The Synodalsoft Worker Guide¶

This document collects general advice for those who work in our team.

About this document ¶

(1) This document gives advice, it is not legally binding.

(2) When you find something in this document that seems wrong or dubious, please share your observation with others and suggest a fix. You can click on the Source code link in the footer of this document and start editing.

(3) This document uses gender-transparent grammar. The sexual identity or orientation of a person does not matter for our work unless explicitly specified.

About our team ¶

(4) We are a decentralized asynchronous home office team. There is no headquarter. There are no fixed office hours. There is no timetable. We work remotely (each of us from their home) and asynchronously (each of us at their preferred time).

(5) Our team consists of (paid) workers and of volunteers. Both are also called contributors.

The purpose of our work ¶

(6) The purpose of our work is to increase the quality of the source code owned by Synodalsoft.

(7) source code includes documentation files. Writing and maintaining documentation is as important as writing program code.

(8) Every code change counts, even the smallest one. Every idea, even the greatest one, is useless as long as it did not cause any change in a code repository.

Work contracts ¶

(9) A work contract is a written and legally binding agreement between a worker and an employer.

(10) Parameters of a work contract include

The worker works at least XXX hours per week.
The worker responds within at most 24 hours to every ticket assigned to him.
Responsibilities and duties

(11) The worker works because he wants to contribute to the project, not because he needs money.

(12) The employer pays to the worker a fixed monthly salary because every human needs money for living.

(13) If the worker or the employer thinks that the salary is not just (either too high or too low), then he starts a dialog about this topic, suggesting a new number.

(14) In emergency situations the worker does his best to be available as needed.

Salary ¶

(15) Of course developers are humans who need money for living. We believe that writing good software is an art, and that software developers should work and get paid like artists.

(16) Because we work exclusively with Free Software, we expect our workers to contribute mainly because they want to do something useful, not mainly because they need money.

(17) We pay our workers with a monthly fixed salary and in long-term relationships. We expect our workers to be motivated, inspired, to love their job. Of course they also need the patience to share their ideas and skills in our remote and asynchronous team. You decide yourself how many hours you work for Lino. Your working time and availability can vary in function of your environment. If we decide to pay you a salary, you will usually get it in advance, at the beginning of the month. If you want to change the salary, you simply make a request and we discuss about it.

(18) Regarding the amount of your salary we will find an agreement that satisfies both sides.

(19) All workers work principally full-time. Your salary should be high enough for you to live a honest life because we do not want you to waste your energy and time in activities you merely do for getting more income.

(20) Your salary does not depend on the number of hours you registered in our time tracking system but on (a) the estimated value of your skills for our team, (b) the available money and (c) your needs. These numbers get evaluated long-term.

Working time ¶

(21) When you work for Synodalsoft, then you should register your working time in Jane.

(22) When you register your working times, then do it rigorously and correctly. If you are not online when working, then take care of registering them as soon as you get online again.

(23) If you are tired, worried about other things, needed by other people, etc… don’t feel obliged to sit in front of your computer pretending that you are working.

(24) Inspiration is not predictable. If you have an idea that fascinates you, then work on it. When you work on it, create a ticket in Jane to share your idea with the team.

(25) Do not sit behind your computer more time than is good for your health.

Reporting ¶

(26) Reporting about what you did is more important than the result of your work. If you fail to explain why you did something, the result of your work is in danger of getting lost because somebody else undoes it.

(27) Don’t be afraid of doing useless work. The only useless work is work you don’t share with others. If you worked a whole day on a series of code changes and then realize that « this is bullshit » and decide to throw them away: don’t be ashamed. That’s life. Formulate your initial idea and how you discovered that you were wrong, share your experience with those who might read your story in some far future.

(28) Get the habit of reporting what you did today before stopping your session. Stop working 15 minutes earlier than needed and write down what you did. Keep in mind that tomorrow you maybe get some urgent task to do, which takes a week, and after that week you will have difficulties to remember what you did today.

(29) If a question or idea is too complex to get described in a comment, then write a comment with a few keywords so that at least you get reminded about what you want to say.

Priorities ¶

(30) The priority of a ticket is meant to help you decide which ticket you should work on at a given moment. Your Tickets to work list is sorted by decreasing priority.

(31) How to read the priority: See priority.

(32) The priority is a trade-off between importance and urgence, and the differentiation between these two can be complex (« I have two kinds of problems: the urgent and the important. The urgent are not important, and the important are never urgent. » – Dwight D. Eisenhower)

(33) The priority is supposed to be set by your team leader. As a worker you shouldn’t modify it, but you can suggest to change it (and should do so if needed).

(34) A ticket becomes really urgent if the customer checks the urgent checkbox, which means for them that they have to pay more.

Our goals ¶

(35) Our common mission is to help other people with using Lino.

(36) We maintain Lino and adapt it to changes in underlying technologies

(37) We share the result of our work because we consider it a contribution to the public common.

Working calmly ¶

(38) In our team we don’t only work remotely and asynchronously, but also calmly.

(39) Working calmly doesn’t mean you are lazy. It’s actually the opposite. A lazy worker gets active only when there is no other choice left. They believe that they are more efficient when they wait until the last minute because then they get the same work done in less time. Which is a false truth because it’s not the same work. A work done hastily, in « panic mode », because the deadline was « yesterday », is of poorer quality than a work done calmly. A lazy worker does only the visible part of the work, the one for which they can expect quick reward. But work is like an iceberg: the bigger part is hidden. A lazy worker avoids that part and hence leaves the most important work undone.

(40) Sometimes we get into an emergency and need to act quickly. But such situations are actually fun because they are an exception. When you are mostly living a calm life, then you are able to enjoy periods of excitement.

(41) When working calmly there is a series of challenges you should be aware of. For example the temptation to waste your energy in useless activities. Addictive habits are the enemy of calm work. When you are tired, then sleep – don’t watch movies instead.

(42) You have your to-do list. When you get stuck with some ticket, a day of garden work or house building can help you to do a system reset for your brain. But make sure to evaluate the situation after the break: Am I still stuck? If yes, how can I explain my problem to a teammate? A ticket marked as « working » should not stay without comment for more than 24 hours.

(43) The difference between a deserved break and useless activity is floating but fundamental. You are the only person in the world who can tell them apart. So don’t wait for your boss to kick your ass. You are responsible for how you use the 24 hours that are given to you every day.

Life versus work ¶

(44) Life is more important than work. But work brings meaning to your life, it gives you the feeling of doing something that is useful for others.

(45) Motivation is not always available upon request. But getting things done is fun. If you feel overwhelmed: get some small ticket done.

(46) Always do your best. Neither more nor less.