I love this! I've been (metaphorically) wearing Reggie Perrin around my neck like an Albatross since reading the book as a teenager and then watching reruns on TV. Amazingly prescient psychological gold. I think you did a great job of discussing some very under-represented aspects of the software engineering role and framing them with some personal vulnerability. Love that. I've also received comments at work to the effect that I was focusing too much on my "soft skills" and not pushing people hard enough or that I should have been writing more code when I was trying to coach and manage. There's SO much toxicity in tech and a lot of it isn't even conscious acts of toxicity but rather something to do with the way people (mostly men) are being raised and how the tech sector drums certain biases and stereotypes into you. I've spent a lot of my career trying to challenge and push back on all the myths and expectations that prevent us from finding joy and meaning in our work. At my last job when I was engineering manager we were allowed to create our own job title's so I was very direct in choosing 'Steward of Team Happiness, Engagement and Positive Outcomes'. In a similar vein, it's also not okay to talk about feeling burned out or depressed at work and I think that's a huge problem too. Thanks for writing this kind of thing, it's a rare source of inspiration that the world of tech badly needs.
Thanks so much for taking the time to share your experiences Jim. I love 'Steward of Team Happiness, Engagement and Positive Outcomes' - Maybe if everyone was challenged to write a subtitle to their job title along these lines we would learn a lot about people's intent, style, and preferences.
From what I hear anecdotally, the toxicity, and hence the general feeling of fear and insecurity at work, is worse in the US than here in the UK. And those prioritising the so called 'soft skills' have had a hard time over the last couple of years amidst the series of brutal layoffs - I hope things turn around soon, the industry needs people who realise that software engineering is a social, psychological, and technical pursuit.
This is a long but fascinating read, John. Like you, I grew up on Reggie Perrin whose influence, I suspect, was one reason I left a large organization 20 years ago to go freelance. "I didn't get where I am today by sitting around singing kumbya, Reggie!" I'm sure your message of putting the joy back into work will reach a receptive audience. More, please.
You topic really resonates with me, having experienced both the joyful and painful sides of work as both an individual contributor and as a manger. I particularly like your point around joy being 'a proxy for productivity' - I couldn't agree more, however I believe this can only happen within a a good culture where joy is encouraged/allowed.
In my last role I dabbled in some hands-on changes to the platform to improve security and observability, particularly after a spate of incidents. The work I was doing was over the Christmas period when everybody else was OOO (I hadn't been there long enough to get the time off), so it was just me in my element. Without the micromanagement of the senior leadership, I found a lot of joy in what was otherwise a toxic place to work. I was making a difference to the platform, uncovering areas of potentially massive improvements for our customers and even discovered some legal issues that would have otherwise gone unnoticed. Sadly the joy was quashed in the new year when my work was dismissed as non-important, primarily because I wasn't focussing on the (shortsighted) view that all work should be revenue-generating (i.e. building out the vapourware that sales had sold/lied about).
The most successful teams I have worked in/managed have been the ones where they find joy in their work. Sure, not everything we do is joyful, but we can enable that as leaders through trust, autonomy and promoting creativity off the back of it.
Really enjoyed this piece. With all the noise of “mindsets”, “start with why” etc. I wonder if the state of flow has been ignored by the corporate world. To me this meta-stable state of challenge and achievement should be what we strive to create for people. I expect it’s just too simple and not new enough to catch on though…..
When I was managing teams I used Flow with people in 1:1s - I used the chart with the varying states which I can still remember through repetition: Apathy, Worry, Anxiety, Arousal, Flow, Control Relaxation and Boredom. If people wanted to engage with it we would use it to help reflect on their experience of work since we last met. Some of the negative states would naturally come up, and that's all part of the experience of work, but if someone had lingered too long in Apathy, Boredom or Anxiety I would obviously probe for causes and try to make changes.
Engineers seemed to like this approach because it allowed them to talk about their feelings in a rational way that didn't seem too touchy-feely. It also gave me good arguments to take to stakeholders outside of my immediate scope of responsibility when the causes of poor flow were external to the team.
