Also: - Don't bother the crap out of your geeks for things outside work. It's not ok to have your geeks routinely fix and do market research for anything comp

Also: - Don't bother the crap out of your geeks for things outside work. It's not ok to have your geeks routinely fix and do market research for anything computer-related (or even electricity-powered!) for your whole family and friends. Especially outside work schedule. Just because it involves stuff that someone happens to know his way around, it is foolish to assume that he also enjoys doing the laundry of people that he doesn't personally care about. It is stupid to think that geeks enjoy anything computer/technology related and it is offensive to think that their time is any less valuable than yours. If anything, the typical geek has many interesting personal side-projects and ideas, unlike the typical manager, so his time is a thousand times more important. - Do not force your geeks to implement ugly workarounds and cut corners if you don't understand the consequences and, in case you do, don't force the responsibility for these on your geeks. If you demand that something that normally takes x time is done in x/2 time, your geek will try to explain to you why this is not a good idea. Your geek will gladly analyze the possible consequences of the compromises that would have to be made, but it's not possible to give you i.e. a real-world estimate on how long you are going to get away with them, and in the end, it's not his job to tell you if the risk is really worth it, only to help you understand the risk. In any case, if your geek warns you and you chose to ignore his advice, don't hold him responsible if the exact same thing that he warned you about happens. - If you say something is really, really important, your geek can manage to work day and night to make it possible. He may even fail to make it clear that he had to, as he wants to believe it was a rare occasion, a real emergency. That doesn't mean this is the norm and you can keep rushing the next projects in advance. - Your geek will most likely have a list of things that are not working well that he wants to optimize. Those things may appear to be working just fine on the outside, while in fact they are ticking bombs or time-sinks -routine manual procedures begging automation. Do not think that if there are not current projects running you need to fill the time of your geeks with just any chores you can think about, chances are they could have done more valuable thinks on their own.