Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs in the Workplace
I’m an Engineering Manager, and every other week I have 1–1s with direct reports back to back. It is both thrilling and tiring to have continuous meetings, but the consecutive conversations allow for easy recognition of patterns. I work with a few junior and a few senior engineers, and recently noticed similar themes within these groups. Senior engineers tended to question why and how we do things — how did we decide on these designs? How does the engineering team clean up tech debt as we write new code? etc — while junior engineers are naturally focused on learning the tools and processes — how to write tech specs, Cypress tests, participate in design reviews, etc.
It occurred to me that these patterns of thinking, based on years and comfort in the field, could be explained by a version of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs:
Maslow’s hierarchy of needs is a motivational theory in psychology comprising a five-tier model of human needs, often depicted as hierarchical levels within a pyramid… From the bottom of the hierarchy upwards, the needs are: physiological, safety, love and belonging, esteem, and self-actualization.
https://www.simplypsychology.org/maslow.html
Maslow initially said that individuals must satisfy lower levels before progressing to higher ones, though he later revised the process so that when a need is more or less satisfied, we move towards the next level.
Using this general structure of basic, psychological, and self-fulfillment needs, and understanding that this growth is not strictly linear, I organized my thoughts into the following pyramid:
Here is how I perceive this hierarchy, starting from the bottom:
Job security. First and foremost, if you feel like you might lose your job, this will occupy a significant amount of head space. I’ve observed (and personally experienced) that it is difficult to be successful when you are still learning the tools, worrying about layoffs, or feel that your role is at risk.
Allies & friends. Community and a sense of belonging are important for us human beings. Having friends at work moves various levers like productivity, creativity, and communication. When you establish community, you are empowered in your job and motivated to contribute to the team’s goals.
Sound working process. We can’t get work done without a process, individually or holistically. A system — whether it’s a todo list, tickets, communicating over Slack, writing tech specs, defining a project lifecycle, or good working relationships — allows for individuals to achieve personal goals and for teams to accomplish business goals.
Feeling of success. By satisfying the first three needs, you are most likely feeling successful. You believe in your job security, feel a sense of community, and have a good rhythm of how you and your team function.
Attitude of questioning how and why. The only constant is change, so what worked for you and the team three months ago may not serve you still. Inevitably kinks arise, the dynamics change, or you notice something that could be fine-tuned. From my experience, I’ve seen two distinct versions of this stage. One is, a person is able to question but unable to drive towards solutions. They can identify areas for improvement, but cannot — whether because of poor communication, collaboration, deficient tools, or lack of ideas — move the needle.
Advocating and collaborating for change. The second version is this, where a person is solutions-oriented. Being able to identify problems is one thing; being able to solve them is an entirely different skill, and (in my opinion) much more satisfying. In this iterative step, we do not stagnate at the questions, but rather continually reach new levels of fulfillment by seeking solutions. I’d also suggest that this step solidifies the foundation, if done properly — by working towards a better process, you build stronger relationships in the organization and are recognized for your work, which gives you more job security, which makes you feel more successful. The pyramid gets stronger!
A few caveats and disclaimers:
- Keep in mind that growth is not strictly linear. You can bounce around. This is just a framework that (I believe) generally works bottom to top.
- That said, there may be dangers to bouncing around too much — for instance, questioning the process while you’re still learning the tools — but I think this comes down to a matter of self awareness. What do you know, what are you learning, what is your current role in the org, what basic need requires focus?
- It’s possible that the top need, “attitude of questioning how and why,” is too narrow. Maslow notes that self-actualization can take many forms. It “refer[s] to the realization of a person’s potential, self-fulfillment, seeking personal growth and peak experiences.” Every person’s potential is different, and in this case the top could be mentoring, teaching, or changing roles to find a better fit for your skillset (which maybe is just another form of “advocating and collaborating for change”).
- This is from the perspective of software engineering, though it may apply elsewhere.
- I am not a psychologist ;)
What thoughts do you have? Does this ring true? Tell us about your experiences in the comments, and thanks for reading.
