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I'm not sure about that 45 degree guy, but for turning your cube so that you face out, that's sort of natural. For some people (me...) sitting with your back to a door or an area where people are generally walking is really uncomfortable. I don't like having people behind me without knowing they're there. It's not about slacking, it's just about comfort.

I think it's a natural instinct even.

To protect against marauders ;)

Not necessarily. All it requires is that people simply don't like being startled, nothing more is required than that.

I think he was making a reference to a certain Big Bang Theory character..

Bazinga!

Agreed -- I'm the same way.

I can't speak for all the deaf people out there, but personally, I find it uncomfortable to leave my hearing aid in all day, which means I'll often remove it if I'm just working at my desk, and won't hear someone come up behind me.

My last job had an environment where everyone had their backs to the entrance of their cube and I would constantly be startled by people walking up behind me without me hearing or seeing that they were there. It's very unpleasant and actually started making me a little neurotic. It didn't help that the floor in that office was kind of shaky, so you'd also feel it whenever someone walked by.

My current job still has cubes, but the desks aren't attached to the cube walls (we mostly use IKEA Galants) and pretty much everyone has their cube set up so they face out. It's a much more pleasant environment to work in, and since we work in a converted factory it means I look up to a fantastic view of downtown Akron through a bank of windows. I'm much less neurotic now (at least about this... ;)) and all the natural light has actually done a lot to help my sleeping patterns, too.

It's also a marker of personal respect and status. If you walk into someone's office, like a lawyer or a doctor or a professor, do you sneak up behind them? No. They're facing the door. The desk is between you and them. Behind them are bookshelves or a panoramic view of the local freeway or diplomas framed and mounted on the wall, and you're face to face. Even receptionists get this courtesy. It's comparatively kind of degrading to work in an environment where as soon as someone enters your workspace they're looking over your shoulder.

A desire for privacy need not have a devious root.

When I am working on a nascent idea, I am often fanatical about privacy. I absolutely do not want my most trusted friends or colleagues to so much as look at what I am doing. Not because I am doing poor work or because they might disapprove. Rather, the mere knowledge that my work is being consumed puts me in the mode of communicating rather than creating. I begin naturally thinking in terms of clarifying and explaining and consolidating, whereas when a work is mine alone, I can freely explore and leave a mess. The effect is disasterous for poorly-formed ideas. I absolutely must explore until I understand the natural form of what I am trying to create. If I think about accomodating the eyes of others too soon, I will be hampered in my explorations and may not do my best work.

Yes and no.

No because you're clearly concerned about it so there is hope (Dick managers generally either don't care how they are or actively see it as a good thing), but yes because you seem not to trust them (you admit to wanting to know what they're doing).

The nature of trust is not trusting them to get on with their work eight hours a day to a format you think appropriate, it's trusting them to deliver what's been asked on time and to know how they want to work to achieve that.

You need to accept that there isn't a universal working pattern for programmers. Some are in at 8am, work diligently all day then head off. Others slope in late, are inefficient for large parts of the day but pull it out of the hat when it matters.

There is little point in asking programmer B why he can't work steadily like programmer A because quite simply he can't, that's not how his mind works. It may be that the inefficient time is how he mulls over the problem, it may be that he needs the rush of the approaching deadline, it maybe something else entirely, but these things are rarely as simple as Person X does this so it will work for Person Y.

Think of a programmer as a black box. You define inputs and outputs, they define what goes on inside the box. Your job is to give them the best inputs you can, monitor the outputs and generally leave the rest alone.

In terms of your current style a few questions you might want to ask yourself:

* What is it that means that you want to see what they're doing all the time?

* Why do they want to hide their monitors from you?

* What would you do if you saw them doing something completely non-work related?

* Have they done anything in the past which suggests that they're not committed to the project?

* How does your boss treat you and how do you feel about it?

I suspect the answers might help you identify any Dick traits you might have.

P.S. In terms of the guy craning - yes, you need to address that as you're likely liable for his working environment. But explain that to him and say he can have his cube how he likes so long as it's basically safe.

I think it bothers me because they're probably the two least productive employees we have. I want to address this issue - the first step to me seems to be "well, what do they do all day?"

How you deal with those two employees will impact the rest of your team.

Do you want the rest of your team to learn that it's important to be productive? Or would you rather teach them that it's most important to be seen to be working straight through for eight hours?

Again, we're okay with facebook/gchat/whatever. The rest of our employees are not engaged 100% of the time, and we're okay with that. This is not about spying on them, or making sure they have their nose to the grindstone for 8 straight hours. We have flexible hours, allow telecommuting, etc.

From my perspective, it's a cultural thing - we have tried to foster a two-way culture of openness and communication. We have 70 employees - 68 of which are okay with our environment of trust. What makes those two think they're special?

