One of the biggest problems for software developers is finding the proper motivations to sit behind the screen for 8 hours per day, designing and developing new code, new projects. It’s generally boring work that requires a lot of mental efforts. And the rewards tend to be just more of the same work the next day, and the day afterwards. Creating new code or fixing existing code is like working in a factory in an assembly line, just placing a lid on a pot which someone else will close, over and over and over.

But developing code is a mental job, unlike adding lids to pots. During physical jobs, your mind can wander around to what you’re going to do in the weekend, what’s on television or whatever else you have on your mind. A mental job makes that very difficult since you can’t think about your last holiday while also thinking about how to solve this bug. And thus developers have a much more complex job than those at the assembly line. A job that causes a lot of mental fatigue. (And sitting so long behind a screen is also a physical challenge.)

Three things will generally motivate people. Three basic things, actually, that humans have in common with most animals. We all like a good night of sleep, we all like to eat good food and we’re all more or less interested in sex. Three things that will apply for almost anyone. Three things that an employer might help with.

First of all, the sleep. Developers can be very busy both at home and at work with their jobs. Many of them have a personal interest in their own job and can spend many hours at home learning, playing or even doing some personal work at their own computers. Thus, a developer might start at 8:30 and work until 17:00. The trip home, dinner and meet and greet with the family will take some time but around 19:30 the developer will be back online on Facebook and other social media, play some online games or study new things. This might go on until well past midnight before they go to bed. Some 6 hours of sleep afterwards, they get up again, have breakfast, read the morning paper and go back to work again.

But a job that is mentally challenging will require more than 6 hours of sleep per day. So you might want to tell your employees to take well care of themselves if you notice they’re up past midnight. You need them well-rested else they’re less productive. Even though those developers might do a great job, they could improve even more if they take those eight hours of sleep every day. And as an employer you can help by allowing employees to visit social sites during work hours since it will help them relax. It lowers the need to check those sites while they’re at home. The distraction of e.g. Facebook might actually even improve their mental skills because it relaxes the mind.

The second motivation is food. Employers should consider providing free lunches to their employees. Preferably sharing meals all together in a meeting room or even a dinner room. Have someone do groceries at the local supermarket to get bread, spread, cheese, butter, milk, soda’s and other drinks and other snacks. While it might seem a waste of the money spent on those groceries, the shared meal will increase moral, allow employees to have all kinds of discussions with one another and increases the team building. It also makes sure everyone will have lunch at the same moment, so they will all be back at work at the same time again.

Developers tend to have lunch between 11:30 and 14:00 and if they have to get their own lunch, it’s not unlikely for them to just go out to the local supermarket themselves or to bring lunch from home. When they go shopping for lunch, they would be unavailable during that time. Of course, lunch time is their own time, but if you need them you don’t want to wait until they’re back from the supermarket. And another problem is that those employees will start storing food at work in their desk or wherever else they can store it. This could attract mice, and I don’t mean computer mice but those live, walking and eating animals.

If an employer provides the lunch and other snacks, this also means there’s a generic storage for food products. This storage is easier to keep up than the desks of developers. Besides, those developers now know their food requirements are satisfied during work hours thus they feel more comfortable.

The third motivation is sex. And here, employers have to be extra careful because this is a very sensitive subject. For example, a developer might spend some time on dating websites or even porn sites. Like social websites, a small distraction often helps during mental processes but a social website might take two minutes to read a post and then respond. A dating website will take way more time to process the profiles of possible dating partners. A porn site will also be distracting for too long and might put the developer in a wrong mood.

The situation at home might also be problematic. An employee might be dealing with a divorce which will impact their sex lives. It also puts them back into the world of dating and thus interfere in their nightlife a bit more. This is a time when they will be less productive, simply because they have too much of their personal lives on their minds. And not much can be done to help them because they need to find a way to stabilize their personal lives again. Do consider sending the employee to a proper counselor for help, though.

Single developers might be a good option, though. They are already dealing with a life of being single and thus will be less distracted by their dates. Still, if they’re young, their status of being single might change and when that happens, it can have impact on their jobs. But the impact might be even an improvement because their partner might actually force them to go to bed sooner, thus fulfilling the sleep motivation.

Married developers who also have children might be the best option since their family lives will require them to live a very regular life. The care for their children will force this regularity. But the well-being of those children might cause the occasional distractions too. For example, when a child gets sick, the developer needs someone to care for the child at home. And they might want to work at home a few days a week to take care of their children.

As an employer, you can’t deal with the sex lives of your employees at work. Those things are private. However, it can be helpful for employees if they can spend more time at home, in a private area, if they have certain needs in this regard. Allowing them to work at home would give them some more options. Since they don’t need to travel to work, they have more time available. If they decide to visit a dating site for half an hour, they could just work half an hour longer and no one would even know about it. If their child is sick, they can take care of them and still work too.

In conclusion, make sure your employees sleep well, give them free lunches and other snacks at the workplace and allow them to work at home for their personal needs. This all will help to make them more productive and allow them to improve themselves.