Is it okay to…? Yes! It’s okay to…
We really like an idea that the team at Government Digital Service (GDS) wrote about last year in a blogpost: It’s ok to say what’s ok. 🙌
Maybe we just need to say what’s ok. To be explicit about the things that those of us who have been here a few years take for granted. So our team wrote a list of things it’s ok to do at GDS.
Inspired by this most excellent idea and their list — we wrote our own.
It’s okay to…
- say “I don’t understand”
- never have heard about something
- ask questions all the time
- question everything
- ask for advice and feedback
- depend on your team
- not ask permission
- wear shorts to the office
- or a hoodie, skirt, shirt or sari
- put people before code
- eat all the bananas when the fruit arrives
- have no idea what you’re doing and try anyway
- get lost down rabbit holes
- use work hours to read and learn
- experiment
- give up and try again later (or not)
- work from home
- disagree and say so (publicly or privately)
- make glorious mistakes
- learn from those mistakes
- share what your learn
- skip meetings
- talk out loud about ideas and problems
- ask people to lower their voices
- or to move the discussion out from the landscape
- need a break
- be upset and ask for support
- care more about co-workers than corporations
- challenge code, ideas and culture
- change your mind
- think out loud
- not read everything on slack
- have your lunch break in the canteen
- start lunch train slackbots
- never take the stairs 1
- prefer to enjoy lunch in solitude
- share your ideas (out loud! or in writing!)
- say no if you are busy
- log off slack and email
- put headphones on to focus
- hide away in a quiet room
- not work at all when you are sick
- wait till next week
- deploy tomorrow instead
- bring sweets or cake to the office
- Except if there is a fire alarm, then please absolutely use the stairs. ↩