improve helps everyone.

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tjalfi
Employees receive a substantial amount of money for training every year. Most
people don't take advantage of it, though.

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ceejayoz
Pay _well_?

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BloodKnight9923
I am a not so social software engineer, so take it with a grain of salt. I
think I would divide it into three categories

* Perks and incentives These are things like coffee, having an espresso machine at work, getting access to free snacks. Gym access is another one I have commonly seen. I have also seen things like programs that give you access to free classes or certification programs (when the hell am I supposed to have time to do that?) These little things can make my day better and lighten my mood when things are going well at a company.

* Caring about you as a person (?) I would call this roaming the halls - or when management walks around asking people how they are, what did they do over the weekend, are they okay. This can be a great way to gauge what's going on in a small to medium business. That is until it's the same question day in and day out, or you're explaining your hobby to the same person for the fifth time and they obviously aren't listening, then it feels forced and the illusion fades. That said, I'd rather have the person that makes the effort as a manager to get to know me at a least a bit, than to have a suit treat me like a number on a piece of paper. This is another one where when things are going well at a company, I think that management showing they care is important, and it does make me feel more motivated to do my job.

* Gatherings I call these "Mandatory fun", I have never been one to want to go hang out at a bar with coworkers after work. It feels forced and awkward to me. When you're spending the majority of your week pulling your hair out trying to get a product working, or bugs fixed, or put out fires, or come back from a layoff - it's hard for me to find these to be fun. That said, I know a lot of other people _do_ find them fun, so I understand why they happen. But using a pizza party to try to cheer up employees instead of communicating what is going on at the company is a half measure that just erodes trust over time.

Where this all falls apart for me is when a company starts to have issues. I
have personally found that when you don't have transparency in a company, you
lose trust. Is my boss being nice to me because they really don't want me to
quit? Or because they're a nice person? Staying motivated when you're facing
impending failure is what made me want to respond to this. When everything is
going well, it's easy to stay motivated, when things get rough, everything
changes.

The perks start to vanish as budgets get cut, the lazy conversations about how
much fun you had over the weekend are replaced with monosyllabic responses -
you don't have time because you have to ship that feature yesterday. You start
to realize that you're dreading going to work. You start to realize you don't
know what you're doing anymore. You start you realize this isn't what you
thought it would be.

How do you stay motivated during that?

The only thing I have found is sheer willpower, fighting through it and just
telling yourself to keep going. Carefully managing what you can and can't do
so you don't burn out. I have yet to have a company offer anything that really
motivated me during those times other than clear and honest explanations of
where we are, what we need to do, why we need to do that, and how that will
make my life better.

Transparency and honesty has been the only real motivator for me when things
are tough - but the coffee is nice too.

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zeal-technology
The Perks category I think is essential and seems to be things that should
suit your lifestyle. I think it is important for a company to identify
lifestyle needs and help with anything they possibly can. After all it is you
and your co-workers lives that time is taken out of so why not make it
beneficial to your life and what you want to accomplish.

Sounds like Transparency is a huge part that motivates you and keeps you clear
headed about what you are working towards. It is really important for a
company to respect that through the good, the bad, and the ugly.

It also sounds like good friendship and being real with each other goes hand
in hand with transparency. Which I would totally agree. I think that employers
just being nice to keep you working for them is "minionizing" and not how
people should ever treat each other.

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user5994461
two numbers: 9 to 5

