Seating Arrangements
Recently, we had a team member leave our project to go follow his passion in mobile development. Before he left, I had a mini exit interview with him to get some feedback on some of the things the he would have done differently. One thing that he brought up, that never really crossed my mind, was the seating arrangements of the team.
Location, Location, Location
When he mentioned this to me I asked him to explain what he meant. To give you a bit of context, we had two new people join the team a few months before, whom were junior/early intermediate developers. I had asked him if he could assist me in getting them to grips with the code base and help answer any questions that they had.
He really done a great job and also gained confidence in himself when he saw that he was able to answer most of the questions posed to him. However, there is only one thing that he would have changed, which was the seating arrangement.
The reason he said this was that every time they asked him for assistance, he had to get up and walk to the person, find a chair to sit on and then assist them. This not only wasted some time, but became tedious. Ideally, what should have been done is that they should have sat next to each other. By doing this, if they needed assistance he could literally just look to his side and help them.
It's the Simple Things
As I mentioned previously, something like this never really crossed my mind until it was mentioned. It is something relatively easy to fix and should have been done earlier. I guess I was missing the woods for the trees and next time when someone new joins the team, it would be best to sit them next to the person who will be assisting them the most.
Until next time...keep learning.