| This has little to do w/ being a developer vs. being human. People joke about the programmer in a dark corner plugging away and never talking to others, but that's actually pretty rare. In 20 years I've only worked with a handful of developers who don't want to socialize, collaborate, or solve problems together. The truth is that people - regardless of discipline - generally all want the same things from their work: to work on something meaningful, to be productive, and to be recognized for that work (both output and input). That's pretty much it. If - as a leader - you can do those, you're going to generally have rather happy employees. When it comes to this article, the issue is that there are a lot of people who believe that documentation and effective communication ARE necessary, but that work ISN'T recognized, and (because it isn't recognized) steals time that could be spent being productive doing something that is. If you want effective communication, documentation, etc. at your workplace, it's incumbent on leadership to create that culture. Nurture it, get better at it themselves, and help those less eloquent to find their [written] voice. |
On the contrary I rarely meet engineers that want to collaborate all the time unless they don't fit the typical profile of an engineer (usually a transfer from another industry). Engineers, much like myself, like to work alone not because we are loners but because often times so-called "deep work" requires actual quiet time. I don't like meetings, I don't like to pair unless there is some mutual misunderstanding that needs to be resolved, and I like to control my small talk (because I have a tendency to talk a lot about CS). I'm not a shut in, I just have work to do. Pairing excessively, for example, is an antipattern. When I worked in an office I would regularly leave my headphones on even when I got coffee because if I didn't someone would inevitably find a way to pull me away when I needed to be doing thinking.
There is time and place for scuttlebutt and honestly the amount of work I have to do every day leaves very little time for it. I could also be an extreme case because being introverted generally, a large number of meetings physically exhausts me. I've estimated I can make it ~30 minutes in a meeting before I am checked out.
The more rules, people, and processes that are put in my way just reduce my effectiveness. This leads to more frustration than it solves. For example, all these company parties and get togethers, "fun" meetings, etc are annoying to me because I legitimately stress out when I can't complete my work on my own (internal) timetable.