First of all, are you sure they did it so no one can see their screen? I've moved my desk around because, when I glance up, I like to see people rather than gr

First of all, are you sure they did it so no one can see their screen? I've moved my desk around because, when I glance up, I like to see people rather than grey cubicle wall. Also, it seems more friendly and inviting to arrange my desk so that I'm facing people walking by, rather than showing them my back. If it is mostly about the screen, it seems these employees don't trust you. Having them expose their screen to anyone walking by isn't going to increase trust. Without knowing anything else about your situation, I'd suggest reading up about the "personal safety" parts of Crystal: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crystal_Clear_%28software_development%29 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crystal_Clear_%28software_devel... And Rands had a good post about 1 on 1s recently: http://www.randsinrepose.com/archives/2010/09/22/the_update_the_vent_and_the_disaster.html http://www.randsinrepose.com/archives/2010/09/22/the_update_... Most people want to do a good job. You don't get very far programming if you don't like building things. If they aren't producing, this is a problem for you to debug. Are the unmotivated? Do they think the work is boring? Do they feel that they worked hard last quarter and weren't recognized for it? Do they think the project is likely to be canceled so what's the point of working on it? Have they been using Haskell at home and writing C++ seems like a make-work project for programmers? Turning their screen away is a symptom. What's the underlying cause?