Software companies need to exercise caution when changing offices. The developer labor market is very competitive. It’s hard to find good developers and tricky to keep them. The old saying goes, “Managing developers is like herding cats.” Part of this comes from the incredible leverage developers hold over their employers. While some companies can afford to pay high market wages, small and medium size software companies are significantly bolstering their developer salaries with intangible benefits. Developers see any decrease in these benefits as a pay cut.
When a developer accepts a job offer, he is accepting a certain amount of money to perform a certain type of work in a certain environment. Changing any one of those things is tantamount to violating the employment agreement. If your typical developer costs $10,000/mo in salary, taxes, and benefits, and if it takes two months to onboard a new developer, losing one single dev costs $20,000 plus hiring costs plus lost productivity. plus damaged morale. Are your changes worth that? Is that new slightly cheaper office worth it? You may not lose them immediately but they will definitely start quietly shopping around.
This is the first in a series of articles on the Total Compensation Package. First and foremost is the office.
Your office does not have to be hip or fancy. You don’t need local craft beer on tap or a ping pong table. You do desperately need three things: windows, personal space, and peace. A sufficiently large and decroative office can subsist without windows but it’s cheaper and easier to just get an office with a view. Doesn’t have to be of much, just more than a wall. Specifically, there needs to be something in the distance to look at. Across a street is a good minimum rule of thumb.
Next is personal space. You don’t need to give ever person their own office but you do need to give them a large enough desk and some space to move around. Cubicles are generally an insult and counteract windows. (Remember that scene in Office Space where Peter tears down a cubicle wall in order to see out the window?) If you can touch your neighbor without moving your chair, the desks are too close. Don’t cram four dudes in some tiny closet of an office. The stereotype of programmers with poor hygiene exists for a reason; some people just don’t understand how to shower. Remember, floor space is cheaper than brainpower.
Tranquility is the final necessity. Programmers need quiet to do their job. For those on the outside looking in, software development is mentally equivalent to doing math homework. Could you do math homework for 8 hours straight in a loud “open workspace”? Didn’t think so. A room full of people is fine if they are all courteous and quiet, work related or not. This goes not only for the developers but for managers, interns, passersby and anyone who can be heard in the room. Be sure to crack down on earbud users whose tinny music blares out of the sides. Don’t play music for the whole office. You may like it but not everyone will and sometimes you just need peace and quiet to concentrate.
Growing companies eventually have to change offices. Renting a bigger place can get expensive. In my experience there is a trend to go for lower quality in order to keep costs down. It’s more than that though. Going from a modern second floor coworking space with wall to wall windows overlooking some beautiful scenery to a dingy basement office with a bad paint job and a no-dogs rule isn’t being frugal, it’s cutting your employees’ pay. You might be able to get away with that for minimum wage office drones. For developers it’s a substantial loss. Kiss your morale goodbye.
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.