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Improving The IT Workplace

Maybe, as some readers suggest, this is just to be expected--either from displaced or older workers struggling to find their footing in a changing IT landscape or as the inevitable tumult that proceeds the death throes of what some see as a dying industry.

But maybe we should be a little less blase; and a little more proactive about trying to defuse this rage whenever and wherever it flares up. As author Harriet Lerner says in The Dance Of Anger, "Anger is a signal, and one worth listening to."

If you search our blogs in the career category and read the posts, it's true you'll find a lot of posts from the disaffected that start with "I've been in IT for 25, 30, 35 years ..." But if you look closer you'll also notice two things: Many of these people are employed, and mixed in along with their posts are entries from a younger generation, some also very angry, but more often bewildered, concerned, and uncertain of an IT career.

Alarm bells--hell, air-raid sirens--should be going off right now for anyone managing an IT department anywhere. These are some of your workers. This could be lurking in your office. Don't think for one minute this won't affect your projects, your teams, your results. It will. Maybe you'll complete projects, but will they be as good as they could have been? Will team members have enjoyed the experience and learned as much as they could have from each other? Will they be willing or able to pitch new ideas, projects, fixes? Do they have any sense that what they do matters or is appreciated? I'm thinking no on the latter. So what are you doing to let them know they do matter?

Having worked in middle management myself, I can guess your lot in life isn't exactly the berries, either. You get to juggle complaints and demands from above and below. Trying to make the best of unrealistic project schedules or skimpy budgets can leave your staff thinking you're the one who's unrealistic. If you think that's an easy perch from which to work, it's not.

Nonetheless, code rage is a very real, very now staffing issue bubbling under the surface at many IT shops. I know the fundamental underlying issues fueling that rage are unlikely to change for many workers, but perhaps there are adjustments, changes, and accommodations that can be made in the workplace to make work a better place for everyone. I wonder how IT managers and HR departments are dealing with workers who feel undervalued, overworked, underpaid. Of course, there's a degree of that in any industry, but it seems like a full-blown epidemic in IT. And regardless of how the business side views or values IT's role in your company, IT managers have to address this issue. You can't change the reality of the industry or even necessarily the attitude of your business compatriots, but you can, at minimum, effect some changes within the confines of your department. In other words, how can you make a tough situation easier to bear?

You have no choice. Your ROI depends on it, your future workforce depends on it. If you as a manager have done anything specific to mitigate the funk many IT workers seem to be stewing in--or if your department has--and you've succeeded in muting it, however minimally, we'd like to hear about it. Your peers would like to hear about it. And if you have a deployable idea that you think helps or should be adopted, we welcome those contributions as well.

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