I love this! I've been (metaphorically) wearing Reggie Perrin around my neck like an Albatross since reading the book as a teenager and then watching reruns on TV. Amazingly prescient psychological gold. I think you did a great job of discussing some very under-represented aspects of the software engineering role and framing them with some personal vulnerability. Love that. I've also received comments at work to the effect that I was focusing too much on my "soft skills" and not pushing people hard enough or that I should have been writing more code when I was trying to coach and manage. There's SO much toxicity in tech and a lot of it isn't even conscious acts of toxicity but rather something to do with the way people (mostly men) are being raised and how the tech sector drums certain biases and stereotypes into you. I've spent a lot of my career trying to challenge and push back on all the myths and expectations that prevent us from finding joy and meaning in our work. At my last job when I was engineering manager we were allowed to create our own job title's so I was very direct in choosing 'Steward of Team Happiness, Engagement and Positive Outcomes'. In a similar vein, it's also not okay to talk about feeling burned out or depressed at work and I think that's a huge problem too. Thanks for writing this kind of thing, it's a rare source of inspiration that the world of tech badly needs.
Thanks so much for taking the time to share your experiences Jim. I love 'Steward of Team Happiness, Engagement and Positive Outcomes' - Maybe if everyone was challenged to write a subtitle to their job title along these lines we would learn a lot about people's intent, style, and preferences.
From what I hear anecdotally, the toxicity, and hence the general feeling of fear and insecurity at work, is worse in the US than here in the UK. And those prioritising the so called 'soft skills' have had a hard time over the last couple of years amidst the series of brutal layoffs - I hope things turn around soon, the industry needs people who realise that software engineering is a social, psychological, and technical pursuit.
This is a long but fascinating read, John. Like you, I grew up on Reggie Perrin whose influence, I suspect, was one reason I left a large organization 20 years ago to go freelance. "I didn't get where I am today by sitting around singing kumbya, Reggie!" I'm sure your message of putting the joy back into work will reach a receptive audience. More, please.
Thank you for an excellent read John.
You topic really resonates with me, having experienced both the joyful and painful sides of work as both an individual contributor and as a manger. I particularly like your point around joy being 'a proxy for productivity' - I couldn't agree more, however I believe this can only happen within a a good culture where joy is encouraged/allowed.
In my last role I dabbled in some hands-on changes to the platform to improve security and observability, particularly after a spate of incidents. The work I was doing was over the Christmas period when everybody else was OOO (I hadn't been there long enough to get the time off), so it was just me in my element. Without the micromanagement of the senior leadership, I found a lot of joy in what was otherwise a toxic place to work. I was making a difference to the platform, uncovering areas of potentially massive improvements for our customers and even discovered some legal issues that would have otherwise gone unnoticed. Sadly the joy was quashed in the new year when my work was dismissed as non-important, primarily because I wasn't focussing on the (shortsighted) view that all work should be revenue-generating (i.e. building out the vapourware that sales had sold/lied about).
The most successful teams I have worked in/managed have been the ones where they find joy in their work. Sure, not everything we do is joyful, but we can enable that as leaders through trust, autonomy and promoting creativity off the back of it.
Really enjoyed this piece. With all the noise of “mindsets”, “start with why” etc. I wonder if the state of flow has been ignored by the corporate world. To me this meta-stable state of challenge and achievement should be what we strive to create for people. I expect it’s just too simple and not new enough to catch on though…..
When I was managing teams I used Flow with people in 1:1s - I used the chart with the varying states which I can still remember through repetition: Apathy, Worry, Anxiety, Arousal, Flow, Control Relaxation and Boredom. If people wanted to engage with it we would use it to help reflect on their experience of work since we last met. Some of the negative states would naturally come up, and that's all part of the experience of work, but if someone had lingered too long in Apathy, Boredom or Anxiety I would obviously probe for causes and try to make changes.
Engineers seemed to like this approach because it allowed them to talk about their feelings in a rational way that didn't seem too touchy-feely. It also gave me good arguments to take to stakeholders outside of my immediate scope of responsibility when the causes of poor flow were external to the team.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts!
I really like that approach.
Brava, thanks for sharing this thoughtful and brave examination of the power and value of joy at work!