What makes the Messaging team run? FOOD

Or more accurately, a free lunch.  Very often we go through periods of intense bug fixing, trying to generate a large number of fixes to our code in a short amount of time.  When this happens, I like to try to motivate my team to work extra hard, and what seems to work is taking them out to lunch or dinner if we make our goals (we've tried other stuff, like movie tickets, lottery tickets, etc. -- with the lottery tickets, you could also take 90 cents instead, if you didn't like gambling).

The last time we did a lot of lunches, I was paying out of my own pocket for lunch almost every week.  This would run well past $100 per week, but it was worth it, as typically us making our goal and enjoying lunch would also mean that we wouldn't have to work that weekend.  We'd go to places like Cheesecake Factory and there was no limit on the entree or the drinks or whatever.

The other Messaging team lead (I do UI, he does "transports," but in reality the distinction is not that black and white), decided to get in on the act and offer a free dinner one night.  The team decided to go to KFC because they had a coupon, and they just drank water.  He got out of there for under 15 bucks.

After that, I started expensing our lunches.

[Author: Dave Stewart]