About IT motivation

In this article, I will address the issue of motivation in IT, and from a perspective that can hardly be found in classical works on economics. Everything described here is my personal opinion based on work in various IT companies and communication with various IT specialists.

The topic of the article came after reading the rabota.ua report, which contains the results of a study showing that for most IT people, the main motivator is salary. Everything seems to be clear and understandable, but let's look at the problem more deeply.

Classic motivation

All of you are probably familiar with the Maslow pyramid: Maslow’s



theory of motivation (pyramid) is based on the thesis that human behavior is determined by a number of basic needs that can be built in a certain hierarchy. From Maslow's point of view, these needs are universal, i.e. unite all people regardless of skin color, nationality, lifestyle, habits, manner of holding and other external manifestations. Maslow's hierarchy of needs is built on the principle of the urgency of their satisfaction for a person.

If you look closely at this image, then “development”, “personal growth” are at the very top of the pyramid. This can simply explain the fact why very few people really take a steam bath on the topic of personal and personal growth. After all, the top of the pyramid still needs to be reached ...

But in reality in the real world, everything is a little wrong, especially in the IT world, especially in our IT world.

- Nothing personal, it was just a business.
- For me it was very personal.

The film "Hostage" (Taken), 2008 <

How often have you heard the phrase “just business, nothing personal”? Personally, I heard this phrase many times in my life. And each time this phrase sounded precisely when people who did not fulfill their promises tried to find an excuse for their actions.

Not surprisingly, after two or three situations, the person will behave the same next time. That is why ( I have already said this ) it is difficult to lure high-class specialists with the help of tennis tables, insurances and other “goodies” (if you can still, check the professional level of the applicant again!).

When IT companies refuse to make a profit, I agree that salary should not be the main motivator for their employees.

Mine, although it may have heard somewhere before

But many are sincerely surprised that a person comes to work to earn money. They do not understand why some employees are not ready to spend the night three days in a row at work for the sake of a "dream company."

I am thrown into the heat when another representative of an IT company with foam at the mouth begins to prove how the company cares about the IT situation, appreciates its employees, cares about the environment, etc. The situation is especially enraging when a company tries to add a touch of elitism to its activities for the benefit of humanity. And then again you hear: nothing personal ...

Commentators of football matches have a wonderful phrase: "the game is forgotten, the score remains." So here: no matter how wonderful the company is, the only measure of “happiness” for its creators and the board of directors is a positive quarterly report or the amount of cache in the Bank of Cyprus. Therefore, do not be surprised that employees come to "work work" and for this they want to "get paid."

A few more words about salary and badges

I have already said this repeatedly, but I repeat: we all love to be measured by hypothetical titles: Senior F * ing Developer, Senior Double F * ing Developer, NuProstoPizezKakoi Senior Developer. Well, you understand ... There are a lot of such people in every company. So, here we get a double facepalm: the company can sell one specialist for the price of two, and the developer is ready not to get material profit for the sake of being able to flaunt a cool title.

I won’t go far - I myself was first a June, then a senior, then a middle, then again a senior, then they came up with such a badge that I still can’t reprimand him ... I don’t need to say that my professional level was weakly correlated with badges .

And the biggest shit in my life I felt at one of the "business" parties, when a 21-year-old third-year student of KPI handed me a business card with the inscription "business development manager" ...

And more. We solve a simple problem. There is one developer who works from 8 am to 9 pm. For this, he receives a salary N. Nearby is a senior developer who works from 11 am to 6 pm with a lunch break. For this, he receives a salary of 2 * N. There is a certain hypothetical problem that the first developer solves in 1 day, and the second developer in 15 minutes. Question: where can I get the magic kick to reward company managers so that they finally understand why the second developer should get more than 2 * N?

If you think that this is a hypothetical problem, then you are mistaken.

Motivation, money and science.

Science is another area where standard theories of motivation do not work. Do you all remember Perelman, who proved Poincare’s theorem and then abandoned the honestly earned million dollars? Many simply refused to understand what was happening, and even more people still believed in the approaching end of the world.

In fact, everything is much simpler. A person is unlikely to make a revolution in science if he does it for money. No, you can do something brilliant for money (although history knows many examples when a thing or invention was recognized as brilliant after a long period of time after the moment of invention or even the death of the author), but a revolution is unlikely.

Maybe because of this, from the last revolutions, we only have instagram and facebook?

When I was 7 years old, I dreamed that communism would triumph over the whole earth. At seventeen I dreamed of unearthly love and the beautiful princess. Now I'm 35, and I stupidly want MONEY!

We must not forget that each person has his own views, beliefs, desires, marital and moral condition. To offer everyone the same social package, in my opinion, is stupid.

For instance,

• we have tennis tables! (and the person had a physical education deuce and hands from the ass grow, but just in such a way as to normally code in PHP);
• we have a pool! (and a man does not know how to swim);
• we have free english courses! (and the person already speaks English so well);
• we have…

But one needs a bicycle parking lot and a shower, another needs to leave work an hour earlier, for it is far to get, and the third needs a mouse with a Mickey Mouse sticker. And, in my opinion, before taking a person to work, you need to ask if he needs all these "buns". Put in front of him a list of buns with two free columns and ask them to indicate which of them a person really needs. Or ask from 10 points to choose any 5. I think you will be surprised at the results ...

I love summer, but recently I realized that summer can be all year round, there would be money! Now I love money!

So that I would not be accused of greed, I still want to add a few thoughts on how to raise motivation from employees without material things.

The first thing people need after money is recognition. Many are eager to be the boss, but not mature enough. Ok, this person can be put in charge of a group of interns.

Carry out a corporate event - do not invite musical groups from the outside, take your own or invite from neighboring companies. Not only is it cheaper, but people will also be impressed for a month.

Remove all stupid still lifes and all garbage in the style of garbage surrealism, hang pictures and photos of your employees. The same garbage, but its own

, etc. No pools and tennis tables can replace the usual human attitude. True.

And finally, the button accordion in the subject.

The bottom line: in the head office of the company decided to hold an attraction of unprecedented tolerance. They decided to organize a gay festival of representatives of all offices.

An order came to the office - send 3 gays. Management thought hard. We called a meeting, started to think. Come up with.

A resolution was issued: the heads of departments who achieved the lowest results for the quarter are going to a gay parade.

The company has never seen such production, sales, marketing, advertising, supply - productivity has increased by 100% and higher.

And the management has achieved its results - both have received a profit and have chosen fagots.

And you say - bonuses, training, career growth, company anthems. Bullshit is everything.

Good job to you!