Questions tagged [motivation]

Why we do the things we do. Questions here center around the idea of how to get excited and do a good job rather than a poor one.

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What are the best answers to the interview question "why are you choosing to return to this role/work?" when re-entering after taking a break? [closed]

Update - I've edited the question to serve the broader community. New here and please excuse me for the initial rookie errors. I'm re-entering corporate full-time workforce after ~4 years of taking a ...
Learningcorporate's user avatar
-2 votes
2 answers
1k views

Is having 0 motivation and 10% work performance and not resigning OK? [closed]

I entered a company last month and I have 5 years of previous experience in that area. But there is a 4 year gap before entering this company. They give me 2 projects and said, work on these. They ...
elections 12's user avatar
5 votes
5 answers
2k views

Company reluctant to use good development practices; rejecting all my proposals. How can I handle this?

I'm a mobile developer. I work in a service company developing internal tools for different areas of the company. There is an so-called modernization project where I am, which is supposed to define ...
sittaman's user avatar
  • 107
-2 votes
8 answers
826 views

Is it possible to get long-term motivation for better performance by money alone?

Inadequate pay does affect performance, no question about it. But as soon as money is enough to spare money-related anxieties, such as paying the bills, is there any theory or anecdotal evidence that ...
drabsv's user avatar
  • 343
0 votes
2 answers
630 views

I feel undervalued and don't know whether I should stay? [closed]

I have been trying to break into the legal industry for a few years now. Covid and the subsequent working from home have done nothing to help my plight. Approximately four months ago I was contacted ...
user311438's user avatar
10 votes
6 answers
2k views

What questions should I ask myself before quitting a job?

I feel lost at work lately. It feels like I do not have a clear purpose anymore. Motivation is low, I cannot find challenges anymore. I am asking myself constantly, if it is the time to leave and look ...
Mike's user avatar
  • 727
3 votes
2 answers
803 views

Burnout? How to make it manageable for the next 6 months? [closed]

I think I have a burnout. Since I joined my current company I've been on the same project. It's a typical situation of "you have no power to decide anything, but you're responsible if the project ...
user523u8914's user avatar
-4 votes
2 answers
237 views

How do you know when you should make a job change

How do you know when you should make a job change? I feel like I am the most motivated member of my team. Everyone else seems to be just slogging through to get through the work day. Does this mean I ...
NebulousReveal's user avatar
6 votes
2 answers
2k views

Struggling at job. Frustrated, tired and feeling unproductive. How do I discuss this or approach a new job hunt?

Background: I began working at a well established company 9 months ago. I was invited to interview by a colleague from a previous company. I was told of some tough points such as potentially longer ...
iammackinnon's user avatar
28 votes
7 answers
15k views

How to motivate staff to attend a paid certification course in their off hours?

Context We live in a small south American, third-world country where quality education is scarce and really costly. Also, the minimum wage is around $385 a month. The situation I’m a new employee (...
Daniel Baquero's user avatar
-2 votes
2 answers
759 views

Everybody knows I only see my job as a paycheck and this is causing harm [closed]

Ive have had a position for 4 years (Europe, full-time, permanent contract, 30k+ employees) and I myself know that my time is due, I cant grow more, I learnt what I wanted to learn, the new colleagues ...
MLEN's user avatar
  • 2,628
6 votes
2 answers
920 views

Improve motivation in highly pessimistic team as new senior dev

I'm a new hire in a software development team. My existing peers, with less than a year there, are extremely pessimistic. As the dev with the highest level in the team I guess improving morale is ...
estebarb's user avatar
  • 189
1 vote
4 answers
1k views

How to keep yourself motivated at work?

There are times that I feel like I don't want to do anything at work. How to keep me motivated at what I'm doing?
Jethro Garcia's user avatar
1 vote
2 answers
773 views

How to keep my morale high? My colleague is redoing my work and i feel belittled? [closed]

I work for a startup, and I handle from interviews to Production ops/ delivery. Many times I anticipate the future and I was ready with the work even before it arrives. This is how i used to deliver. ...
chendu's user avatar
  • 840
25 votes
13 answers
8k views

Why should people in high turnover fields like software engineering put in discretionary effort?

