Engineering Happiness Laura Thomson @lxt / laura@[laurathomson|mozilla].com 1 1

Process Software System —Any Software Engineering 101 Textbook People 2 2

For engineering managers Photo by Trev Grant, https://www.flickr.com/photos/trevgrant/13746359923 under https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/ 3 3

And engineers (pretty interested in their own happiness) Photo by Trev Grant, https://www.flickr.com/photos/trevgrant/13496315673 under https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/ 4 4

Hypothesis - happy engineers: Don’t quit Produce code Don’t complain (Assumptions: competence, motivation, fit) 5 5

Don’t quit? Metric: retention/turnover But turnover sucks as a metric: (Extremely) trailing indicator ~30% mean turnover in SV Changes (spikes) notable, too late to be actionable 6 6

Where is turnover useful/actionable? Look for anomalies Local maxima point to specific problems Junior? Senior? Management? Technical? 7 7

“People leave managers, not jobs” Not only managers: Company/project/culture jumped the shark Stopped learning Burned out Better offer (Good manager can mitigate but not fully overcome these things) 8 8

Productive? Critical happiness metric at the micro level, per person Less so as a macro measure of morale 9 9

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Complaints? “If the worst thing they have to complain about is the art hanging on the walls…” 11 11

Complaints? Sentiment (Slack, IRC, Basecamp, Yammer, commit comments etc) Silence Again: more about individuals than overall 12 12

What else can we look at? 13 13

Leading indicators: Hours worked Downtime or # pages/alerts Tech debt Stock prices / Market share Technology (TIOBE, HN, etc) in decline 14 14

“Glassdoor Bingo” (What companies? What causes?) 15 15

Technical debt is an energy vampire for good engineers. 16 16

Surveys (CultureAmp, etc) Infrequent, quantitative and qualitative Monitors (standu.ps, tinypulse, etc): Frequent, quantitative (graphite for humans) 17 17

Unhappiness 18 18

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Not to be confused with 20 20

Not to be confused with Going into management 21 21

“Burnout is defined as a state of chronic stress and frustration that leads to: physical and emotional exhaustion; feelings of cynicism and detachment; and a sense of ineffectiveness and lack of accomplishment.” “Where do you fall on the burnout continuum?” https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/high-octane-women/201205/where-do-you-fall-the-burnou (Downloaded June 1, 2015) 22 22

Causes of burnout: Long hours Death marches Too many pages Too much travel Politics Missing out on life/family 23 23

GSD/BS ratio: Politics Excessive meetings Cargo cult process Tech debt 24 24

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Mastery Autonomy Purpose Pink, Dan. Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us 26 26

Herzberg’s Two Factor Theory 27 27

Hygiene Work environment - hardware, tools, snacks Management / policies Salary / benefits Safety Messing these up makes people unhappy. 28 28

Motivation achievement / recognition interesting projects learning new stuff growth / advancement Getting these right makes people happy. 29 29

Motivation Hygiene Awesome Just a paycheck Early stage startup Terrible 30 30

Enough management talk. Photo by Trev Grant, https://www.flickr.com/photos/trevgrant/13746359923 under https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/ 31 31

√ How can I be a happy engineer? Photo by Trev Grant, https://www.flickr.com/photos/trevgrant/13496315673 under https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/ 32 32

Work on things you are good at and enjoy at places that fit the way you like to work and change once in a while. 33 33

First, know thyself. What type of engineer are you? (A short and unscientific quiz) Public domain, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Sigmund_Freud_1926.jpg 34 34

Senior vs Junior 35 35

Structured vs Chaotic 36 36

Team Player vs Lone Wolf 37 37

Purist vs Pragmatist 38 38

Starter vs Finisher 39 39

(There is no punchline to this quiz, but if it makes you feel better, you can say I said you were a Level 70 Senior Chaos Wolf of Pragmatic Finishing or whatever.) Public domain. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gray_wolf#/media/File:Howlsnow.jpg 40 40

Progress Image: https://www.flickr.com/photos/jacksonmedeiros/2719799718 under https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/ 41 41

I am often asked: “How do I progress as an engineer?” “How do I become a more senior engineer?” “How do I get promoted?” “Should I go into management?” 42 42

What’s progress to you? Do you want to: Move to a more challenging role? Move to a more interesting company? Work on a harder or more interesting project? Become an expert in something? Knowing what you want leads to how to get it 43 43

Helpful things: Change projects or teams every 1-2 years Learn from people who are awesome Learn to write 44 44

Skills maketh the engineer, for example: Java -> Android, Big Data, Financial Services Ruby -> Startups C or Rust -> Systems Programming (PHP, of course, leads to a ridiculously large number of web dev jobs, so it’s good that you’re here.) Be aware of the strategic consequences of your choices 45 45

tl;dl Don’t be afraid to leave bad jobs Know yourself and what you like to do Have a plan for what you want to learn next 46 46

Two last pieces of advice for long term happiness: 1. Check on yourself every 6-12 months 2. Develop good boundaries between work and personal life 47 47

Upwards, to the right, and straight on ’til morning. Get this print: https://www.etsy.com/listing/107306078/welcome-to-the-internet-hq-11x17 Questions? @lxt Slides? https://speakerdeck.com/lauraxt/ 48 48