Your Dev Team Doesn't Want Pizzas on Fridays for Motivation

29 May 2025 #misc

“The one who finishes all their tasks early can go home,” they told us.

It was at a past job, some time ago, in a galaxy far far away. That was their incentive to make us work harder. We were behind our deadlines and the local government’s. We were stuck in a rewrite within a rewrite.

But, surprise, surprise…

One guy finished all his tasks before the end of our 2-week sprint. I don’t know if he worked from home or padded all his estimations.

But they hesitated to give him the time off. We could tell by looking at our leader’s face when that guy handed in the time-off request form.

The next time the same guy finished earlier, they pulled more tasks from the backlog or ask him to join the on-call rotation. It was a carrot in front of the donkey.

Instead of building morale, they destroyed it and made all the trust evaporate.

Your development team doesn’t want free pizzas.

Oh, by the way, pizza was the next strategy after the “time off if you finish your task” strategy. Close to 100% sprint completion = free pizzas.

Instead of pizzas, give your team interesting work. Give them a challenge and share how that will impact the company. Give them room to figure out things on their own. And if they screw things up, don’t point fingers, let them fix things. Trust them. They’re human beings, not disposable resources. Motivation isn’t about perks. It’s about trust. Build that first.

And if nothing of that works, here’s how to demotivate them. Do the opposite.