A colleague of mine made the argument to me that I should not try that hard in my current job as I am a software engineer and if I cut corners, the problems fall on my replacement when I inevitably ...
quitfirstjob's user avatar
47 votes
14 answers
29k views

Refusing to give a raise to an employee, while keeping her motivated

An employee of mine is asking for a raise. Like many employees, she thinks she is doing very well and should get a raise. Her current compensation package is well in the market benchmark and also when ...
riorio's user avatar
  • 5,425
16 votes
3 answers
3k views

Resentment towards employer over reduced pay

Background: I work as a mechanical engineer at a startup in India. So basically during the past year, my employer has reduced my pay during lock-down periods by up to 50% while still having me work ...
ATool's user avatar
  • 169
13 votes
3 answers
2k views

How do I Help a Team Member Recognize the Relative Importance of Their Project

I find myself in the curious case of trying to partially de-motivate someone, some background: I am the team lead of a ~30 person team ranging from interns and new college grads to senior folks with ...
agentroadkill's user avatar
12 votes
5 answers
2k views

What do I do if I can't seem to find interest for any job in my field (software development)? [closed]

I am having some major existential issues in regards to my career. I don't know if there is a true answer to this question, but I'd be grateful to receive any thoughts, experiences, or questions to ...
user125074's user avatar
9 votes
3 answers
860 views

Motivation/focus advice?

I have a job that I like with development chances that I appreciate. I genuinely believe I am lucky to have it. It's just that I am being so damn distracted and giving only 5% of my effort instead of ...
anxiousPI's user avatar
  • 685
-2 votes
3 answers
558 views

How to motivate myself to do my own projects similar to my day job? [closed]

I got a new mobile development role about 6 months ago. I love it, the company and the people are great. I work from home too. Previously I’d been in web development roles and grew to hate it. I used ...
BillThomas's user avatar
0 votes
3 answers
905 views

Do they want me to leave?

I took a sick leave of more than 3 months after having neglected health problems, and an evaluation meeting exacerbated my situation. I completely lost interest in the project. My boss asserted once ...
Leonidas's user avatar
  • 825
5 votes
4 answers
2k views

How to get motivated to work on tasks that don't help you improve

To me there are two aspects of any task assigned to a developer in a software project. These are not exclusive, so a task can be (for example) 40% aspect 1 and 60% aspect 2: Tasks requiring you to ...
uylmz's user avatar
  • 439
1 vote
3 answers
690 views

How does one know or convey to the boss that task is beyond my difficulty? [closed]

I work in a startup where I am the lone developer (there is one more person who is completely into different domain). So it's my boss who gives me tasks consulting a mentor who she knows. The problem ...
Fasty's user avatar
  • 403
2 votes
3 answers
722 views

Burnout - change industries?

I am a data analyst in the public sector and have been in various guises for the past 8-9 years. I am currently pretty well burnt out in my current role - all motivation has disappeared, work quality ...
the_ant's user avatar
  • 39
15 votes
5 answers
2k views

Motivation has dropped partly due to pessimistic views on work in general - burned out?

I've been in my current role for about three years, after graduating from University. I haven't really been impacted by COVID work-wise because I'm a software developer so I can WFH. Lately I've been ...
Touchdown's user avatar
  • 3,021
6 votes
3 answers
1k views

Disagreements in project decisions led me to lose all motivation

We're a distributed team working on a new software project. My local team all joined around December, I joined in January. Nobody in my local team knows about the current codebase. Up until June, it ...
maria's user avatar
  • 994
5 votes
6 answers
2k views

Which kind of motivation software companies expects from applicant?

Some time ago I got a refusal after an interview because the company was looking for somebody who can "better express their motivation to work for Companyname". At this point I don't ...
Hayate's user avatar
  • 169
-4 votes
2 answers
334 views

Should I start a new journey? [closed]

Almost a year after graduating, I work for a large company. I am highly motivated and passionate about my current job. I have never had any experience as a product manager, but I feel that I have been ...
serbotec's user avatar
27 votes
9 answers
9k views

Refusing to increment productivity beyond salary raise

A software engineer in the team I lead was a very good worker and in the last two rounds and got a salary increase of the maximum the company allows. A couple of months ago, he said he was very ...
mark951131b's user avatar
12 votes
4 answers
1k views

How to give backend developers some limelight?

Recognition is one of the main topics discussed after employees surveys in our organization. One of the points raised in a recent survey is, developers want to get more chances to be seen and ...
Hawk's user avatar
  • 589
5 votes
2 answers
442 views

Decreasing motivation due to no operational tasks

Situation I work at a large multinational company where I am part of a smaller department consisting of around 30 people. I am a BI Developer/Analyst. I have no coworkers with a similar job ...
Acarbalacar's user avatar
  • 1,809
-3 votes
3 answers
1k views

Fired due to lack of motivation [closed]

So, I was fired a few weeks ago after being in place for ten months. I was told that my manager had come in to see me for a chat, and he said "It's not good news, the client wants to reduce the team ...
Mikey's user avatar
  • 37
70 votes
6 answers
20k views

What are some strategies to maintain morale and productivity after massive layoffs?

