CTP Theorem for Happiness at Work

2020-02-09

Over the past couple years I've been trying to think of what makes me most happy at a given job. I think I've narrowed this down to a relatively easy to comprehend formula. I call it the CTP theorem. Just like the CAP theorem, in the ideal world we will have all three of the components all the time. When things go south though, we need to decide which are requirements, and which we are willing to sacrifice. If we have all three of C, T, and P in our work we will likely be extremely happy. If we have none of the three we will be extremely unhappy.

The three components of the CTP theorem are culture, technology, and pay.

Culture

Culture is impossible to quantify, but there are two things that I've found make up culture. These are the set of principles and values that the employee and company hold.

In grade school we would state some of the county's principles at the start of every day. These are noted in the pledge of allegience: 'and to the Republic for which it stands, one Nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.' This states the we must be one indivisible country (we have fought to keep it this way in the past), and that everyone receives liberty and justice.

Over time what we value changes. As we age people tend to become more conservative. Large cities tend to be more liberal thank rural areas. Having a child may cause an individual to begin to value spending time at home more than spending time at work.

The Boy Scouts also repeat twelve values that are instilled in each boy. 'A Scout is trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, obedient, cheerful, thrifty, brave, clean, and reverent.' The suggestion in the Scout Law is that if you do not value these twelve things, then you are not truly a Scout.

Those whose principles that do not align with their organization will find themselves mightily disliked. Misaligned values can be more subtle to identify, and may result in feeling like you are an outsider. If an employee's values do not change but a company's values do change the employee may feel left behind. Alternatively the employee may be reflecting on a Monday morning and wondering what happened to all of the friends they used to work with.

Misaligned principles and values may also result in employees being let go. This is really obvious if your company's leadership plays musical chairs. For example, say a new CEO takes over. The CEO lets much of the senior leadership go and brings in their own people. Their values didn't align!

Being in a leadership position (whether on paper or in spirit) allows you to influence how values change or stay the same. In this way you may find yourself looking forward to a brighter future at a company despite its current cultural problems.

Cultural fit is a tricky thing. Company and employee values can change drastically over time. This is why I am so surprised when people are able to stay working at the same company for 20+ years.

Technology

I'll likely not consider working at an organization that delivers desktop instant messenger software written in C# for Microsoft Windows. This point is relatively straightforward. Our preferences for technology change, and what we value in technology changes.

Pay

We've likely all been through a series of great interviews for a job that abruptly end after discussing compensation. At the end of the day one of the things that we need to consider is compensation. As with the previous two points, what we expect in compensation can change over time.

Putting it all together

Let's go through some example scenarios to see the theorem in action.

Pay discrepancy

You speak to a respected colleague who is working at a new company. They mention the interesting technology, and you find a role that you think you would enjoy. You apply. The technology sounds interesting, the team values mostly align with your values. You are very excited! Then the HR person says that they cannot match your current pay.

You are likely disappointed. You were close to getting a hat trick! You think about the technology and culture again. Maybe the technology wasn't exactly the stuff that you wanted to work on (C# chat bot?). Maybe you had some questions about the culture (too much management overhead, company is too large, etc.). These small discrepancies in addition to the pay discrepancy make you refuse the offer.

Changing culture

You join a new company. Things are quite good for the first year you are there. You enjoy working at a small company with no strictly defined management. You and the company both value employee autonomy, finding the root cause of problems, and truly understanding how a system works.

After a while the owners decide that things aren't moving fast enough and the customer is not pleased with the software that the company provides. Pressure is put on the company leaders to change their principles and values. Eventually the company leaders leave and the owners bring in people whose values align with the owners. You remain and find that you are not adjusting well to the change in values and principles. This causes you to be generally unhappy and feel out of place.

Although you would like to leave the company and find somewhere that has values that align with yours you find that the pay is good, there are decent advancement opportunities due to the departures, and the technology is still very interesting. But what if the technology is no longer interesting or unpopular architecture decisions are made? What if your attempts at taking on more organizational responsiblity are foiled (due to a value misalignment, likely) and you are not able to positively (in your mind) influence the company's future values?

Conclusion

As you can see, this isn't just a simple yes/yes/no situation. Ideally you work somewhere where all components of the CTP theorem apply. In my experience I find a job where the CTP theorem initially applies, but due to changing culture (values / principles), technology, and pay I eventually decide to leave. The trick is finding the point at which the discrepancies in the CTP components push you over the edge.

Hopefully this was helpful and drove you to reflect on your happiness at work. Thanks to Ashwin and Isaac for the inspiration and reflection time.

2022 edit

I recently read the book "Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us" by Daniel Pink. Pink proposes the AMP triad, which is a much more thoughtful analysis than what I put together in early 2020. Pink's observation and analysis is much better than my own. I recommend you read it! Pink's observations resonated strongly with me, and they will resonate with you too!