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 ...
- 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 ...
- 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. ...
- 55.7k
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 ...
- 60.3k
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 ...
- 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 ...
- 67.2k
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 ...
- 368k
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.
...
- 9,794
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 ...
- 368k
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 ...
- 144k
123
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 ...
- 47.4k
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, ...
- 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 ...
- 368k
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-...
- 52.5k
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 ...
- 79.2k
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 ...
- 5,383
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. ...
- 208k
89
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 ...
- 127k
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 ...
- 1,529
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....
- 34.1k
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 ...
- 4,337
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 ...
- 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 ...
- 158k
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 ...
- 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 ...
- 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 ...
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 ...
- 1,959
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 ...
- 1,174
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 ...
- 36.6k
Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible