September 29, 2020 at 12:00 am
Comments posted to this topic are about the item Keeping Your Staff
September 29, 2020 at 12:33 pm
Very interesting. Lots to say, here. Some of which probably shouldn't be said. Like you said about most of us, my job has become uninteresting and not at all challenging.
Rod
September 29, 2020 at 2:23 pm
All true. And yet, I have noticed that some people who have a bad attitude about their jobs seem instead to have a bad attitude about life. They leave for a new job and soon hate that one, too. Here's the deal: the problems that you see around you, they exist everywhere. Often, instead of leaving a job, you can reap much better personal and professional results by doing what you can to make the work around you better. To all of those developers who ring me up, asking to come back--I love you brother, but the answer is no.
September 29, 2020 at 5:00 pm
I guess I'm an outlier. I hit 25 years with my employer last spring which isn't a real rare thing here. Old company in an old industry where it's not unheard of to meet 3rd or even 4th generation employees. The ability to retain employees over the long haul requires a corporate culture which is committed to both helping them succeed and identifying what constitutes success for that individual employee. Being large enough to move people around internally to give them new challenges when they start getting bored really helps.
September 29, 2020 at 5:40 pm
I guess I'm an outlier. I hit 25 years with my employer last spring which isn't a real rare thing here. Old company in an old industry where it's not unheard of to meet 3rd or even 4th generation employees. The ability to retain employees over the long haul requires a corporate culture which is committed to both helping them succeed and identifying what constitutes success for that individual employee. Being large enough to move people around internally to give them new challenges when they start getting bored really helps.
Certainly an outlier. Even 20 years ago when I worked in large orgs, the number of people that hit 15 or 20 years is small. a tiny fraction of the staffing. Even 10 was relatively rare enough they could dedicate a space to recognize them.
September 29, 2020 at 6:29 pm
When I was hired in the mid 90's I worked with a large number of IT employees with 20+ years of service. One guy on my team had been in IT at the company for 35 years at that point (he was IT employee #2). In general longevity here is celebrated and visible. From the internal website, this week we have four people hitting 40 years with the company, one hitting 35, two hitting 30, and 5 hitting 25 years (most aren't IT folks). Because we are not a software development house, software is a tool for us not a product. So in depth knowledge of the business to understand it's needs are often more important than superstar level development skills. That knowledge comes from experience, and leads to the organization valuing keeping employees around more than some others do.
September 30, 2020 at 3:11 pm
One aspect to this that doesn't get mentioned very often is that pensions don't exist in IT - or at least it doesn't here in the US private sector, so there is no compelling reason for a talented employee to stay on beyond what what's provided on their biweekly paycheck. Salary is a deciding factor, because that's the only basis for building up a retirement fund, and the acquisition of new technical knowledge from one's daily work is very important from a practical perspective, because that's the hedge against extended unemployment, if one should get laid off.
"Do not seek to follow in the footsteps of the wise. Instead, seek what they sought." - Matsuo Basho
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