3 ms·

Besides some more formal systems for praising/thanking people that my company has, my department has a 'Gratitude' chat on Teams dedicated to thanking people wh

by pxc 3y ago

Besides some more formal systems for praising/thanking people that my company has, my department has a 'Gratitude' chat on Teams dedicated to thanking people when someone goes out of their way, unblocks you, demonstrates extraordinary patience, gets back to you especially quickly, etc. I think it's awesome. It sets a public precedent for kind behavior and appreciative attitudes. It always makes me happy to see people thanking each other in that chat.

palata 3y ago
> I think it's awesome. It sets a public precedent for kind behavior and appreciative attitudes. It always makes me happy to see people thanking each other in that chat. Which brings exactly the same problem as the likes: some people always appear on those chats, some people never do. Does that mean that they are doing a bad job? No... they just get less visibility. How do you get more visibility on the "gratitude" chat? By thanking the others, so that they see you more and think about thanking you in return, I suppose? In my experience, some teams keep congratulating themselves, some don't, at all. And management sees those who are visible, even if it is not fair. It can quickly get artificial, and a bit depressing for the people who don't really appear there.
- pxc 3y ago
  My department is pretty siloed, so I don't offhand know who all normally works closely with whom. I don't consult the org chart when I see people praise or thank each other, either, so I don't have a good sense of how much public praise in my department is intra-team puffery. I can say, though, that I've (so far) never used that channel to thank anyone on my own team. On my own small team, my manager already knows when someone has been especially helpful to someone else. I use that chat in part to make things visible to external managers who otherwise might not know. > And management sees those who are visible, even if it is not fair. I admit that even in the best circumstances this could create some bias, but I don't think it has to be that severe. Managers should have other, better sources of information than that which should weigh more heavily than that. > It can quickly get artificial Yeah. I think keeping it low stakes and not treating it as some kind of informal metric is important for preserving some level of authenticity. Truthfully, though, I don't really find myself evaluating the authenticity of exchanges of gratitude between others. I just know that when I use it, I'm genuinely thankful to whomever I'm thanking, and so far I feel like the thanks I've received have also been genuine. > a bit depressing for the people who don't really appear there. That's true. I've even felt a bit of that myself. But I think ultimately it's imperative for organizations (especially managers, but to a lesser extent basically everyone) to try to ensure that all kinds of people feel appreciated for their work, including people who are introverts and people whose work is solitary or unsexy maintenance work. And that means that recognition can't just be formulaic or systematic or happen in only one place. Ideally, feeling underappreciated or left out in a certain system of recognition/thanks would be something you'd bring to your manager during a 1:1. And they could try to answer it by making your impact visible in some other way, like organizing a presentation or a demo of your work, or writing up some kind of report on it and sharing it somewhere, or just DMing you every now and then and letting you know that they had a conversation with so-and-so about how whatever you did was nice, helpful, vital, or whatever, or (hopefully!) arrange something more substantial like a promotion, raise, or bonus. I like our gratitude chat at work but I wouldn't begrudge anyone still feeling underappreciated for whatever reason or saying that it doesn't do much for them.
  - palata 3y ago
    Fair, I totally get your points. I was just saying that as someone who has a "gratitude" chat at work. It has made me realized that I was working very hard for absolutely no recognition, and it destroyed my motivation.
    - pxc 3y ago
      I've learned that recognition and feeling connected to others is really important for me as a developer, too. If I go too long without sharing my work with someone or getting feedback from a user, I can start to feel invisible, or even useless, and it's very demotivating. Arranging demos/informal tests with users frequently (ideally once every week or two, or even more frequently if I have a lot of work to show and test) to solicit feedback from users and make my work's purpose more immediate to me has been hugely helpful. (Every single time I put a user in front of something I've made, it always helps me identify new UX and documentation bugs, too.) I hope you can make arrangements to feel more connected to others in your work and acknowledged for your effort, up to and including finding a different job! It makes such a huge difference in life and it's really worth it.

by pxc 3y ago

palata 3y ago

> I think it's awesome. It sets a public precedent for kind behavior and appreciative attitudes. It always makes me happy to see people thanking each other in that chat. Which brings exactly the same problem as the likes: some people always appear on those chats, some people never do. Does that mean that they are doing a bad job? No... they just get less visibility. How do you get more visibility on the "gratitude" chat? By thanking the others, so that they see you more and think about thanking you in return, I suppose? In my experience, some teams keep congratulating themselves, some don't, at all. And management sees those who are visible, even if it is not fair. It can quickly get artificial, and a bit depressing for the people who don't really appear there.

pxc 3y ago
My department is pretty siloed, so I don't offhand know who all normally works closely with whom. I don't consult the org chart when I see people praise or thank each other, either, so I don't have a good sense of how much public praise in my department is intra-team puffery. I can say, though, that I've (so far) never used that channel to thank anyone on my own team. On my own small team, my manager already knows when someone has been especially helpful to someone else. I use that chat in part to make things visible to external managers who otherwise might not know. > And management sees those who are visible, even if it is not fair. I admit that even in the best circumstances this could create some bias, but I don't think it has to be that severe. Managers should have other, better sources of information than that which should weigh more heavily than that. > It can quickly get artificial Yeah. I think keeping it low stakes and not treating it as some kind of informal metric is important for preserving some level of authenticity. Truthfully, though, I don't really find myself evaluating the authenticity of exchanges of gratitude between others. I just know that when I use it, I'm genuinely thankful to whomever I'm thanking, and so far I feel like the thanks I've received have also been genuine. > a bit depressing for the people who don't really appear there. That's true. I've even felt a bit of that myself. But I think ultimately it's imperative for organizations (especially managers, but to a lesser extent basically everyone) to try to ensure that all kinds of people feel appreciated for their work, including people who are introverts and people whose work is solitary or unsexy maintenance work. And that means that recognition can't just be formulaic or systematic or happen in only one place. Ideally, feeling underappreciated or left out in a certain system of recognition/thanks would be something you'd bring to your manager during a 1:1. And they could try to answer it by making your impact visible in some other way, like organizing a presentation or a demo of your work, or writing up some kind of report on it and sharing it somewhere, or just DMing you every now and then and letting you know that they had a conversation with so-and-so about how whatever you did was nice, helpful, vital, or whatever, or (hopefully!) arrange something more substantial like a promotion, raise, or bonus. I like our gratitude chat at work but I wouldn't begrudge anyone still feeling underappreciated for whatever reason or saying that it doesn't do much for them.
- palata 3y ago
  Fair, I totally get your points. I was just saying that as someone who has a "gratitude" chat at work. It has made me realized that I was working very hard for absolutely no recognition, and it destroyed my motivation.
  - pxc 3y ago
    I've learned that recognition and feeling connected to others is really important for me as a developer, too. If I go too long without sharing my work with someone or getting feedback from a user, I can start to feel invisible, or even useless, and it's very demotivating. Arranging demos/informal tests with users frequently (ideally once every week or two, or even more frequently if I have a lot of work to show and test) to solicit feedback from users and make my work's purpose more immediate to me has been hugely helpful. (Every single time I put a user in front of something I've made, it always helps me identify new UX and documentation bugs, too.) I hope you can make arrangements to feel more connected to others in your work and acknowledged for your effort, up to and including finding a different job! It makes such a huge difference in life and it's really worth it.