6 ms·

For the engineers I've hired onto my team, I insist they be provided the very things that I want as an engineer: - Two big monitors - New dev machine/lapto

For the engineers I've hired onto my team, I insist they be provided the very things that I want as an engineer: - Two big monitors - New dev machine/laptop, running latest bits - A top-of-the-line chair - Some natural light (not to be confused with *natty light*) These are the non-negotiable items, and having taken a few senior mgmt positions, it's now something I state upfront: this is how we roll, no exceptions. There's a second tier, depending on the environment: personal whiteboards. This is a function of the physical space, obviously; but anytime someone has a brilliant idea, I don't want them waving hands in front of me, I want expo markers flying around. Aside from standard company stuff, that's it. And it's across the board -- everyone gets this. Everyone is valued, because your time is valued. I expect a lot from my team, and don't want anything petty getting in the way -- especially a few pieces of hardware and furniture that are negligible compared to the cost of the engineer. It might not be everything in the world, but it sure seems to keep everyone happy because they are seriously productive.

gnarizard 14y ago
Natural light can't be emphasized enough. I just moved to a window-less fluorescent fishbowl shared by three analysts/developers, and I've never had so many headaches.
- rdl 14y ago
  I hate natural light and windows; give me a windowless room where I can set the temperature, light level, etc. exactly, independent of time of day. The first thing after "private offices for anyone who wants them" is "24x7 HVAC adjustable as close to individually as possible"; I have a shared office in an invite-only coworking space which I largely don't use because the HVAC shuts off at 6pm and is on again at 9am, with huge windows -- it's barely ok in the evenings/mornings during the week, but unusable on weekends.
- deleted 14y ago
  [deleted]
- pivo 14y ago
  Maybe it's not possible if you're sharing a room, but in the past I was in a similar situation with regard to natural light. I turned off the ceiling fluorescents and brought in incandescent desk and floor lamps. It made the room much more comfortable and got rid of my headaches.
- jiggy2011 14y ago
  Another thing is desk position, I hate working at a desk that is right in the corner of the room staring directly at a blank wall.
nirvana 14y ago
Big monitors, small offices. Give me a room where I can close the door. I'll share it with one other person, but it can't be a tight fit. If you expect me to work while you're interrupting me every 5 minutes, then you don't really expect me to be productive. Also good- conference rooms for ad hoc meetings. (Maybe for the people who like to work together in a room they can take over a conference room or whatever.... make your layout flexible enough.) One company, when I was hired, asked me to tell them exactly what I wanted computer wise-- I was quite impressed with that. No more being forced to use crappy windows computers, I specified a MacBook Pro, etc. They said "whatever you want, within reason." But I remember... years of fighting to have decent sized monitors. I think two big monitors is good, three might be a bit better. It seems displays these days are shockingly cheap compared to the value they offer over even just one year.
- LockeWatts 14y ago
  >No more being forced to use crappy windows computers I laughed at this part of your post.
- jroseattle 14y ago
  Yeah, the office thing has always been a function of available space for us. Some of our folks want complete isolation, others like an open environment. I've always tried to accommodate personal preferences, so I try to pull that from folks as we work together. Sometimes, what somebody wanted last year changes with this year; I try to be accommodating to allow everyone to change around; no need letting the workplace get stale, when simple movement can solve a problem. I always give our engineers their choice of platform -- windows, osx, linux, whatever. I count on them to make sure they have the environment available to develop on. It's up to them to make sure they can work locally. (Shared services like data/caching/etc. are of course handled remotely.) Our last few hires requested 17-inch Macbook Pro laptops, with dual Thunderbolt displays. Done. I do not sit around wondering if the cost of the tool is worth the expense, as it simply doesn't compare to the cost of the time of the engineer involved. Even if anyone might consider the developer is getting the "better end of the deal", I don't care -- I trust my team to produce. I just simply refuse to let hardware get in the way of potential output. BTW: if a developer wants three monitors vs. two...great. Again, I trust my team and I have faith in them to make good business decisions about resources. Somebody tells me they want three monitors, it's a task delegated to our asset team. Done.
pcopley 14y ago
I want to work with you. I've currently got a ~4' whiteboard, a ~13" laptop with a ~15" 4:3 monitor attached to it in my cube. Takes some getting used to compared to the IdeaPaint-covered WALL at my home office and the two 24" widescreens.
- knewter 14y ago
  I have a whiteboard wall at my office. Let me make a recommendation. Don't do it. Paint your wall white, or whatever, and get a big sheet of glass (or a few). Mount that sucker on the wall. Glass doesn't suck up color the way whiteboards do, and it's easy as hell to clean. It's also cheap as all get out - it's a big sheet of sand, after all. And you can do nifty things - arduino, RGB LED, mild paper backing, and you've got a damn mood-light / whiteboard :) Anyway, I recommend this to everyone I know that talks about this. A company we sub for in VA did this because I was in town when they were planning the whiteboards for their new office, and they love it.
  - MattRogish 14y ago
    Actual "glass whiteboards" are tremendously expensive - we're talking thousands of dollars. They seem really slick. Are you doing a DIY sort of thing, like this: http://www.ikeahackers.net/2012/01/not-expensive-glass-whiteboard.html http://www.ikeahackers.net/2012/01/not-expensive-glass-white...
    - jroseattle 14y ago
      +1. We have a bunch of Ikea glass-top desks, which at first I thought would be lousy. Turns out the glass is far better on your skin than the various other finishes of wood-type desks (the ones from Ikea). But, huge side benefit -- people are writing notes, designs, etc. all over their desks. It's very cool.
  - jaredmck 14y ago
    Or buy a huge piece of shower board for $12 and mount that on the wall.
dsolomon 14y ago
I read this and think back... The only ones who got dual monitors were management and HR. One of our developers wanted two monitors - he was told to go buy them himself, so he did. Whiteboard? More frequent is post-it notes. Current development equipment - Was doing kernel development in 2003 on Pentium 75s.
- gnoupi 14y ago
  "he was told to go buy them himself, so he did." Which is a problem in itself. I understand he needed another monitor. But buying it himself shows the management that they have absolutely no need to invest in that, if devs are ready to buy it themselves in the end.
vijayr 14y ago
adding two more to the list - peace and quiet, and as less meetings as possible

gnarizard 14y ago

Natural light can't be emphasized enough. I just moved to a window-less fluorescent fishbowl shared by three analysts/developers, and I've never had so many headaches.

