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Tell Me More - Get Happy

Written by Bridget Pilloud

Sunday, 31 March 2002 16:00

I’m not advertising anti-depressants, but maybe I should. How’s this for a downer: Two-thirds of I.T. professionals are clinically depressed (I read that somewhere. I can’t find the source. Take my word for it, or, just look around your office).
Look at us. Socially limited people, in immature organizations, working with unrealistic expectations from fickle business managers. We are rats in cages using base manipulation to get what we want. Or, we are numb, unconsciously writing code in our cubes. We are not happy.

Are you happy? Is this what you thought it would be?

Why do we do what we do? If our answer is only, for the money, we’re not in software development. We’re in a much older profession than that.

We all moan about the immaturity of our organizations, and yet we’re willing to just wallow in it. We resist change. Isn’t that weird? Why do we do that?

We work in an immature industry (you’re surprised. I know.) Here’s how it works:

Every technology starts as magic, turns into a craft and lives out its existence as a combination of science and mass production. Sorcery turned into Alchemy turned into Chemistry turned into pharmaceutical companies.

Our industry is young, and socially, we’re not perceived as scientists or producers, but as sorcerers. To the outside world, software development is magic.

We get incentives to live this myth. Being a sorcerer is a significantly more gratifying that being the guy who bolted the fender to your truck:

Status: People outside of IT think you’re smarter than you even think you are.

Money: You get more money than most doctors and you don’t have to go to school for 12 years, or cut people open.

Valor: Magic is unpredictable, so the quality standards are lower. You get to be a superhero as you continuously save your company’s bacon from the defects you created in the first place. Who wouldn’t love that?

Solitude: You get to work by yourself. Sorcerers get to sit in a cube all day, with little interruption, controlling a world that they’ve created. Add process to your life and suddenly you have to work with people, as part of a community, with communal measures and goals. You have to be part of a team.

People tell us we’re special and leave us alone. And that works for us.

We send our customers a mixed message that we’re all powerful, and yet we can’t meet a deadline and don’t understand their requirements.

They go a little haywire trying to figure out how to manipulate us to get what they want.

So…

We work extra hours to fix mistakes that wouldn’t be there if we had invested in process in the first place.
We get put on Death March projects that have no purpose and no end.
We take our work home in the form of frustration and visit it upon our spouses and our kids and our dogs

We cling to something that is untrue, and we are short-changed from the experience that we were destined to have.

Would you believe that there are people out there who enjoy their jobs, and whose jobs enrich their lives and the lives of their families? Who work in I.T?

They work in companies with change management processes, consistent expectations, and supportive infrastructures. They work in a world that embraces process and organizational maturity.

It’s simple. If you have constraints and mechanisms that support your work, you get to do your job, instead of doing damage control. You get to do your job and then you get to go home. And you get to keep the money, and the status. And instead of valor based on a false manipulation, you get respect. Instead of being alone, you get friends.

I came down from my tower, and joined a company that supports and values me. I know the names of my kids now, and I’ve stopped finding my palm pilot in the garbage. You can have that too. Demand a supportive work environment. Work for a mature organization.

Either that, or buy stock in pharmaceuticals.

Bridget Pilloud is a contributing editor for CM Crossroads and is the manager of customer relationships at MERANT. Prior to MERANT, Bridget spent 8 years developing software development and management methodologies for companies in the financial services sector.

Tell Me More is the opinion of Bridget Pilloud and any noted guest friends, and is not necessarily the view of MERANT, CM Crossroads, Catalyst Systems, Bridget's immediate family, or anyone else who may be held responsible. You can reach her by email at Bridget.Pilloud@merant.com

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