What am I doing wrong? A question of motivation?

Vladimir Sokolovsky2012-01-09 15:34:45

Time Management

Vladimir Sokolovsky, 2012-01-09 15:34:45

I am like a team leader for a small team of freelancers, which has been quite successfully fulfilling its functions for over a year. The absence of an office, a free schedule and the freedom to choose technologies seemed to motivate the team, but recently the level of motivation has dropped to an extremely low level - many couple-hour tasks are completed in weeks, which more and more often I personally do myself, due to overdue deadlines. That is, I really spend quite a bit of time on the task. I used the carrot and stick method in the form of ± according to the “salary” for the month - there was no sense. That is, money is not a motivator. New interesting projects also do not cause fire in the eyes. Moreover, the problem is only with programmers - designers and copywriters both worked and continue to work.
What is the meaning of the topic in QA - what motivates you (programmers) and how do you motivate your employees (bosses) in such situations?

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15 answer(s)

himik, 2012-01-09
@himik

I am motivated by money and interesting tasks. if this is not a motivation for your programmers, then maybe it's time to look for others?

Igor, 2012-01-09
@admhome

Maybe it's time for them to take a week off?

cat_crash, 2012-01-09
@cat_crash

The main demotivator IMHO is the monotonous work moving from development (solving interesting problems) to coding (for example, writing a work class for the SMTP protocol for the hundredth time). Even money does not motivate to implement what has been done 1000 times.

Alexey Sundukov, 2012-01-09
@alekciy

In fact, everything is simple. You need to understand a couple of simple things.
1) Money doesn't motivate. Demotivate yes. More details in this comment .
Therefore, then + - for money, yes, there’s no sense in it.
2) Many programmers are firmly convinced that they are “creating”. And the creator needs inspiration that doesn’t want to come when working full-time. In addition, the creators are not up to someone else's code, especially not to the routine of supporting the current code. But in reality, the creator is not needed, you often need to stupidly fuck, fuck, and fuck again. There is a front of work, that's what needs to be done. And apparently, at the current moment in the team, both designers and copywriters are just from the category of people who understand that work needs to be done.
Do not want problems with the developers? Don't hire creators, hire workers. Do not try to motivate with money, it is enough just not to allow them to be demotivated. You need to be prepared that the selection process can be delayed. This is inevitable in a shortage of personnel.

AlexanderG, 2012-01-09
@AlexanderG

I am like a team leader
Maybe this is the problem? Lack of credibility among developers?

rinx, 2012-01-09
@rinx

Money works, but not always.
In general, here you need to work pointwise - with each separately.
It is necessary to discuss explicitly or implicitly what a person wants, thinks, dreams, strives for. What is he willing to do in order to achieve what he aspires to. Maybe he has some personal problems now? It is necessary to probe the soil and make an individual list of motivators for each of the programmers and work on them separately. Everyone has a set and weights (priorities) of motivators can be different, and in a variety of bizarre forms.
In general, communicate and work with personnel more often and delve into what, how and how your programmers live in ordinary life. Having common themes, an understanding of who and what everyone lives for, you will already intuitively understand where you can “press” and where you can “let go”.

sandra175, 2012-01-09
@sandra175

My colleague and I formed a kind of “synthesis” of freelance and studio. We are formalized and work officially, but there is no office - hence the resulting freedom of schedule and the need for each self-organization.
And sometimes it can be very difficult to organize yourself. At the same time, I understand with my mind what needs to be done, especially when the task is small, but you don’t want to take it on ...
Working for yourself is such a compromise when you seem to get freedom, but at the same time everything depends only on your actions (or inactions), and all responsibility is on you. And people get tired of responsibility.
Perhaps the problem is in the “human factor”, by my own example I can say that now I already want to receive money “for nothing”. That is, write some kind of project from which money will constantly drip (passive income), and take other projects only when necessary and not because of money, but “for the soul” ...
I personally have such a state now. Perhaps you have something similar.
By the way, and another such moment. Payment occurs before, after, in installments? And if in parts, then in what proportions?

IvanFF, 2012-01-09
@IvanFF

A person wants prospects, wants a cloudless future. This is what motivates you. "National idea" - remember?

TheHorse, 2012-01-09
@TheHorse

A similar problem ((.
First of all, you need the correct diagnosis of the problem. Perhaps this is not the fault of the programmers, it’s just that the project is too thick and complex and with a clumsy architecture ... Then it will be epicly difficult to add a button ...
If, nevertheless, the trouble of motivation is despair and despondency, everything is to blame "We need to change something all the time, harshly, quickly, decisively ... for the worse and for the better - to make life more fun.
It still doesn't hurt to arrange a war there. Don't care against whom, don't care how, but war! So that there is someone to fight against ... Against each other, or collectively against competitors ... The main thing is to have a goal.As you know, there is no goal better than victory and never was.
As for money, give epsilon bonuses regularly... They say, well done guys, you are doing everything well, I respect you very much... And then take away these bonuses... they say, you are all assholes and know nothing... But it is important that this correlates with their actions)) . But this is again something that relates to making life more fun. And of course, globally z.p. should grow, regularly.
PS if something helps - be sure to unsubscribe, preferably in the form of an article).

rinx, 2012-01-09
@rinx

Well, in addition - read "How to herd cats." There you will find the answer to your question.

stampoon, 2012-01-09
@stampoon

What is an interesting project for a programmer? A project on which you need to think, and not just write code. But over time, experience accumulates and banal writings turn out. This is very annoying. You most likely need to either give the programmers a break, or change people.

phasma, 2012-01-09
@phasma

many freelancers. Take new ones, add mayonnaise to the doshirak and go.

Eternalko, 2012-01-10
@Eternalko

Maybe they have problems in life.
Holiday time is a time of depression for single people.
Go for a beer with them if possible :)

Max, 2012-01-09
@7workers

Maybe the “horse is dead” and you are the only one who does not notice this? Projects also fail.

sainnr, 2012-01-11
@sainnr

Hold weekly rallies where everyone would briefly talk about what they have done during the week, talk about current tasks and problems. It takes no more than an hour a week, but it makes everyone on the team figure out what they have been doing all week, what they have achieved, what are the problems, snags, put it all in 3-5 minutes and tell the rest.