I hate to throw Agile buzzwords around but: The Scrum master's job is to remove obstacles from the team's path. There's no telling people what to do, just list

I hate to throw Agile buzzwords around but: The Scrum master's job is to remove obstacles from the team's path. There's no telling people what to do, just listening to them at regular team meeting and helping solve what ever problems they come up with. The scrum master does not have to be a manager just a "person with influence". So maybe Joel & Co. can implement regular team meeting where "people with influence" listen to complaints and then try to solve them. And solving problems may require nothing more then being comfortable chatting with Joel.