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A Great Place to Work

  • January 26, 2024 at 12:00 am

    #4359249

    Comments posted to this topic are about the item A Great Place to Work

  • January 26, 2024 at 4:30 pm

    #4368231

    With very few exceptions I've stayed with my employers for at least 5 years.

    • Merlin Gerin (electrical switchgear manufacturer)
    • NEBS Business Stationery (business printing company)
    • McCann-Erickson (advertising)
    • Kudos-IDD (technical documentation and content management specialist)
    • Moneysupermarket (price comparison, 2 stints adding up to 13 years)

    You join for what a place offers, you stay because you enjoy the job, the culture and the people.  Success is when they enjoy you too!

    I don't regard the short lived ones as mistakes because I learned something worth learning from the experience.  In some cases I stay in contact with people from the short lived spaces, both from a professional and personal standpoint and have even chosen to work with people from those organisations again.

    You have a relationship with an employer.  You get out what you both put in.  You both learn, grow and change though sometimes you grow apart.  This is life.

    If I could give my younger self a message (which I suspect I wouldn't listen to) it would be

    • You may not control a thing, but you have the power to control your perception of the thing.  Use that power wisely
    • Focus on what you can learn and teach.  People remember their best teachers.
    • Happiness at work comes from some simple things

      • Feeling like you are achieving something
      • Feeling that what you are doing is worthwhile
      • Feeling that your work is appreciated
      • Feeling that your personal values align with the company values

    • Don't stay in a place that makes you unhappy.  Unhappiness will follow you out of the office into your home.
    • Culture comes from the top.  A new senior exec represents a change in culture.  Measure the change against the four happiness factors I mentioned earlier.
    • All things pass.

    If you are a manager then if you can show honest appreciation for the work that your people do, show them that what they are doing is achieving something worthwhile, then they will move heaven and earth for you.

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  • January 26, 2024 at 5:52 pm

    #4368266

    All good advice that I learned and try to remember today. I might give this list to younger people.

     

  • January 28, 2024 at 10:47 pm

    #4369192

    I feel like I've been along for the ride for a reasonable amount of that journey.

    I've always stayed for the long term in roles I've had.

    First job out of uni 6 years. Second job, 8 years. Third 7 years.

    Then I worked with / for my wife in the family business for 8 years.

    And now back in software for almost 2, with no plans to move on.

    Each role - including our family business - has had pluses and minuses.

    I've generally been able to carve out a place that suited me, worked with good people (only 2 I can think of I did not like), had interesting projects including building a full service credit card platform that connected directly to MasterCard. Nearly all my "bosses" were either good people, good managers, left me to do what I was good at, or a combination of all 3.

    I'm not the greatest IT worker, by any stretch. But I am able to solve problems others often can't, with solutions that are as simple as possible.

    When I think about my career, I consider myself lucky. But was that all there was to it?

    Did I end up working for good people because they connected with me well in interviews & early in my tenure at a company?

    Was it that the interviewers were able to see my ability to both think and stick with a problem until it was solved / completed?

    I'm on the fence right now, but maybe it's time to ask the questions?

    I only have maybe 15 years left in my career. It may be time to find out a little more about why & what other people think.

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