employ – bbrock

Distractibility

March 6, 2018 bbrock Leave a comment

Distractions can drive almost all of us crazy. Some of us far more than others, and that means taking extra steps to minimize the impact of distractions, either by masking or preventing them.

For a start, I need some kind of low-level stimulation to stay focused. How that works is slightly complicated, but it’s a pretty hard-and-fast rule for me. For example, if I’m driving, the radio is probably playing. From experience, I know that it’s safer for me to drive that way, because my focus is higher.

Also, like most humans, I take a while to get into the “zone”. Also known as hyperfocusing on one topic while ignoring almost everything else. It’s a great state of mind and I try to spend as much of my working day there as possible. My productivity is in a different league.

Background music. I’m partial to Amazon Prime, but a phone with a few playlists works as well. The music needs to be familiar, rather than new tunes. Motivational music is great for motivating me to get started, but not so much to keep working.
Noise generators. I like myNoise, depending on mood. When I’m hyperfocusing, I use this much more frequently than music.
Regular routines. I don’t want to spend extra time in the morning focusing on unimportant details. Grind the morning coffee beans the night before, set out tomorrow’s clothes, organize and pack a backpack, and put a few items on a paper planner’s todo list.
Todo lists. On the phone. Lists for daily routines, groceries, errands to run, and phone calls to make. I keep a few on paper, specific to the day.
A planning system. A Google calendar is great for appointment reminders and due dates. I also recommend a paper planner, with a page for each day. I’ll mark blocks out time until my day is full, including known breaks. At the end of my day, my written list of things I did and didn’t complete is in front of me.
Escape from firefighting mode. This can be difficult. I try to set aside short breaks from the action when I will not handle problems unless they’re emergencies, even if it’s the beginning or end of the day. It’s vital to burnout prevention. Almost every job has parts that need to be done but tend to be set aside when fires are being fought.
Sleep. Learn how much makes you feel most well-rested and stick to that. Your overall day will be much more productive if you’re in the sweet spot, not just doing the minimal required amount to make it through the week. The sustainable amount is the amount that will work for you, if you sleep the same length of time every night.
Eat well. Hungry people are rarely energetic. Some become grouchy. My diet is plant-based (I’m vegan), which is far healthier than when I consumed animal products. For example, I stopped feeling tired an hour after lunch.
Stay healthy. Probably obvious, but work to maintain your health. Few of us stay healthy continuously. Even minor health complaints get in the way far less if I’ve slept well and exercised (especially cardio exercise).
Work from home. Sometimes. My work at home is often better than the office. I still recommend going to the office several times a week. But office environments can be highly distracting, with high levels of noise and interruptions from coworkers. I need some time to myself to just get things done.

diversity

February 28, 2018 bbrock Leave a comment

When we’re polite, we use the term “diversity” to say that the expected level of bigotry is absent. It’s a positive trait for an organization, right behind “does not induce psychosis”. It’s a selling point in software engineering, because it’s closer to the exception than the rule. It’s also good business, because mixed-gender businesses are more successful. The same trend shows up when looking at mixed-gender engineering teams.

Historically, gender inequality in software development has been due to a series of filters at every stage of education and career. It starts in childhood education, with a bias skewed in favor of men on SAT scores, regardless of ability. Fewer women take the advanced math courses in college that are required for a CS degree. Fewer of those major in CS, and then again fewer of that graduate with a computer science degree, and then fewer of the remainder continue on to careers in software development. Even with careers in software development, women are more frequently in supporting fields like documentation and tech support. Those positions typically pay less, as well.

In college, my CS classes typically had 20 students, and half were entirely men. About 5% of my class was female, at a university with more women than men (60%).

Most of my coworkers have looked like me. When I was a worker bee, my 2nd-level manager was a woman twice, as well as one direct manager. Out of roughly a dozen managers. Half of the engineering teams I’ve been on (typically 5-10 people) were entirely men. But the details varied, telling me that individual employers and managers can improve. I’ve heard HR reps brag that 10% of an engineering team was female, as if that showed diversity.

Fewer women work for many startups. That’s not surprising to me, as quite often startups have younger employees… who may be at child-bearing age when the required absences may not be tolerated as well by peers. They might already known each other, perhaps also have been classmates, and my experience says men band together and consider women a special minority who stick out. There’s a bias in venture capital firms, with success showing no gender difference when venture capitalists are women. Small businesses (startups) are also excused from the strictest employment and hiring laws. As a company grows, people hire others who are like themselves. This can be fixed partly by improving a startup’s environment. Staff adequately, allow time off, allow working from home, provide 12 weeks paid maternity and paternity leave.

