Create Passion in your Boring Dayjob
November 14th, 2008[ Office Gossip ]
First a quick thanks for Jevon, David, Jonas, and all the people who made StartupEmpire a great event. As always, it’s great to hang out with the Canadian startup crowd. There were some familiar faces yesterday and lot’s of new ones.
Rob Hyndman spoke at the event yesterday about intellectual property(IP), NDA’s etc. Basically, what protections must a company have in place to ensure they own their creations. Employee signs document stating everything the create on the job, or possibly otherwise, belongs to the company.
Both employees and companies have valid issues. In order for a company to grow, or simply survive, it must maintain ownership of it’s IP. Individuals with side projects have the same issue and don’t want their dayjob making claims against their IP. Sounds like an ugly situation all around right?
Well Rob beat me to the punch in touching on the opportunity in all of this. If you run a team, there’s a chance some, or all, of your team members are actively working on side projects. Instead of fighting it, embrace it. I’ve always said that the brilliance of programs like google’s 20% projects isn’t in creating time for employees to work on side projects at work. It has nothing to do with that and company’s that fail to implement similar programs for that reason are…..simple. The brilliance is in giving employees permission to talk about the side projects they’re already working on but they don’t feel they can discuss during the workday.
Choosing to spend off hours, without pay, working on a pet project is about satisfying something in you that your day job fails to do. You don’t get paid enough, you can’t be creative, you don’t get to lead people, can’t work on a specific technology, it could be anything. When you talk with someone about their side project, they light up. They’re passionate, they’re excited.
The challenge, and as Rob alluded to, it’s not a legal one? If you have a team, assume everyone has side projects and work your ass off to understand why they’re doing that. Then work with them to find a way they can satisfy that within your team. This isn’t about stopping their side project or stealing their ideas. It’s about dragging that passion and excitement into their boring old dayjobs. Most side projects are symptoms of crappy companies that don’t allow their people to find their passion.
If you work on a team and have a side project, or have contemplated one, then you aren’t off the hook either. I challenge you to drag that into your boring old job. Don’t bitch and moan and wait for the day your boss becomes enlightened. Maybe you pull in the actual project and it’s IP but again that’s not the point. Think hard about why it is you feel the need to work on that side project. What does it give you that your job doesn’t? Why do you light up when you work on it? Now take all that, go into work on Monday and find a way to get paid to do it. What do you have to lose? Sit down with your team lead and pitch a new program or just explain your side project and what that provides you. Tell them how excited and passionate you are about it and that you want to bring that level of energy to your dayjob daily but you need their help. I’ve done this a few times myself and I guarantee you, regardless of the outcome, you will learn a lot. Be prepared that you may learn you’re working at the wrong company or have the wrong team lead but that’s a great thing to learn. You may get lucky and learn that your company only wants the exact same thing and is willing to work with you to achieve that.
Not to trivialize real relationships like marriage but you have a relationship with you company. The only way to make any relationship work is if both parties are fully committed to it. So commit to your company and don’t take no for an answer. Use your job as a way to get passionate and excited while getting paid! Don’t wait for it to come to you. What are you going to lose? Hey, you can always quit tomorrow.