> What makes those two think they're special?

Are they ex-military and therefore trained to react violently when people sneak up behind them? ;)

EDIT: My ex-CEO tells a story of a former employee and Vietnam vet who warned him not to surprise him as his fighting reflexes might kick in, so it apparently can happen in real life.

It happens with victims of assault also. Some people really, really need their back to the wall and places that don't allow that affect their productivity / comfort level.

A fair enough question but can I suggest that you're less passive about it and speak to them?

I've had incidents in my team where there are people I thought weren't productive who were genuinely engaged in a million minor support tasks I never knew about.

But in any case, talking to them like adults rather than spying on them is the way forward.

The issue isn't how they configure their workspace, it's their productivity. Assess their productivity from a black box perspective, don't even think about how their desks are arranged, that's not the issue, it's not even an issue.

> "Am I a "Dick" manager for wanting to know what they're up to whenever I walk through the room?"

For wanting to know? Whenever you walk through the room? Yeah, you might be a Dick.

The only business reason to want to know "what they're up to" is if work isn't getting done. And if work isn't getting done, "what they're up to" is irrelevant.

>And if work isn't getting done, "what they're up to" is irrelevant.

wtf

In the past, I've been working with a manager who shared, more or less, your style. The work environment was less formal, with no cubicles but desks which appeared crammed, but were similarly placed to allow the manager to snoop around with zero effort. Comfortable, but privacy was a no-no.

I felt violated, for lack of a better word, in that environment. The reason was twofold. First, nobody can judge how productively I spend my time on my desk by what I was doing the moment they glanced at my screen. Making such claims is hypocritical, and taking work decisions about me on such claims is unfair. Secondly, not being allowed at least a little bit of privacy from any and all prying eyes communicates lack of trust from my manager's side.

I'm not sure whether I'd call it "bad management" because it might be working for you and your teammates, but it's not working for me.

I've noticed that the more a manager behaves like that, the less likely it is that their own space is set up to put their back to the door.

I don't think anybody with a desk places it with their back to the wall. Lawyers, doctors, teachers, professors, secretaries...but developers are more equal.

First of all, are you sure they did it so no one can see their screen? I've moved my desk around because, when I glance up, I like to see people rather than grey cubicle wall. Also, it seems more friendly and inviting to arrange my desk so that I'm facing people walking by, rather than showing them my back.

If it is mostly about the screen, it seems these employees don't trust you. Having them expose their screen to anyone walking by isn't going to increase trust.

Without knowing anything else about your situation, I'd suggest reading up about the "personal safety" parts of Crystal:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crystal_Clear_%28software_devel...

And Rands had a good post about 1 on 1s recently:

http://www.randsinrepose.com/archives/2010/09/22/the_update_...

Most people want to do a good job. You don't get very far programming if you don't like building things. If they aren't producing, this is a problem for you to debug. Are the unmotivated? Do they think the work is boring? Do they feel that they worked hard last quarter and weren't recognized for it? Do they think the project is likely to be canceled so what's the point of working on it? Have they been using Haskell at home and writing C++ seems like a make-work project for programmers?

Turning their screen away is a symptom. What's the underlying cause?

I really hate people walking behind me when I'm trying to work. The feeling that someone might be behind me prevents me from fully concentrating on what I'm working on.

A previous boss liked to stand behind me and watch (and occasionally make inane suggestions) when I was trying to fix a particularly high-profile issue. It negatively impacted both the speed and quality of my work.

I can understand why they did it. I've always been uncomfortable with other people (any people, even in a coffee shop) being able to see my monitor without me noticing and I can't really give a reason why. But, for example, I also hate sitting with my back to a door...

So, I don't think they've changed their setup only because they want to slack off or pull a fast one over you. It might just be a small neurotic habit on their side... As long as they do the work and are reliable, you shouldn't care about that...

As a manager, is your cubicle set so that your monitor is visible to everyone who walks by? Or is this simply policy for your subordinates?

no, everyone can see my monitor as they walk by. Pretty much everyone except for our CEO (confidential info, etc.) has their monitor visible as you walk by.

In my old company I said that people can use their computers for personal stuff too, as long as it was legal and wouldn't compromise the company in any way. I was fine with that. If people are spending 10-16 hours per day in the office, get your bills done, send email to your spouse, watch your nanny cam, look up what those little bumps might be caused by, or whatever. Just get your work done too.

I always made it a policy that whenever I stepped behind someones desk that I asked first. You'd be surprised how far respect goes amongst professionals.

It's actually really annoying when someone can just walk up behind you and see what you're doing and interrupt. It's probably MORE annoying when this happens when you are trying to do work, vs. farmville or whatever you suspect they are doing.

Most people given the choice do not want to look at a wall or the person across the pod from them. They either want to be able to look out a window, or into an open room.