Rute Cotrim
May 18, 2020
We may not have any management degree or product owner position. But us, who work for years on different projects, watching people come and go, we start to feel what’s right or wrong in our jobs. Which means we start to understand what makes employees happy and motivated and what creates a dark or toxic atmosphere and sometimes leads to people leaving. I decided to share below some lines which represent my vision on how companies should deal with employees in order to improve the work environment and to keep everyone happy and productive.
Don’t saturate the work day with meetings. It’s important to have follow up meetings, feedback meetings, meetings about something that we can’t solve with a simple e-mail…but it all will depend on the work people are doing, on the people that are doing the work and on the priorities in that moment. Even if you’re following some methodology you should think if it’s worth to follow everything 100% by the book. Here you can say that if we follow a methodology there’s no chance for something to fail. But that is not true, starting with the fact that we are all human and will need more or less time/to change priorities at some point. So, filling all the free slots in a week to have meetings without plausible reasons might be really bad, as it can lead to decreasing productivity and team fatigue.
Always timebox your meetings. Not timeboxing your meetings mean they will last longer than they should. Timeboxing a meeting saves time, leads people to get a previously structured idea of what they are going to say and, of course, helps a lot on the first topic about not having a totally saturated schedule.
Don’t open up the meetings focus to other discussions. If the goal is to discuss something, don’t talk about something else. People will lose interest and probably the outcome of the meeting will not be as clear as it should. If something comes to your mind in the middle of the conversation, just point it out or note it down so that you can talk about it in the next meeting. If it’s a prority, schedule another meeting for that. But make sure it’s really relevant :)
Improving the comunication between the company’s departments, if it’s something that makes sense. How many times have we worked on a company without knowing what’s going on with other departments? The idea of making a few calls to know other people, to organize a speech or a networking party may take an important role on improving the work environment. You get access to more details about what’s going on with the others areas of expertise, which will make you feel like you are more informed about your company. Also, it’s a great way for the company to show transparency towards everyone. You can also organize meetings with all the departments with the goal to discuss topics that you might think need to be improved. Even if working for different areas, all of us have some interests or goals in common and those meetings can be extremely handy.
Making sure your employees have access to good work equipment. Having a nice equipment to work is precious for people to feel comfortable and motivated to do more. For me, as a developer, I wouldn’t really like to get a blue screen popping up everyday on my computer, to sit on a bad chair, to have no space on my desk, to have poor lighting around me, and so on. In the end, the investment relies on the person that’s using the equipment.
Providing a good balance between working hours and personal life. This is one of the most important topics for me. I wouldn’t like to be part of a company that doesn’t respect this. It is really important to have a separation between working hours and our personal lives, so that we don’t feel overwhelmed, get proper rest and are able to have some free time for us, our families and friends. Our jobs take a great amount of our time and we should be responsible for it, but it should never be on top of your personal needs. Also, make sure you take breaks during the day. It’s not good for our health, either it is mental or physical, to work a large amount of hours per day without a pause. I believe the company’s role is to create a sense of responsability but also a sense of trust, that the employees can get proper rest but are able to get things done. We don’t need to overwork to accomplish anything.
Try to develop a culture of mutual help. People will feel welcome to a company where they feel they can meet people and ask them questions, instead of being insecure, fearful about failing or not being enough.
Give feedback to employees and listen to them from time to time. Also, be clear about subjects like the employee level, career development or client opinions on them. This is really important in order for the workers to feel they have someone they can trust in and for them to feel motivated to grow and get better at something.
Be remote-friendly. A special topic these times. I defend companies that are remote-friendly, not only because it saves lots of time (either it is because people don’t need to lose time on traffic or because they don’t commute daily at all) but also because it gets easier and faster to deal with small things like go getting an order, which would be difficult stuck at the office. Some people don’t like to work from home because they have way more distractions, some people love to work from home because they feel the exact opposite. Exactly for that, and because I don’t think remote-first would generally suit every area, people should talk and find the best ways of working so that they can get the best out of it.
I feel glad to never have left a company because I felt mistreated or lost without guidance. Everyone has bad moments but never forget to talk about it if you feel something can change. And that’s exactly because I had good experiences that I am able now to elaborate these ideas in my mind, knowing that some of them helped me to take my steps.