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Motivational Incongruence and Well-Being at the Workplace

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Re: Motivational Incongruence and Well-Being at the Workplace

#81

Post by niels_olson »

amelius wrote: post #70
JackFr wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Inspiring fulfilling work is a luxury not everyone can afford, and it is a conceit of the modern world that meaning and fulfillment in your life should come from your employment.

> Inspiring fulfilling work is a luxury not everyone can afford, and it is a conceit of the modern world that meaning and fulfillment in your life should come from your employment. But you could also argue that the modern world is creating unfulfilling work. Not only the "bullshit jobs" (see [1]), but also highly repetitive work. In ancient/prehistoric times, work was more diverse (and perhaps hence more inspiring) f…

> work was ... more inspiring

work which is important but not urgent is inspiring. The more complex the society, the more opportunity for such work. Read history: it wasn't that long ago that most of Europe envied those who could afford mud huts.

Re: Motivational Incongruence and Well-Being at the Workplace

#82

Post by sturgill »

brokenmachine wrote: post #77
learning___ wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How long at the job did it take you to realize that it caused a constant low level stress? How long did you end up staying there before leaving? Did you reveal the real reason for leaving? I believe I am going through something similar right now, I have an especially chatty coworker who I sit beside that never shuts up and seems to crave solving problems as a pair much to my productivities detriment. I feel like my t…

That sounds horrible, I feel your pain. I am in the exact same situation however my chatty coworker is not doing the same job, although they always want to be involved/meddle in whatever I'm doing nevertheless. It's down to the level of reading out loud everything that happens on their computer screen. "Oh, I thought if you clicked there, something else would happen". "Oh, what's that?". blah blah blah. Total verbal…

Noise canceling headphones combined with low key music have greatly increased my happiness and productivity. I've got the big Bose ones that are very obviously anti-social.

Re: Motivational Incongruence and Well-Being at the Workplace

#83

Post by brokenmachine »

sturgill wrote: post #82
brokenmachine wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That sounds horrible, I feel your pain. I am in the exact same situation however my chatty coworker is not doing the same job, although they always want to be involved/meddle in whatever I'm doing nevertheless. It's down to the level of reading out loud everything that happens on their computer screen. "Oh, I thought if you clicked there, something else would happen". "Oh, what's that?". blah blah blah. Total verbal…

Noise canceling headphones combined with low key music have greatly increased my happiness and productivity. I've got the big Bose ones that are very obviously anti-social.

Good suggestion but I think headphones would be frowned upon in my workplace unfortunately.

Constant interruption and complaining, perfectly fine. Antisocial headphones, verboten!

Re: Motivational Incongruence and Well-Being at the Workplace

#84

Post by jodrellblank »

0xcde4c3db wrote: post #41
brightball wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At the same time crank turning is a job where you need to do little else than show up, freeing your mind to think about things other than work.

There's also a lot of variation in how that job could satisfy various psychological needs. Is the crank well-maintained, or is it continually catching, grinding, or breaking down? Are you rewarded for turning the crank more and provided with high-quality feedback about that reward, or is there merely an unceasing open-loop demand that you turn the crank "as fast as possible"? Do you know the function of the crank and…

or is there merely an unceasing open-loop demand that you turn the crank "as fast as possible"?

and keep your speed constant at all times. http://www.smbc-comics.com/?id=2305

Re: Motivational Incongruence and Well-Being at the Workplace

#85

Post by kaybe »

gaza3g wrote: post #76
hacker_9 wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I had a similar experience that made me quit my last job, but for me it was being in an open plan office. I just found that I felt constantly under someones gaze, and I couldn't look around without looking someone in the eye. It was a low level stress like yours, and was really uncomfortable when trying to work through problems. For example I find closing my eyes helps me visualise a process in my head, but then some…

This is exactly my experience at my current workplace. The people who makes the most noise are the not-programmers and somehow they deserve their own cube because... Developers like myself have to settle with our bull-pen. Like you, when I face my monitor, the barrier is low enough that I can actually see eye to eye with my co-workers who are sitting opposite me. Oh, and apparently the space behind me is somehow a 'w…

Can erecting a visual barrier behind your screen help a little? That wouldn't take space and only minimal resources.

Re: Motivational Incongruence and Well-Being at the Workplace

#86

Post by douche »

ldjb wrote: post #75
trentmb wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Pair programming. I haven't had to work in an environment that requires it, and just looking at the wiki page makes it seem miserable. Do you really just sit at one workstation, with another person watching over your shoulder haggling over each line of code? I think I'm just not a quick enough thinker for this approach to work.

I suppose you could describe it that way. Pair programming certainly isn't for everyone, but under the right conditions, it can be very effective. It can be a good means to share ideas and keep up the motivation. That said, it ultimately comes down to whether or not the pair work well together — sometimes you 'click' and everything's great; other times you don't. A related technique that's quite interesting is mob pr…

There was a time-lapse video of mob programming I saw on here recently (unfortunately can't find it). At least half of the group that was clustered around the one machine was completely checked out, and you could see that they were so incredibly bored that they were about to drive pencils into their eyes.

Also, one guy came in during the lunch break, and got more done than the mob did in the other eight hours...

Re: Motivational Incongruence and Well-Being at the Workplace

#87

Post by HerpDerpLerp »

douche wrote: post #86
ldjb wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I suppose you could describe it that way. Pair programming certainly isn't for everyone, but under the right conditions, it can be very effective. It can be a good means to share ideas and keep up the motivation. That said, it ultimately comes down to whether or not the pair work well together — sometimes you 'click' and everything's great; other times you don't. A related technique that's quite interesting is mob pr…

There was a time-lapse video of mob programming I saw on here recently (unfortunately can't find it). At least half of the group that was clustered around the one machine was completely checked out, and you could see that they were so incredibly bored that they were about to drive pencils into their eyes. Also, one guy came in during the lunch break, and got more done than the mob did in the other eight hours...

This? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p_pvslS4gEI

This looks more functional. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dVqUcNKVbYg

I am not against the idea... but yeh I can see it has issues!

Re: Motivational Incongruence and Well-Being at the Workplace

#88

Post by HerpDerpLerp »

Xcelerate wrote: post #30

I've never understood why companies don't have a mix of environments so that each person can choose what works best for them. Allow options for an open floor plan area, a closed floor plan area, and remote work. My PhD advisor didn't care if I worked in my office, from home, or from the top of a volcano as long as I got the research done that he wanted each week (turns out I tend to work best in coffee shops).

Money and control (or the perception of control)

Re: Motivational Incongruence and Well-Being at the Workplace

#89

Post by zeveb »

city41 wrote: post #3
ams6110 wrote: post #2

I quit a job when I felt burnout developing. The cause? Pair programming. I just cannot that close to someone for the majority of the workday without feeling constant low-level stress and annoyance, and I can't focus and think about problems in that setting. When you have to sit in your car for 15 minutes every morning just to summon the resolve to get out and go into the office, something's wrong with your work envi…

I also left a job due to pair programming. That company pair programmed 100% of the time. It concerns me that might become a norm. I wrote a blog post on why I think that's a bad idea: http://www.mattgreer.org/articles/pair-programming-is-not-a-...

Now that's a great article — so good I think that it should stand on its own. Submitted as https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12291080

Re: Motivational Incongruence and Well-Being at the Workplace

#90

Post by evolve2k »

"Individual needs and environment supplies were assessed in an online survey of full time employees (n = 97), using a picture story exercise measuring implicit motives and a scale listing affiliation and power related job characteristics"

Is 97 respondents to an online survey enough to be statistically significant?

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