348 votes
Accepted

New manager penalising my team for 'tiredness' - how to shield them?

There's a 4th option: Call your retired infrastructure support manager and ask him for advice. He knows the right people, and may care enough about his former teams to call his contacts higher up in ...
Peter's user avatar
  • 14.5k
297 votes

New manager penalising my team for 'tiredness' - how to shield them?

Get "sent home" notes in writing, preferably in emails This supports both (1) and (2), and might even get this new chap to back down a bit, because when he is forced to explicitly state "Joe Smith ...
David M's user avatar
  • 1,568
207 votes

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?

Ask him what he wants. Seriously, ask him what he wants. You said that the pay wouldn't change, so it's not the money. You said that he wouldn't want to manage anybody, so that's not that either. ...
Stephan Branczyk's user avatar
182 votes

How to motivate people to participate in a company hackathon?

Don't make it a 24-hour event. Those kinds of events are fine for students and can work in startups or highly technical environments but most employees are just going to pass. It's simply too much of ...
Lilienthal's user avatar
  • 59.3k
176 votes

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

As an employee, the only thing worse than not getting a raise you think you deserve is not knowing what you need to do to get that raise. If you have specific areas you would like to see her improve ...
Seth R's user avatar
  • 12k
162 votes
Accepted

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

As my study of this situation, there are other problems, actual problems that needs to be investigated. People simply don't get demotivated for working 2+ years on the same project, they get ...
Sourav Ghosh's user avatar
161 votes

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

This is confusing me as I don’t understand their reasons to act like that. You can't understand why some folks might balk at the idea of spending 45 hours of unpaid after work time? You are new. It's ...
Joe Strazzere's user avatar
146 votes
Accepted

How do I motivate usage of Git for the next maintainer?

In a situation like yours, a good starting point is to present the current use of Git as the rule. Add simple instructions like Where do I get the current code? Check out the Git repository XYZ. ...
Elmy's user avatar
  • 9,804
144 votes
Accepted

Why do I never get a mention at work?

My question is, is it my fault that I was overlooked, undervalued and underpaid for so long? There's no way to know without a lot more details, but "fault" isn't something that should worry you ...
Joe Strazzere's user avatar
135 votes
Accepted

Interns I'm training don't care and it affects my performance

Clearly, you are not managing these interns the way they need to be managed. It may well be unfair that they need to be managed so differently from typical employees, who want to accomplish, but this ...
Kate Gregory's user avatar
124 votes

Refusing to increment productivity beyond salary raise

Be happy he isn’t on his way out the door. I’ve always found it to be interesting that people in power (whether teachers, bosses, “thought leaders”, etc.) always lean on their high performers to get ...
Matthew Gaiser's user avatar
122 votes

New manager penalising my team for 'tiredness' - how to shield them?

My general pattern for dealing with office conflicts is to try to work it out with the person (which you did, and it was fruitless) and if not to appeal to higher authority and or HR. In your case, ...
dbeer's user avatar
  • 11.9k
120 votes
Accepted

Bothered by watching coworkers slacking off

Now, I should not care. I am not their boss and their work does not directly impact mine, so objectively there is no reason for me to be annoyed by this, but the fact that I feel that I make a ...
Joe Strazzere's user avatar
113 votes

How to motivate people to participate in a company hackathon?

My ~300-person company is currently in the midst of a hackathon, as it turns out, so here's what I've learned from that. First, as others have said, that 24-hour commitment is going to be a deal-...
Monica Cellio's user avatar
113 votes
Accepted

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

Don't try. You don't need everybody to be on board with your plan. In fact it might be better not to have the people who are not enthusiastic attend the course. To make this work (including the more ...
DJClayworth's user avatar
  • 83.2k
110 votes

How to gain motivation to do "boring" work?

If work was supposed to be fun, it wouldn't be called work. I'm sorry to tell you this, but welcome to the rest of your life. You might find a work that you enjoy MOST of the time, but you very ...
undefined's user avatar
  • 5,413
108 votes

Refusing to increment productivity beyond salary raise

Sounds like a win win situation. He's happier and less stressed. You're still getting the quality work done. Increasing the workload of an unhappy stressed employee is a bad idea in the long run. ...
Kilisi's user avatar
  • 218k
91 votes

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?

However, he wants to be promoted to the Director level (two levels below mine) and did apply for such a position. The committee rejected him because he is a star technical contributor, but seemingly ...
nvoigt's user avatar
  • 137k
74 votes

Interns I'm training don't care and it affects my performance

I'm going to take the alternative approach to the problem and solve it at the source instead of letting it become your problem. Pay your interns at a competitive rate. If you don't like that, skip to ...
Chris Cirefice's user avatar
73 votes

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

He is not. You get better by being better, and will be able to achieve more over time. That leads to direct promotions/raises/bonuses but also makes your resume more desirable so you can change jobs....
mxyzplk's user avatar
  • 35.5k
72 votes

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?

He won’t say a word during sprint planning, “doesn’t know how” to solve certain problems, and has stopped checking other co-workers code, allowing bugs to flood into production (the dev team he is on ...
ig-dev's user avatar
  • 4,357
72 votes
Accepted

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

The situation you're describing is tough. Layoffs have a very real impact on both the individuals that are let go and those that remain. I'm sorry you're experiencing this. Here are some things to ...
Jay's user avatar
  • 12.3k
69 votes
Accepted

How to keep motivation in a burnt out workplace while interviewing elsewhere?

It should be easy if you put forth the right mindset. You know that it will be over soon, so nothing should bother you. Therefore, with all the concerns of corporate BS being gone, you can focus on ...
Old_Lamplighter's user avatar
66 votes

Interns I'm training don't care and it affects my performance

they don't know the basic tools we use like Git, agile development, etc. I think this is an unrealistic expectation for unpaid interns half way through college. Git and agile may be popular in the ...
Neil P's user avatar
  • 818
64 votes

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

Any suggestions on how can I motivate them? Hack days are a great way to motivate devs. Once a month allow the team to spend their Thursday afternoon working on a hack project. Ask your boss for a ...
Pixelomo's user avatar
  • 2,790
61 votes

Bothered by watching coworkers slacking off

Nothing easier. Stop presuming that you are a virtuous person Obviously, your entire position here rests on the presumption that you are a good guy, honorable and hard working. From that high ...
Harper - Reinstate Monica's user avatar
57 votes

How to motivate people to participate in a company hackathon?

While this may seem strange to someone fresh out of school, this is generally what life looks like to adults : What you are proposing is the encroachment of Work's enormous green slice into the tiny ...
J...'s user avatar
  • 1,969
56 votes

Why do I never get a mention at work?

I had a job once where I was working there for several years and was making less than they were hiring new employees for. I went to HR and complained about X employee, who was making almost twice what ...
Barry Franklin's user avatar
55 votes

New manager penalising my team for 'tiredness' - how to shield them?

A subjective measure like bags under eyes or yawn for 'fully fit to work at all times' is not valid in my opinion. The new manager should be measuring actual output. I could be bright eyed and doing ...
paparazzo's user avatar
  • 36.8k

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