Solving a talent crisis 5 (a multi-part article)
by Miki SaxonTrue to his word, Josh mapped out time to work with Julie. Together, they identified the specific things that had to happen for the engineers to continue working as a team.
In addition to the things that Brad and Doug thought of, Julie wanted to ensure a continuation of the intimate knowledge her team had of each other’s skills and abilities. She was adamant that this happen, because she believed, correctly, that it was one of development’s greatest strengths and the reason that their projects were almost always on time, in budget and of very high quality.
She agreed that webcams and conference calls were a given, but felt that other collaboration tools were a must. She had just started her research, but gathered from the articles she’d read that many of them were available for free. Julie said that she planned to turn her team loose to garner more ideas—she felt that they probably knew a lot more of what was out there than she did.
In the meantime, she wanted to approach Warren before he left.
She and Josh discussed what Warren was working on currently and analyzed the strengths/weaknesses spreadsheet that Julie kept on all her people in the new light of distance working. To Julie’s surprise, several of Warren’s weaknesses would either be neutralized or substantially minimized when working off-site, e.g., odd hours and tidiness, while his greatest strengths were ideal, e.g., accountability and an almost obsessive focus on meeting his deadlines.
When she asked Warren if he’d be interested in continuing his employment as a distance worker, he literally bowled Julie over in his excitement. It turned out that although Warren was definitely moving, he wasn’t that sure about where he wanted to live (he hadn’t traveled much), but being able to take his job with him meant that he could try different locations.
Julie was cautious and warned that frequent moves could wreak havoc on his productivity. Warren said he wasn’t worried. Everything he planned to take, mostly clothes and tech gear, fit in his car so moving was no big deal. He had planned to stay with friends until he was sure enough to rent a furnished apartment; his only concern was earning enough money to avoid using all his savings.
Julie asked Warren to develop a plan for achieving his next six-month’s deadlines as well as benchmarks with which to measure his progress.
Julie shuddered when she told Josh about it. She couldn’t understand anyone approaching a move so haphazardly; she signed and told Josh that she must be getting really old.
Although it hadn’t been formally announced, word of the new program was spreading through the company. Katy heard about it and contacted Julie. She told her that she needed to work during grad school, would much rather work for Julie than her current manager, asked what she needed to do to qualify, and if there was any chance of a full-time position.
Julie was delighted, but she also wanted to know what the problems were where Katy was currently working. Katy said that her current boss knew when he hired her that she was in school, but said he would work with her to accommodate her class schedule. However, once she was there, he had scheduled several meetings in conflict with her twice-a-week morning class, seemingly intentionally, and then insisted that she attend; he micromanaged her work and derided it’s value in front of her colleagues.
Katy admitted that returning to school was proving harder than she had thought it would be, but she didn’t have the luxury of not working to accommodate the transition. She believed that a lot of the stress and some of the difficulties she was having in school were tied to her manager.
Julie thought about it over a weekend, came up with a plan and ran it by Josh, who agreed it was a good approach and that the financial side was fair to both Katy and the company.
Julie’s plan called for Katy to tackle some of the more mundane work, such as testing, maintenance and minor enhancements, so she could mentally focus on finding her school legs. Julie believed that the work, although necessary, would be easy for Katy, since she was responsible for much of the original design and coding. She also wanted Katy to attend as many design reviews, etc. as possible using the technology they were implementing, because she valued Katy’s input and wanted her to remain an integrated part of the team.
Julie said that she couldn’t pay her what she had been receiving as a senior developer, but asked if Katy would consider the high end of newly created maintenance position. Katy’s response was even more enthusiastic than Warren’s. She said the money was fine, the position was perfect and that working for Julie and being part of her team again was more like a dream come true.
The comment both surprised and pleased Julie no end.
Ashok was a different story. When Julie called him, he said that he’s landed a great position in a startup with a similar culture, great people, and a really cool product. Although Julie was disappointed, she congratulated Ashok and told him (and meant it) that she was happy for him. She jokingly said that if he ever managed to clone himself to let her know.
Ashok hesitated, then said that he actually did know a brilliant engineer, “Suni,” who was available. He’d tried to bring him into his current company, but they weren’t interested in anyone who wasn’t local. Although hesitant, Julie remembered Josh’s comment about talent, accountability and relocation, so she asked for more information, which Ashok happily supplied. Julie asked Ashok not to say anything to Suni until she’d discussed it with Josh.
Continued tomorrow…