rdl 14y ago
I hate natural light and windows; give me a windowless room where I can set the temperature, light level, etc. exactly, independent of time of day. The first thing after "private offices for anyone who wants them" is "24x7 HVAC adjustable as close to individually as possible"; I have a shared office in an invite-only coworking space which I largely don't use because the HVAC shuts off at 6pm and is on again at 9am, with huge windows -- it's barely ok in the evenings/mornings during the week, but unusable on weekends.
deleted 14y ago
[deleted]
pivo 14y ago
Maybe it's not possible if you're sharing a room, but in the past I was in a similar situation with regard to natural light. I turned off the ceiling fluorescents and brought in incandescent desk and floor lamps. It made the room much more comfortable and got rid of my headaches.
jiggy2011 14y ago
Another thing is desk position, I hate working at a desk that is right in the corner of the room staring directly at a blank wall.

nirvana 14y ago

Big monitors, small offices. Give me a room where I can close the door. I'll share it with one other person, but it can't be a tight fit. If you expect me to work while you're interrupting me every 5 minutes, then you don't really expect me to be productive. Also good- conference rooms for ad hoc meetings. (Maybe for the people who like to work together in a room they can take over a conference room or whatever.... make your layout flexible enough.) One company, when I was hired, asked me to tell them exactly what I wanted computer wise-- I was quite impressed with that. No more being forced to use crappy windows computers, I specified a MacBook Pro, etc. They said "whatever you want, within reason." But I remember... years of fighting to have decent sized monitors. I think two big monitors is good, three might be a bit better. It seems displays these days are shockingly cheap compared to the value they offer over even just one year.

LockeWatts 14y ago
>No more being forced to use crappy windows computers I laughed at this part of your post.
jroseattle 14y ago
Yeah, the office thing has always been a function of available space for us. Some of our folks want complete isolation, others like an open environment. I've always tried to accommodate personal preferences, so I try to pull that from folks as we work together. Sometimes, what somebody wanted last year changes with this year; I try to be accommodating to allow everyone to change around; no need letting the workplace get stale, when simple movement can solve a problem. I always give our engineers their choice of platform -- windows, osx, linux, whatever. I count on them to make sure they have the environment available to develop on. It's up to them to make sure they can work locally. (Shared services like data/caching/etc. are of course handled remotely.) Our last few hires requested 17-inch Macbook Pro laptops, with dual Thunderbolt displays. Done. I do not sit around wondering if the cost of the tool is worth the expense, as it simply doesn't compare to the cost of the time of the engineer involved. Even if anyone might consider the developer is getting the "better end of the deal", I don't care -- I trust my team to produce. I just simply refuse to let hardware get in the way of potential output. BTW: if a developer wants three monitors vs. two...great. Again, I trust my team and I have faith in them to make good business decisions about resources. Somebody tells me they want three monitors, it's a task delegated to our asset team. Done.

pcopley 14y ago

I want to work with you. I've currently got a ~4' whiteboard, a ~13" laptop with a ~15" 4:3 monitor attached to it in my cube. Takes some getting used to compared to the IdeaPaint-covered WALL at my home office and the two 24" widescreens.

knewter 14y ago
I have a whiteboard wall at my office. Let me make a recommendation. Don't do it. Paint your wall white, or whatever, and get a big sheet of glass (or a few). Mount that sucker on the wall. Glass doesn't suck up color the way whiteboards do, and it's easy as hell to clean. It's also cheap as all get out - it's a big sheet of sand, after all. And you can do nifty things - arduino, RGB LED, mild paper backing, and you've got a damn mood-light / whiteboard :) Anyway, I recommend this to everyone I know that talks about this. A company we sub for in VA did this because I was in town when they were planning the whiteboards for their new office, and they love it.
- MattRogish 14y ago
  Actual "glass whiteboards" are tremendously expensive - we're talking thousands of dollars. They seem really slick. Are you doing a DIY sort of thing, like this: http://www.ikeahackers.net/2012/01/not-expensive-glass-whiteboard.html http://www.ikeahackers.net/2012/01/not-expensive-glass-white...
  - jroseattle 14y ago
    +1. We have a bunch of Ikea glass-top desks, which at first I thought would be lousy. Turns out the glass is far better on your skin than the various other finishes of wood-type desks (the ones from Ikea). But, huge side benefit -- people are writing notes, designs, etc. all over their desks. It's very cool.
- jaredmck 14y ago
  Or buy a huge piece of shower board for $12 and mount that on the wall.

dsolomon 14y ago

I read this and think back... The only ones who got dual monitors were management and HR. One of our developers wanted two monitors - he was told to go buy them himself, so he did. Whiteboard? More frequent is post-it notes. Current development equipment - Was doing kernel development in 2003 on Pentium 75s.

gnoupi 14y ago
"he was told to go buy them himself, so he did." Which is a problem in itself. I understand he needed another monitor. But buying it himself shows the management that they have absolutely no need to invest in that, if devs are ready to buy it themselves in the end.

vijayr 14y ago

adding two more to the list - peace and quiet, and as less meetings as possible