11–20 of 171 posts
I turned down Microsoft when they recruited me in college. Wow, what a great decision. Now, I run a software firm where no one has an office, everyone pairs (including owners and interns), we have a /slightly/ better ratio than 1 test per 100 SLOC, etc.
(Although it is obviously good to have things compile as fast as possible.)
"Most people in Windows have a private office – with a door" At my office we've made an effort to keep our workspace communal to the point of removing the 12" dividers that were included with our work tables. This, as you might guess, does result in some distraction but in fostering the relationships at the office people are more apt to like being there. I'm curious how other large companies and startups handle this.…
Do your developers have to do any creative work, requiring deep thought, or are they just code monkeys? If the former, do you provide a way for them to get away from the distraction when they need to think deeply?
If developers always have the fastest machines available, how will they test or care about speed? I hope they have automated benchmarks of common tasks at least. (Although it is obviously good to have things compile as fast as possible.)
Honestly, giving your developers a slow machine to "encourage" them to write faster code is a fallacy. The average user is not running multiple databases, multiple IDE's, debuggers, editors, multiple browsers, help documents and all the other programs they require to get stuff done. By all means make the test machine match what the users have but invest (yes it is an investment) in a fast machine for your developers.
If nothing else it will make them feel appreciated which will return more then the $1000 odd it will cost to spec their machine up from your users base model.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Do your developers have to do any creative work, requiring deep thought, or are they just code monkeys? If the former, do you provide a way for them to get away from the distraction when they need to think deeply?
We allow them to work from home whenever they like, hence the desire to provide a place they want to show up at.
That tends to work great when everyone is a five minute bike ride to the office/lab. It's a tougher proposition when a non-trivial number of members of the team are 30 minute auto commutes from the office.
From the article,
"All managers have laptops. Most prety good ones."
Do developers (testers etc) have laptops (pretty good ones)? Or are they "management only" perks? (fwiw all the bodyshopping companies in India follow the "only suits have laptops" pattern)
I asked this in the comments section but it disappeared into thin air with no notification on what was happening(say, held for moderation etc).So I'll ask it here. Maybe an HN reader who works for MS might know the answer. From the article, "All managers have laptops. Most prety good ones." Do developers (testers etc) have laptops (pretty good ones)? Or are they "management only" perks? (fwiw all the bodyshopping com…
"Most people in Windows have a private office – with a door" At my office we've made an effort to keep our workspace communal to the point of removing the 12" dividers that were included with our work tables. This, as you might guess, does result in some distraction but in fostering the relationships at the office people are more apt to like being there. I'm curious how other large companies and startups handle this.…
I've worked in both environments. Honestly, the best environment, IMO, is working from home -- office is second. Shared office spaces are a distant fourth. I'm the type of person who needs a lot of solitude at some times, and at other times, I love to blast music, pace, juggle, and gorge on chips. When I need the solitude, when I'm in the zone, I don't want you taking a call from your gf, or deciding with some other…
Right now I work about 85% from home. I enjoy going to my (shared) office, but I tend to spend way to much time helping my officemates on their problems when I'm there (can be good or bad).
At the startup where I used to work, we had a shared open space. I was doing some coding, but mostly running long simulations, so I had a lot of down time. In that case, distractions were not an issue.
My job before that I had my own office, name on the door, view, etc. BUT my project members were on a different floor, which I couldn't actually go to (defense company). That was the main instance when I wish I had a shared office.
I asked this in the comments section but it disappeared into thin air with no notification on what was happening(say, held for moderation etc).So I'll ask it here. Maybe an HN reader who works for MS might know the answer. From the article, "All managers have laptops. Most prety good ones." Do developers (testers etc) have laptops (pretty good ones)? Or are they "management only" perks? (fwiw all the bodyshopping com…
Laptops are officially only for managers and Program managers. As a dev/test you can get a loaner for a presentation or find one, somehow.
Heh! That's what I thought :-p Not surprised to hear MS works that way :-). Funny way to economise, making laptops status symbols. I think Google gives devs nice laptops and is probably better off for it.