How often do you feel rewarded for doing your work? How often is your work/team used as a reason for accomplishment? I work in a team environment where we share the rewards of accomplishments and get to see that reward come quite often compared to most developers I know.
Reward Scenarios
Scenario A: One way we see our rewards are by word of mouth where the user may say, “I love this addition to the program; it has helped us so much.” It’s like a pat on the back saying, “Your work is appreciated”. Some developers will rarely see this reward. Often, you may hear an analyst say, “Hearing nothing about the work is a good thing.” That sounds odd, doesn’t it? But it’s very true. For example, most often when you call your kids daycare, are you calling to say thank you? Or are you calling to let them know you will not be on time?
Scenario B: Another way a developer may see rewards are by accomplishing work and having a meeting about it, commonly called a “Review”. When reviewing, you may hear congratulations on getting work done on time, or how well everyone accomplishes things as a team. You may also hear about the adverse side of things where the team needs improvement and things didn’t go so well. This can turn into a new goal and a way to show accomplishment for the next meeting.
Scenario C: Finally, the most common reward for almost all developers is being self-rewarded. I’m sure everyone has had that moment where you feel your work is next to impossible to accomplish within a time frame or even getting accomplished at all. This reward comes from actually getting it done. I don’t mean just finishing it up and moving on. I am referring to the extra time spent beyond your normal timed day because you really want that work to turn outright. I am also talking about accomplishing what feels like the impossible.
Conclusion
I’m bringing this up because it is important to feel accomplished and happy about the work you do. Being rewarded like in scenario B can help with our happiness even inside a team environment where the pressure may be getting to us. Whereas scenarios A and C are more of our happiness in our type of work we do. Shouldn’t we feel good and proud of the work we do?
Just the same, it’s important for your employer to recognize the work you do. Feeling accomplished and happy about the work we do helps keep us stay on track for that “good old hard work” that brings our clients and customers the best results in a fast manner. Employers that don’t recognize their workers may end up losing them or even seeing a poor performance from their workers. Like in scenario B, if the team isn’t being reviewed or rewarded from these reviews when are they being rewarded by the employer?
“While drones are awesome, they are only as good as the person flying them.”