Ask any of the guys who report to me…it’s the question I probably ask most consistently in most 1on1. Here’s why I care so much about it: fun = happy.
And to give you 3 more reasons
- Per week 40 hours (lots more if you include reality and commutes etc) in the office doing work related things (…mostly). And since engineering is one of those things you can’t really turn off at the end of your day, you’ll end up spending a lot more. All of that to say, if it isn’t fun and you are spending over 50% of your awake time doing it you are probably not going to stick it out.
- More than anything else, fun is probably one of the most important things why people stay in a job (assuming none of the others are too far out of line)
- Fun = happy, and that is always going to be a more encouraging environment to work in
So what do we do then?
Well….there is no real cookie cutter answer. It’s a combination of lots of things, but generally engineers tend to have fun when you just let them be engineers. Put a framework around them where they can come in and play (yes, play…at the end of the day our toys have changed but we’re really no different from the 6 year old playing with lego). Even more, hiring a bunch of great engineers and let them do just that is probably one of the best strategies for getting great software…