One way to make your DEV Team happy
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Side projects.
I’m sure this narrative sounds familiar: I work as a software developer, I am paid well, I make tremendous progress, and I’m continually learning and becoming better professional every day. But, in recent years, doing what I am doing has gradually become so boring that, I can’t even stay on a project for more than 6 months. Changing jobs like underwear, not feeling a thing about what I am doing, and it’s getting worse and worse.
One of the problems that cause this feeling isn’t colleagues, company culture, or payment, it’s never-ending projects.
Finishing a task gives you a feeling of pleasure. The moment when you cross a task off your to-do list can make your week better. Finishing a project and delivering it on time can contribute a lot to feeling happier at work. That’s why it’s a challenge to stay motivated when working on never-ending projects with a delivery date that is years from now, constantly getting delayed due to different problems.
On the other hand, the company can have a great financial benefit from these kinds of projects. So, what’s the solution?
The feeling of completed work is very important. Product shipped. End of story. As an employer, you should be able to give this feeling to your employees. One thing you can do is redirect your employees to side projects.
There are tons of benefits from starting a side project. From increased creativity to personal growth, but most importantly — the feeling that you get when you do something till the end.
These projects last around 2–3 weeks. They don’t have to be something huge — they can be internal, something fun that will be used only by employees (psst, here’s an idea, how about creating a coffee roulette which will decide who gets to make coffee for everyone on the break today?) or surprise a client with a new tool or feature. Next, you could do a community project where you will solve some problems from the community with technology. Or, a Tech event for the kids from the hood. It doesn’t really matter what you pick, what matters is that it gets completed.
How can you make this happen? Here are some rules you should follow:
- Pick a project that can actually be completed in 2–3 weeks.
- Pick a team and a team leader. I suggest you pick team leaders who haven’t been on such a position before — maybe you will discover a natural-born leader!
- Set a starting and ending date. Also, create a timeline of activities for those 2–3 weeks.
- Keep it simple.
- Keep it simple.
- Again, keep it simple.
- Release the product.
- Give feedback to the people who worked on the product.
- Celebrate the success and reward the ream for a job well done!
Employees who are working on mammoth IT projects should be included in this kind of activity at least once a year. Working on side projects can not only help programmers start loving their job again and get the job-well-done feeling. It can also have a positive impact on their mood — it’s fun and they can learn new things.
Well, that’s it from us. Do you have some ideas for side projects? Are you already working on one? Feel free to drop a link in the comments!
