How to make people happy

time to read 2 min | 314 words

[Via Alex Bendig] There is a post in The Business of Software about a new manager that came into the company:

... we got a new director of engineering.  During a meeting on why we were late on our current project and what could be done about it, I joked and said he could get us a fridge in the lab with Mt. Dew in it.  Well not an hour later, a guy comes in wheeling a mini fridge...stocked with Mt. Dew.

Personally, nothing has motivated me more to want to work in that dull white lab and put in some extra effort then that small [sic]jesture.

There were a lot of comments there saying that they should have asked for [Aeron Chair/Dual LCD monitors/more RAM/Etc], but some of the commenters there got the issue (Joel Spolsky & Eric Sink). It's not about what was requested, it wasn't a meeting to request stuff that they needed. It was a chance comment that the manager acted upon, and in one simple gesture, he gained quite a lot of good will and made sure that the entire department would like being there.

I'm currently reading Peopleware, and the whole book can be summarized as "Make them happy!" That manager made his people happy, period. It's a small investement, but it'll pay off big dividends later on. People who like what they doing are going to do it better.