When we make decisions about our career we can never be absolutely sure whether they will play out the way we expect them. Having switched my job several times with an average stay at a position of 2 years, I can easily say that job switching has allowed me to be excited about work, meet new people, see different points of view and continuously learn. Along the way I have tried to gather as much knowledge applicable to any domain that I’m crafting software for. The other thing that I have consistently done is attempted to make my working environment better than I found it - on both work related and interpersonal level. Today I’d like to share with you the hints to the fact that this approach has been successful as well as my thoughts on the matter.

Nowadays, the name of the game in the IT industry are hard technical skills. How should you architect this application? Can you measure the throughput it needs to sustain so that its downstream consumers are not left idle and at the same time it doesn’t eat up its allocated memory and crash? What are the costs and benefits this new technology imposes on your company’s tech stack? How big is the artifact that you are deploying and will this new dependency that you are adding make your jar twice as big just for a small utility method? Such questions go on forever. An employee’s ability to answer them and the time it takes him/her to do it, is the difference between being operational and being out of business. Also, the degree of concentration and knowledge needed to work on a modern software system are quite high. That and the demand on time spent on work related activity outside office hours is increasing. We no longer have software that works only 9-17. It is constantly available. To enable that there needs to be some degree of attention paid to it.

Taking into account the aforementioned things it seems clear that work is an integral part of a person’s life. So besides the monthly compensation that a company pays to its employees, it should take care to provide them with an environment that they can be productive, healthy and happy. What I would like to focus on is the last part of the description. A company can do many things so that the people working there can be ok. Yet it is just an umbrella term, a name grouping everyone working there. Thus, it is the individual that makes the company. Everyone contributes with their action and inaction to how they and their colleagues are feeling and thinking.

By combining the arguments from the last two paragraphs I’d like to ask the following question - how much do soft skills and the ability to communicate clearly, and - most importantly - openly contribute to a positive working environment and happy employees? I would argue that they aid quite a lot. There are many reasons but the main one to me is that fostering a good, respectful and honest relationship with the people you spend the better part of your day is top priority when it comes to getting anything done. The problem is that the connection between the terms group and individual is established by the employers and the code of conduct that the company states explicitly or implicitly. And in an industry driven by tangible results and companies spanning across different cultures, continents and time zones, it is hard to focus on things that don’t impact your product directly. Unfortunately it has been the story of my life so far that in a seemingly great working environment managers do not equate with leaders. And since great colleagues - meaning technically skilled and emotionally intelligent - are hard to come by, it is up to us as people to help everyone become better. It can be with a kind word, :thumbsup:, pair-programming, knowledge sharing session… you name it.

To continue my post I need to tell you a couple of things about me. I am a rather emotional and frank person. I also don’t do things just to do them. I like to have skin in the game. I am curious and hard-working - if there is a problem I don’t shy away but try to develop at least a basic understanding of what’s going on. Combine that with the fact I have been lucky enough to work in teams that were central to their respective organizations, and you quickly realize that there were plenty of connections that I had with people on a daily basis.

I mentioned already that I have changed my work place several times. Every time that happens there are a lot of mixed feelings. I honestly love it. It is like going on a vacation, but you are still at work. Things that you had to put up with just because someone said are off. And that is sometimes quite a big relief. It also lifts the curtains on how people feel about you - something that I will get back to in a bit. On one hand there is a general sadness and sometimes negative emotions by the team that you are leaving. What I try to focus on when going through these transition periods is only the positive things. The hard won lessons - be they lost battles or successful stories - are what I take with me no matter where I go. On the other hand - people at your new job are excited to have you and try to do whatever they can so that you are brought in the environment in the best possible way.

I recently went through this wild process once again. The interesting thing this time was that there was a lot of positive feedback from different employers that made me humble and happy about my attitude towards work. To name a few:

• one of my current co-workers did a check on me since we share a common ex-employer, and it brought a smile to my face when he told me that former colleagues had shared kind words about me
• I recently met on with some colleagues from my now former employer, and they also told me they enjoyed our daily interactions and the moral boost they got from our jokes and talks at lunch
• a former colleague that was senior to me, asked me for a recommendation on LinkedIn and when asked why he requested it from me, he echoed the positive sentiment and expressed that he enjoyed our technical and personal discussions

In conclusion, I would like to state several things:

1. It is up to the individual to influence their own environment and change it if needed be. Yes, it is easier said than done but if you are a family man and never go out with your colleagues for a beer after work, don’t be surprised if your opinion slowly looses its weight over time. It doesn’t matter how good you are - human beings are social creatures, and they form groups based on commonalities. Interpersonal relationships are what keeps people excited about a job even when the job is not that great. It is the deciding factor in the long run. At least in my eyes.
2. It is up to the employer to set the stage and let people know what the dos and don’ts are. And I’m not talking about openly insulting someone - this is something that is taught in your family, hopefully! I’m talking about communication channels, access to knowledge and ability to speak your mind whenever you have something important or even less important to say. It’s a two-way street and personal values can only get you that far, even - or should I say especially - in a highly intellectual environment
3. Put in plain words - yes, technical skills are king. Yes, there is no place for chit-chat when the build is breaking, when the system is down or when money is at stake. Period. Yet, this is a team “sport”. In order to believe in an idea and be ready to fight for a common goal, you need to know your fellow men - when do they break under pressure and when can you rely on them? Communication - and personal at that - is key.