[gameprogrammer] Re: job field security

On Mon, 2004-08-30 at 10:37, Kevin Jenkins wrote:
> That is really an excellent article and as always an excellent response 
> by Bob.  I'm in such a situation now - a small company with very high 
> quality programmers (except one guy who is horrible but friends with the 
> boss).
> 
> I've been thinking about quitting because I'm not appreciated for the 
> work I do here here.  But if I go the bottom will fall out of the 
> company because I wrote or modified half the engine and almost all the game.
> 
> How do you find the balance, when you don't have the cash to spend on 
> mediocre programmers but don't want the risk of your star programmers 
> leaving and ruining the company?  (I'm actually asking)

In a small company you elevate the programmer from the role of employee
to the role of partner. This is the way all legal firms operate. They
hire people and evaluate them and if they make the grade they bring them
in as partners in the business. You give them a percentage of profits
and you make them responsible for both profit and loss. You solicit
their input and you listen to it. If they are wrong you explain why they
are wrong. 

The trouble is that this approach only works if the owner is willing to
let the programmer become a true partner and if the programmer is able
to understand and take on the role of business partner. 

In large companies, like IBM, you create special engineering positions
that are the equivalent of executive positions and you move your top
technical people out of production work and into the technical visionary
role. IBM has their "IBM Fellow" position and they have an engineering
track that moves people up into more and more visionary positions while
letting them stay technical.

Both of these techniques actually work. 

                        Bob Pendleton 

> 
> 
> > The issue of programmer productivity only address one small part of the
> > equation. It ignores the risk side of the equation and the control side
> > of the equation. 
> > 
> > If you want to reduce risk you have to reduce the number of "key" people
> > in the organization. You can't have one person, or even a small group of
> > people who can kill the company by quiting or dying on the freeway on
> > the way to work.
> 
> 
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+--------------------------------------+
+ Bob Pendleton: writer and programmer +
+ email: Bob@xxxxxxxxxxxxx             +
+ blog:  www.Stonewolf.net             +
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