My Company Told Me They Don’t Care About Me by Buying Me a New Macbook Pro
Photo by Maxim Hopman on Unsplash
The Secret Developer is an old, irrelevant person. They might claim to be a successful keyboard jockey but they’re a grumpy old stick in the mud. Worse still, they change their mind about the most important issues in computing.
Isn’t this a personal attack? Is this allowed in computing?
The Complaint
The Secret Developer wrote an article about having an old laptop. The story of that machine is right here:
Why Giving Devs Old Kit Kills Confidence
More Companies Are Saving the $$$medium.com
Long story short a general complaint is developers don’t get the most powerful machine possible. They usually want the best machine to cut down on their compile time.
I spend most of my time waiting for a machine to compile. I’m THAT fast at coding.
The Solution
The Secret Developer’s employer bought them a new laptop. A brand new MacBook.
You would think that The Secret Developer would be happy with this. Yet they never seem happy.
I’m happy on my birthday. That’s enough.
The Complaint Mark II
The complaint boils down to these issues with that new MacBook 14" M1 Pro
It’s not the latest model (Apple doesn’t sell this machine anymore)
They didn’t ask the developer which machine they wanted
Which is probably a typical software developer response. They want to be asked about each and every little thing.
This is a business owner’s view of what is happening.
Why this matters to developers. 1: Running shoes
This isn’t about software developers making a fuss. They’re not complaining about things that don’t matter.
A computer is to a software developer what running shoes are to a marathon runner.
Listening is important. 2: Respect
When tech firms ask you what machine you want they give you respect. They understand that when you use a machine you have (at least in part) some ownership over it.
When you simply purchase a developer’s machine you are giving them a tool for the job certainly. You are also missing an opportunity to engage with the employee and ensure they get exactly what they want and need to perform.
You are actually helping engagement for developers.
Yes. Perhaps we’d all start speaking in meetings if people were interested in what we say.
Conclusion
Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we respected developers as professionals? If we thought they did good work and needed to be adequately rewarded for doing so?
That would be really nice.