Well, fairly speaking its not an idea that struck my mind. I was surfing through archive of one of the programmer’s blog, and found this post. According to that post,

It’s unbelievable to me that a company would pay a developer $60-$100k in salary, yet cripple him or her with terrible working conditions and crusty hand-me-down hardware. This makes no business sense whatsoever. And yet I see it all the time. It’s shocking how many companies still don’t provide software developers with the essential things they need to succeed.

So true. I personally calculated myself, the cost of increasing infrastructure quality (read, better system, and better facilities) can be recovered in just a month, provided that it efficiently increases one’s productivity by atleast 10%. And then, the fact that better infrastructure leads to better state of mind, which means better productivity again. Not just me or other developers think this way, but whole gaming industry is running according to these principles. And no one can deny the fact that it is the fastest growing sector in IT industry.  I know it sounds ridiculous according to the managerial concept that those HR guys learn in their IIM classes. But sometimes you just have to think outta box to make sure you are the leader.

Anyways, to adhere to this bill, is totally a matter of choice of the HR. We can just hope for the same. By the time, we should just make a list of what changes can seriously affect the productivity and hence should be included in this bill.

P.S. - Few of them are my own thoughts and few are from other developers all across the world.

So, here is the list.

• Every programmer shall have a bigger workspace :- Well, easily this is one thing that can radically change the time required to search for a pad or pencil, while you are busy discussing the issues with your clients. It happened to me a lot of times. Dropping the pad, while looking for a whiteboard marker is not something that’s rare.
• Every programmer shall have two monitors :- Although increasing the number of monitors, reduces the amount of free space available on your desk. But it really helps to open multiple windows at times, and thus can save the time used for switching to help window every now and then, and coming back to code window. Also, it helps decreasing the frustration of accidentally closing a window while minimizing it.
• Every programmer should have better PC :- Programmers deserve the rights to work on best in class hardware, as they are the persons using computers for half of their life. And other point is that no one loves to wait for a program to compile or for a application to load, looking at those silly progress bar or status bar.
• Every programmer should have comfortable chair :- I should say I personally prefers bean bag, but if chair is comfortable, that’s good enough. After all, we have to sit on that chair for too long, and I don’t think your brain will work, if you are feeling pain in your arse.
• Every programmer should get enough of coffee and snacks :- Every other day, a programmer works for more than usual time schedule. So, enough of coffee, and snacks can always help him keep going for hours. Oh yeah, if s/he is a smoker, providing enough of smokes can be a good option too.
• Every programmer should get better mouse and keyboard :- At work, I just like most of the programmers, use a sticky keyboard, and a scroll mouse, and I really feel this is an important point for consideration.
• Every programmer deserves his own space :- What if some one keep on nitpicking on your just-a-draft webpage, saying that it doesn’t look cool? No one likes it, right. So, does the programmer. But, sadly managers just don’t understand. They keep on asking you to tell them how much percentage of task you have done to complete the homepage structure of the website. It simply hurts.
• Every programmer should have fast Internet connection :- In case, you don’t have offline help, its very important. I can still remember those days, when I was stuck on some stupid syntax error, and googling for same, took 15 minutes of my time, thanks to that silly 54kbps connection I have got at my desk. Just by increasing the speed to 256kbps, this time could have reduced to 5 minutes. And if you consider the fact that you encounter same situation every hour, that accounts for 15% of your productivity.
• Every programmer should have rights to ask “Why?” :- How many times you have felt as a programmer that something you are working on is not properly justified? That the spacing between two textboxes can be decreased by 10% to make the page look better and to fit more information? I felt it almost every day when working on a enhancements project. And then, you have got no right to ask why you just can’t do it. Is it because, some stupid jerk called Business Analyst didn’t thought of it first. I know it sounds crazy. People who have got no idea about coding, defines the way we should code, and we can’t even argue on that.
• Every programmer should have access to all the documentation, books and Google :- Why does the managers think that being a programmer, you should know every thing about your programming language, and environment used? Why can’t I just use Google to look for an answer, when I am stuck?  And do you know about any manager who have crammed every single management principles,he learnt from the business school?
• Every programmer should be given full right to wear any outfit :- I am never able to understand how can one’s outfit affect his work. One reason is that I have to wear professional outfits for those daily meetings, I may attend. But then, if I am supposed to attend those meetings, why the hell we need those managers for?

So, here is the list of points what developers think, should be included in their rights. I would definitely love to hear about other points that you think, should be a part of this bill. Well, till that time, I am off to file a petition to the programmer’s union about this bill. Oops, i forgot, i don’t even know about any union as such. Do you??? Do you even care about your rights????

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