Reading Peopleware from deMarco and Lister was funny. I mean, they point out a lot of hilarious and strange stuff I encounter on a daily basis.
For one thing – and currently the most painful for me -, the question of work environment. It is a strange thing that at most of the software companies I visited or worked at, the so called “IT” – the guys responsible for wires, hardware, maintaining server, and generally running around the building – always has a quiet office. The sales guys, who spend most of their time in meetings or driving to and from a client, they also have a quiet, nice office.
And the developers, who spend their whole day with thinking, and writing code, are dumped in a hall, all thirty of them, with constantly ringing phones and people running arround, talking loud, in other words a noisy, disrupting environment which makes thinking for five minutes impossible.
Hence, all the meaningful work is done after 5 pm, when most of the people went home, and the phones do not ring.
I want a door.