Some guys think it’s ok to be a bit sexist on the job. I’ve asked why women generally avoid the field at past employers, and the women think those guys are the most obvious reason. Seriously, if someone’s a jerk in that regard, you should consider firing them for it. Quit excusing or defending their disruptive behavior.

The bias doesn’t exist everywhere. When I worked for NASA half my peers were women, more than at any other point in my career. That was also the highest-performing organization I’ve seen. As a tech writer, most of my coworkers were women. I attended meetings where I was the only guy. Even then, my management chain all the way to the top was entirely men. In development teams with colleagues in other parts of the world, the gender ratio was closer to 50/50.

The entire software development field can improve. When venture capital firms are run by women, there’s no gender gap in the performance of the startups they fund. However, the current trend is for fewer women in the field each year.

job searching on the internet

February 20, 2018 bbrock Leave a comment

I’ve been in the job market a few times in my career, usually without my employer’s knowledge. Most of my employment after college resulted from knowing the right people. I had a neighbor who worked at the agency. Or had known an employee since high school and through college, who delivered the resume to HR.

I’ve taken a look at a couple of online job search tools, Monster and LinkedIn. So far neither has panned out as well as other methods.

Many people seem to use LinkedIn like a social media homepage, but aren’t hiring from there. I get a lot of spam. Most of the job postings I respond to are for jobs which the employer (or more likely, their recruiter) can’t actually remember posting. Typically when they call, they ask questions like what field I’m interested in, as if they’ve never seen my resume and don’t know why they called, after responding to specific job postings. Several have asked if I had extensive experience in fields unlike anything on my resume, such as sales or finance.

Monster has given me quite a few leads. But about half of the job offerings I apply to have already been closed. The recruiters I have spoken with as a result have not always been the most useful, even after they knew me. During one interview, I was quizzed about which technologies to use by a CTO who then said he wasn’t actually looking to hire anyone.

startups

January 25, 2018 bbrock Leave a comment

I’ve been a worker bee with some team lead responsibilities at a startup. I’ve noticed trends in employees in that role. Startups have a feeling and culture that just doesn’t exist in other companies.

At one point, I worked in a tech support call center (about 10 employees) where 25% of the people previously did some kind of EMT-related work in ambulances. They dealt with customer emergencies more sanely than any other employees. If they were flustered, they kept working at the customer’s problem.

But employees often help coworkers with burnout. The savvier coworkers may do so preventatively rather than in reaction to signs of burnout. Also, there are often social events at a startup, some during the workday at key milestones. Those lead to employees seeing each other when they’re less stressed than during the workday, and provide crucial perspective.

In a startup, devotion to the company is more widespread. Folks at startups might hail from the same school, with similar ages and other demographics. If you’re growing a company, be sure to stop potential ageism and sexism before it becomes a larger issue. Personalities run strong and people tend to be driven. But more importantly, work is often treated competively as a contest of who can handle the most.

Don’t expect folks to stick around a startup forever. They may cash out when the company is bought, goes public, or grows even grows substantially. Those things all tend to alter a company’s culture to make it different from a startup. Also, employees might launch their own startups, possibly to be acquired by the company they left when both have grown. So pay attention to coworkers’ side projects.

You have to pay better attention to your health. Startups have longer hours, more stress, suspense, and unhealthy food and eating habits. Often the environment isn’t good – it’s a converted warehouse that’s still drafty and has an echo, it’s cramped, or its even temporary and changes quickly. Burnout and depression can affect employees outside of work. I’ve known several people who were divorced because they stayed at work late too much. Eat, drink, and sleep like those activities are bigger investments (they are) than the startup. Get some cardio. Make a stable routine. Take a real vacation every 6 months.

Some startups earn a reputation for valuing employee health or taking advantage of employees in unhealthy ways. I’ve seen a bad reputation like that sink a small business (web development, ISP) when it should have fluorished. Consider that interviews for places that promote employee health are often much more difficult places to land a job.
That higher retention of good employees is key to a company approaching profitability.

If the company sets the curve early in its life, it leads to some very sane HR practices. It also develops the skill of rapidly coming back up to speed after an absence.