After a year with my new company I find that I am enjoying work more than ever. I also think I am being more productive than ever. This productivity is, of course, more of a personal perception than something that I can substantiate numerically. I don’t know if there is any correlation between enjoying work and being productive, but it seems logical that there would be.
Here are the top reasons that I enjoy my work, and I suspect that they are also the reasons that I am being more productive. These are in no particular order:
1. Low percentage of time spent in meetings. This is a no-brainer, but when one spends a large percentage of time in meetings they can’t get other things done. My work is generally measured in terms of things I do outside of meetings, but some of my past work environments included a ridiculous number of meetings, only some of which were actually about getting things done. These days I spend most of my work time actually doing things instead of talking about doing things. How refreshing.
2. A mostly collaborative environment with less arguments, bad attitudes, divisiveness and tension. Working in a relaxed environment, with people who genuinely seem to like each other and who are working together is a really nice change. In some of my past work environments there was a lot of tension, centered mostly around strongly opinionated people who were not willing to communicate without rancor and who were not willing to concede to another person’s way of doing things. Not only were those environments counter-productive, but it was much less enjoyable working there.
3. Private office. A lot has been written about giving developers private offices with doors that close out noise and distractions. When I first started working in my office, I was looking at my own productivity, curious to see if I would be more productive. And I certainly feel more productive now. But what I didn’t expect is how much more I would enjoy my work because of a private office. Part of it is that I enjoy work because I can actually focus and get things done. But part of it is also that having a private office provides a feeling of worth and value to the company. There’s a certain amount of dignity to a private office that a cubicle or a desk in an open space will never provide. Not to mention there is the personal space that an introvert, such as myself, needs.