/var/log/manager: Incentivizing Smart People

I manage smart, highly technical professionals in a hot job market. The Tampa Bay Area has an effective unemployment rate of 0% in our IT sector (and our weather is a lot better than you find in another “Bay Area” that has a hot IT sector...I’m just sayin’). I worry a lot about how to get my best employees to keep coming back to work each day. There are several incentive points to think about when preventing a valued employee from straying to another employer. To make their job feel like The Great Job takes a lot more effort than simply pointing out that you get to work with Andy Seely. Here are some “incentive vectors” explained, with points to consider from the sysadmin’s point of view and then from the manager’s perspective.