[LRUG] London Ruby working conditions survey results

[James McCarthy]

I'm not seeing any positive correlations(i.e. all samples which are on 
time are also X), also the number in this group is quite small. I think 
it's quite a rare thing for projects to go exactly as expected unless 
they are very simple ones, in which case they're not really 
representative of real life (which more often than not are somewhat 
complicated).

On the whole the biggest surprises for me from this survey were:
1) No one has a private office.
2) Most people are happy enough with their project.
3) Most people are happy with their managers.

I would consider 1 to be a problem if it wasn't for the fact that most 
developers who responded also said they have a quiet enough work space. 
Having read the Joel Spolsky take on the importance of a private office 
I was mostly sold on the idea.

If you read the study cited in Peopleware (I've forgotten which one) 
which quantifies the cost of noisy work environment it says nothing 
about private offices, it's whether the developer thinks the environment 
is loud or noisy. I believe the measured cost was something like 30%, 
i.e. developers who were in an environment they considered too loud lost 
30% of their productivity (for the method used to measure productivity).

In the survey, as you can see from the posted results the vast majority 
of people were happy with the noise level of their environment. As some 
people have already commented (on both the list and in the survey 
additional comments section) a lack of space (or being in a cramped 
space) has the same effect, probably for the same reasons (a cramped 
space is likely to be noisier).

For surprise 2 & 3 I had guessed by the number of complaints and rants 
I've read online (not to mention the Dilbert culture that is present) 
there would be much more people who were quite unhappy with their job 
and their manager.

I wonder if this is because most Ruby developers tend to be for small 
and medium size businesses? If I surveyed the Java development community 
in London (or the UK) would the result be much different?

I think we can assume though that things are good in Ruby land of London.

James.

On 21/09/14 19:27, Marti Dumas wrote:
> Hi James,
>
> Thanks for sharing. Fun and informative project and presentation of 
> results. Also, did you find any significant correlations between the 
> group that selected the current project status of "Everything is going 
> to plan and on budget" and any of the other categories (developer 
> category, company size, smart people, interesting project etc.)?
>
> Thank you,
> Marti
>
>
>
> On Tue, Sep 16, 2014 at 7:40 AM, James McCarthy <james at lety.co 
> <mailto:james at lety.co>> wrote:
>
>     Good afternoon all.
>
>     Apologies in the delay getting the results to you, I had planned
>     to have this up Saturday morning but a busy weekend prevented that.
>
>     Thank you to everyone who responded, I think this has given some
>     interesting insights into conditions in London.
>
>     Summary:
>
>     Of the 112 developers who responded.
>
>     The private office and cubicle are dead.
>     A minority frequently work overtime.
>     Only 1/4 have quiet working conditions.
>     Most have a desk in large open plan offices.
>     Most have a decent size screen.
>     The vast majority are happy working on their current project.
>     The average number of years experience is 5.6
>
>     Full results available here.
>     http://blog.lety.co/london-ruby-developers-working-conditions/
>
>
>     -- 
>     James McCarthy
>
>     Software Engineer
>
>     LetyCo - Analyse, Build, Deliver
>     Ruby/Rails software for London and the SouthEast.
>      Mob:  07577006897
>
>     Email: james at lety.co <mailto:james at lety.co>
>
>     lety.co <http://lety.co>
>
>
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> -- 

-- 
James McCarthy

Software Engineer

LetyCo - Analyse, Build, Deliver
Ruby/Rails software for London and the SouthEast.
  
Mob:  07577006897

Email:  james at lety.co

lety.co

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