In what was perhaps a textbook example of bad optics, our company announced layoffs recently. To make things worse, the environment was such that many of us were personal friends as well as colleagues....
Old_Lamplighter's user avatar
0 votes
3 answers
381 views

How to make Coworkers/Employees feel their work is important

Every year we have a survey at our company where employees get to rate several different aspects of their employment. The results are important to us and we review them and try to improve things where ...
CharlesD's user avatar
99 votes
23 answers
19k views

Star developer didn’t get a promotion because he isn’t a people person, so he has scaled back his contributions. How can I motivate him?

I’m a VP at a financial institution and oversee a quasi fintech branch of our company. Two years ago, I hired a dev who turned out to be star. Great results putting him on one of our dev teams and ...
StumpedMoneyHacker's user avatar
2 votes
4 answers
1k views

One of my best engineers feels that he is slower than the rest of team, how can I determine the real problem (so I can solve it)?

I have a distributed scrum team and the developer in question is one of my best (produces quality code, knows his tech stack, can communicate well, etc). However, he keeps feeling like he doesn't ...
Matt's user avatar
  • 29
8 votes
4 answers
1k views

My boss is motivated but is no longer engaged and suspects he is losing his job and this is making everyone feel unhappy, what can I do?

My boss is very clever and is highly motivated, often putting in more time than he needs. However, recently a number of people left the company, and everything seems to have came to a halt. My boss ...
Professor of programming's user avatar
62 votes
10 answers
27k views

Bothered by watching coworkers slacking off

Situation I am working in a small office of 4 people, where 2 of us work independently and the 2 others are in a team. It has started to bother me that those 2 in the team are not getting much work ...
Acarbalacar's user avatar
  • 1,809
3 votes
4 answers
3k views

I do not have tasks due to business analyst concerns

I'm working at some software startup. I'm well paid and the project needed to be built from scratch. Some months ago, I got hired as senior programmer, then I've designed and implemented a framework ...
Hipocoro's user avatar
-6 votes
7 answers
2k views

Am I being used more than my job role as a Graphic Designer? [closed]

I'm a Graphic Designer in a Digital marketing and design agency startup (8 months experience). I'm the only designer there. There's one person for copy writing and one director who checks my designs. ...
Vikas's user avatar
  • 173
8 votes
7 answers
2k views

What are some techniques to use to stop yourself from yawning during a long meeting?

I have always had a problem with yawning during long meetings (>1 hour) and I am interested in the techniques that people have used to keep themselves from yawning. I always start to yawn after about ...
user avatar
3 votes
4 answers
1k views

How to deal with (in my opinion) bad firmware design forced by my boss

First some back-story. We (4 Developers, 1 of them is my Boss) are currently in the process of designing a new iteration of one of our products. So my boss told me to come up with a new firmware-...
bam's user avatar
  • 807
111 votes
11 answers
32k views

Developers demotivated due to working on same project for more than 2 years

I am currently managing a team of 10 people for a project which was started 3 years ago, which will run for another year. I am not the manager, I am just the most senior developer (6yrs exp.) on the ...
Bhushan's user avatar
  • 761
55 votes
13 answers
14k views

What to do when my ideas aren't chosen, when I strongly disagree with the chosen solution?

Bit of a psychological question I have here in relation to working as a programmer. In your work environment, when you're working on a particular system and that system needs to change due to ...
jrichie911's user avatar
4 votes
4 answers
662 views

I'm no longer enjoying my work. How can I revamp?

In September 2019, I will complete 5 years in the Software Engineering industry. Prior to this, I completed lots of personal projects during my undergrad days. I have lived with the code for the last ...
Suhail Gupta's user avatar
5 votes
3 answers
877 views

How to get over being angry due to being laid off? [closed]

Due to circumstances beyond my control, a contract that I loved working on has been terminated with very little warning and I have been told my last day is Friday. I understand its business, the ...
Jeff Christman's user avatar
-2 votes
2 answers
503 views

Seeing no perspective in job - low motivation [closed]

I'm currently working as a consultant in the it department of an company which is active in industry. I've studied computer science and my goal was to become a software developer. My job currently ...
user1673665's user avatar
1 vote
5 answers
1k views

How can I motivate someone voluntarily giving me their time?

Backstory I'm developing a web-application for an active shooter defense training company. They go to organizations all around the country and teach them how to be best prepared for a horrible ...
Corey P's user avatar
  • 976
0 votes
3 answers
728 views

Team building events vs. presents

In our region it is often the case, that you get a christmas present from your company to appreciate for the work one has done. That was also the case in our company, but since the company has new ...
testing's user avatar
  • 210