Good developers are rare and you can’t afford Golden Handcuffs. Good luck keeping them when the startup down the street offers a $2500 gaming rig, a $300 keyboard budget, and an adjustable memory foam chair for when their desk is not in standing position.
My favorite desk was a piece of plywood with steel IKEA legs. It was stained black with a semi-gloss top coat. The legs were adjustable. I was given a small rolling file cabinet to go under it. One of the co-founders built four of them for the new office. He wasn’t exactly Norm Abram but they turned out very nice. Your developers don’t need private offices with enormous oak desks but they do need enough space to work and a place to store things.
Generally, there should be enough space on both sides to have a notebook open or a couple stacks of papers without crowding the keyboard and mouse or overflowing into someone else’s space. Six feet should be enough. Eight makes for a cleaner desk and more organization. Each dev will need a filing cabinet if your organization tends to accumulate paperwork, documentation, or written specifications from customers. Insufficient desk space makes it hard to work. You lose track of where things are and have to waste time flipping through your notes over and over. A small shop can get away with $100 home made IKEA desks. Companies that can afford it should just shell out the $900 for nice adjustable standing desks. (Experience only comes with time. Older devs get bad backs.)
Every developer has their own keyboard and mouse preferences. Some people have very strong preferences. These devices get used all day long; it pays to let each dev choose a keyboard and mouse they are comfortable with. Would you force a professional golfer to use clubs he didn’t like? Keyboards can get expensive. Don’t be surprised if tehy ask for a $200 keyboard and an $80 mouse. Just buy them. It’s only a couple hours of salary.
Monitors are less personal but still important to have choice in. I for one hate large monitors. I don’t want to have to turn my head to see the other side of the screen. (Nor do I need to with a capable window manager like Fluxbox.) 24″ 1440p is the max I’ll work on, 22″ 1080p is preferred. Other people want triple 4k 27″ curved screens. There is a limit to productivity increase. If the developer is adamant and you can’t easily find a replacement then you damn well better make them happy. If the market isn’t so tight you can very reasonably draw the line at a pair of more affordable monitors.
Headphones are an extremely personal item. Developers will provide their own but you need to provide a safe place for those $1100 Fostex TH900 studio headphones to stay overnight. If your office is safe, no problem. If you share office space or if untrustworthy people may go by you need to provide a locking drawer or locker for each developer. People don’t take kindly to their expensive audiophile headphones growing legs.
Computers. More is better but you don’t have to break the bank. Never force someone to use Apple hardware if they don’t want to. Buy them a Mac if they want one and your dev environment is completely compatible. If they can’t work on Linux you don’t want them. If they won’t work on Linux then weigh how much time will be lost to making your stack work with their Mac vs finding someone else. Sometimes it’s none. Sometimes it’s months. Personally, I charge a $20,000 per year salary premium to occasionally have to use Windows or OSX. No amount can bribe me into doing phone dev again. Spec-wise for web work a mid-tier CPU and a generous amount of RAM will do. Specialized jobs will need specialized machines. Don’t skimp. Forcing your chef to cook with a dull knife just drives them away.
A good chair can be the difference between “I’m gonna need a drink after work” and “Fuck it, I quit”. I’ve had a Herman Miller Aeron chair. It was nice. I’ve also had a $300 Office Depot chair that was just as comfortable. It’s a bad sign when you see people bringing in pillows to sit on. Skinny guys especially need comfortable chairs. Not everyone realizes that chairs wear out after a few years. Throw out old ones; you’re not saving any money.
And for fuck’s sake, BUY SOME GODDAMN PENS.
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