The Best Place to Work
-
OK, it seems that I've been drawn to Google a bit lately, so I figured I'd go ahead and continue on that train. Last week I caught this note that Microsoft is better than Google, which links to this blog/interview. It seems real and possibly from a younger guy since there are some misspellings and grammar mistakes that I tend to see with younger people. At least younger than I. (more here and here).
Last week I noted Computer World's "Best Places to Work" and while I'm not sure it's the best list to use when looking for a job, it's at least one to think about. Kind of like those "Best Places to Live" articles. If you're open and have no preferences, then it's a good idea. Otherwise, go with what you know.
Life at Google sounds similar to what I expected. I'm not sure it would be for me now, but maybe in 10 years I'd like an environment like that when my kids are gone and I could devote more time to work. I know that having your needs taken care of is a nice perk, especially the food and transportation ones.
But life, especially with your career, means a balance must be struck. Having a tendency to work 24/7 isn't good unless it's your passion. Is it worse than the minister or doctor who works 100 hours a week because they care? As long as you're not strictly doing it for the money, and it sounds like the salaries aren't that great, then it's ok if that's what you want. Heck, I used to tend bar and manage a night club and easily worked 90-100 hour weeks. But I had a great time and for the year+ I did it, I thought I had the best job.
Keeping employees happy is an investment. Google realizes and I think Microsoft does as well. I'm not sure how many "run of the mill" companies believe this, but any money you spend on perks should be viewed as an investment and designed to help make people more comfortable, make work more fun, and make it seem more like a family.
To that end, little things like choices in offices and furniture, having equipment for check-out, even hot swap desks in other offices, is a cool way to make big differences with little things. The biggest difference IMHO, which also seems to be so hard to get management to buy into, is that people aren't widgets, resources, or any other interchangeable parts. They're a valuable part of your work-village and deserve to be treated that way.
In the meantime, remember to strike a balance, re-read yesterday's "Hazards of IT" and enjoy your life. The good and the bad.
-
These days it is very hard to find a good place to work. Most companies are under a lot of pressure of the stock market, in order to save money, layoff and outsourcing happened everywhere. Everyone is so cautious about the job. In order to keep the job, if the company requests you to work overtime, you have to do it. If the company decides not to give pay raise because of profit did not meet the market expectation, you just have to accept it.
-
I agree with Steve's point about people being referred to as a "resource" or something similar. It's always gotten under my skin. I think what separates an ok place to work and a great place to work is an ok place to work actually treats their employees as resources (like a pc or a desk) and a great place to work treats their employees like people.
And I agree it is very hard to find a good place to work for the reasons given by the previous poster, but I think it's also difficult for companies to find good talent and often hire the best candidate out of a pool even if the best candidate doesn't have all the needed qualifications. They were just the best out of that particular pool. And this contributes to a poor work environment. One of the things I can say about Microsoft (and I imagine this goes for Google as well, I haven't tried looking at their numbers) that they hire someone that can not only perform the job well, but perform well at the company and if that can't find that person in a particular pool, they leave the position open. Microsoft got roughly 1 million resumes for approx 5,000 jobs last year and all those positions were not filled.
IMHO, the two most important things to an employee is the work itself and the people they work with. Most of the time, the salary at company A and company B that are in the same area\industry are going to be comparable. And perks are just that perks. Neither salary nor perks will make up for tedious work and slackers for co-workers.
-
I definitely have to agree with this. If a company is treating me more as a resource and not letting me have time as a regular person, it will drive me away. If a company can balance those two, I'll be fine there. And if a company lets me be more of a regular person and not much of a resource, then I'll probably look elsewhere, as part of my job as an employee should be to serve as a resource.
When the company's career page says "Make a living. Have a life." and truly means it - that's how I know I work for one of the best places (at least for me).
-
This was removed by the editor as SPAM
-
Yes office work the employee's workplace must meet all his requirements and be as comfortable as possible for your employee. It is absolutely correct because if they feel trouble whey the work they can't give proper concentrations on their work.
Viewing 6 posts - 1 through 5 (of 5 total)
You must be logged in to reply to this topic. Login to reply