He want's to know our opinions on whether we should have flexitime, allow non-work related internet access etc.
We've got about 200 people in the company, half are programmers half are sales. We all want the workplace to be productive and fun.
Thanks.
Not it's intended purpose, but I think the Joel Test could be used as a litmus test. It was intended to be used when evaluating prospective employers, but I see no reason why you shouldn't use it to try and improve your current workplace.
Well it's still a business and work is fun if you like what you're doing. You can't really make work fun.
I don't see a need for Flexi time or non work related internet really.
If you like your colleagues and you work together well on getting the job done work is already going to be fun.
Letting people read joke of the day and strolling in at 11 doesn't really help. In the long run it's damaging.
I'll tell you what I like from my company. Free coffee and not nescafe instant crap but filter coffee maintained by the company at there expense. They make sure the milk is stocked and the sugar free. Maybe even biscuits. Then when you sit down to a tough problem you can grab a coffee. Or go sit with colleagues for lunch and get your wicked coffee.
It's also useful knowing what's going on around you and how to contact anyone in the company so a good maintained central repository of employees is excellent.
I don't wantmy boss to make life fun I need him to make my work as easy as possible. Essentially I got the skills but I want a comfy chair and good lighting and good air conditioning :). I don't want dress down days.
However I do like the idea of a duvet day.
Flextime and not worrying too much about what comes across the internet pipe (so long as it's legal and wouldn't bother a customer if they saw it) are both good things. Flextime generally comes with some core hours where everyone is expected to be there so meetings can be scheduled. Being able to work from home on occasion is also nice.
Otherwise social events can be a good idea. The best culture I've worked in allowed managers a budget to do whatever they wanted with their team. It must have been fairly sizable, we went out for lunch every couple of weeks, we had afternoons off after every major project where we went and had some fun down time (movie, pool hall, etc.)
Still, if you have bad people, especially in high positions, then there's not much that can be done until they're gone. Generally that seems to be the cause of a lack of culture more than a lack of policy to encourage a good culture.
Flextime is great, especially if you have people with kids. Add telecomuting and you got some happy parent programmers ;-).
Non work related internet can be questionable. But allowing to visit sites like this is a wise idea.
I know from experience that there are often misunderstandings between programmers and sales people. So it could be wise to train programmers and sales people to effectively communicate with each other. This should be fun and also saves a lot of irritations.
If you don't treat your employees like adults, then only children will want to work for you. That means that you let people set their own hours, visit whatever web sites they want, etc, but it also means that if they aren't available when they're needed, are looking at inappropriate web sites or offend a customer, you punish them like adults.
i'll second the flextime and treat-them-like-adults, but add
this allows the employees to actually have a stake in the company's performance, rather than just being ignorant victims of it
Don't implement a stupid dress code just because you feel you have to. This is not high school
Trust people to dress appropriately (eg: wear a suit when meeting customers if that's expected), treat problems on a case-by-case basis.
What I want out of a company is to feel that all employees are treated fairly (I worked one place where the friendlier you were with the CEO the more benefits you got including company cars for no reason other than you were dating the company president or related to the CEO or sleeping with him). I want to feel my salary is fair for the work I'm supposed to do. I want to feel my salary is fair in comparison to the other people I work with (Nothing kills morale faster than knowing the worst employee you have is making the most money!)
I want a place where I'm treated as a professional - some flexibility but not so much that I can't ever find the people I need to work with on a project because our hours are so different.
I don't mind working some overtime especially at crunch time, but I don't want to feel as if you expect it to the point where you really should hire another person. I'm a human being and I do have a family and a life outside of work.
I want a company that respects that there are times when work is not the most important thing. The company I work for really chipped in and help me out when my beloved died a few months ago; they gave me more bereavement leave than the stated policy, they told the client that they would have to wait for something until I returned, my co-workers picked up my day-to-day tasks without complaint until I was able to handle them again.
One thing I have never had but would love to have is the ability to start investing into the 401 K from day 1 instead of 3-6 months later. Even if the company doesn't match until later, at least I never get used to having the money and then finding a way 6 months later to afford to contribute.
One place I worked at considered your time as a contractor or temporary worker in considering your time in service once you became a permanent employee. I got extra leave I wasn't expecting out that which was nice.
My current employer gave us a holiday out of the blue last year - that was pretty cool. They give us two days at 4th of July and two days at Christmas, New year's and Thanksgiving. As a result I'm ok with the fact we don't get every other possible holiday.
I don't want to have to beg desperately for the equipment and software I need to do my job.
Professional would be the word I would be wanting. Everyone is in from 9-5, because we need to communicate about XYZ that day. But if someone is running early/late, that's okay.
People dress acceptably for the workplace, and if a client comes in and sees them, it wouldn't be an embarrassment. Same goes for their web browsing.
Music should not be intrusive on other people.
Vacation time/holiday time should not be pulling teeth, in general. If someone wants to spend 2 weeks in October deer hunting and is passing on some Christmas time, I think that usually should be OK.
In general, management should be aware that their employees are a vital part of value-generation and treat them as such. On the employee side of things, they need to respect the concept that they are in the business to generate value. Taking time off at release time just because you want to see a concert that day, well, that's not very considerate...
So it needs to be a Golden Rule aspect: treat others like you would want to be treated.
The office should be suitable for concentrated intellectual effort - well conditioned and ventilated, with reasonable lighting and quiet. Quiet is usually quite hard. You'll have to make everyone understand that preparation for a hike is okay, but discussing it aloud so that twenty people not involved hear it unconditionally is not okay. You'll have to fight those mobile ringtones and explain to everyone that talking to their friends/relatives while in the common open office space is not okay. I guess You'll need to establish and actually apply fines for people who violate the rules often and talk to those who violate occasionally.