apropos

by Tina Darmohray
<tmd@usenix.org>

Tina Darmohray, co-editor of ;login:, is a consultant on Internet firewalls and network connections and fre-quently gives tutorials on those subjects. She was a founding member of SAGE.

For the Love of the Game

Michael Jordan is well known for many things: defying gravity, selling tennies, and trying baseball are just a few. In the world of sports contracts, he's also known for breaking ground by adding a clause to his contract with the Bulls that allowed him to continue to play basketball when and where he wanted to just "for the love of the game." Translated from legalese, he was allowed to do what he did for a living for free if he wanted to. That clause meant he could participate in any "pick-up" game on any blacktop of his choosing just because he loved to do it, no strings attached, and no one could say that he couldn't.

What does a computer professional have in common with a basketball star? Well, both work for a living. Jordan does what he does best and gets paid (really well!) for it. And we computer professionals do what we do for a living and get paid (pretty well!) for it.

Now I know that, as far as money is concerned, it's probably safe to speculate that Jordan could have retired long ago, but he kept on working. "Yeah, right," I can hear you say. "Playing a game doesn't count as work." But I'm sure, when it came down to it, there were some days that he didn't want to hit the gym any more than any of us want to hit the keyboards. We all have those days. But, while we do what we do to make money, more important, we do it because we like it.

Where I live, in the Silicon Valley, becoming a millionaire isn't out of the realm of possibility. There are an awful lot of start-ups to choose from and plenty of examples of those who have made it big. I often quip that you can see more exotic cars in the parking lot of a successful start-up than you can at an organized car show, and I'm only half kidding. This kind of within-reach wealth encourages folks to entertain thoughts of what they'd do if they didn't have to work anymore, and it's a frequent topic of lunchtime conversation at the local restaurants.

Common financial-independence fantasies include dream vacations, retirement locations, and philanthropic work. Perhaps surprisingly, many folks also make comments like, "I'd still work." Sure, they may not work as hard, or as much, but they often say they'd still work in some capacity. That leads me to conclude that we techies work for a living, but we also work because we love it, and that's just like Jordan.

So, it takes more than just money to motivate workers. That's not new news. Or is it? In this economic environment, talented computer professionals are hot commodities and no employer can afford to lose good people, yet I see it happen all the time. It appears that some in management fail to understand this: at some level, no amount of money will make up for an oppressive work environment.

The bottom line is that compensation is equally as important as nonmonetary considerations such as opportunity for professional growth, input to decisions, flexible hours, pro bono work, fundamental fairness, and respect. Successful managers find out what is important to their employees and partner with them to create an environment which is good both for the organization and for the employees. This keeps the game fun for everyone.

Maybe the Bulls didn't care if Michael Jordan played hoops with old high school friends, or with his kids at a park. Maybe he wouldn't have walked away from the job over the clause that allowed him to do so. Smart move on the Bulls' part that they didn't push the issue to find out, because when it comes down to it, most of us work partly because we have to, and partly for the love of the game.