I’m doing some contracting work at a local firm, and one of the little details that I have been pleased with is the fact that they seem to do introductions for people. On my first day, I was taken around and introduced to everyone, despite the fact that I probably won’t be there long term (depending on where we go and when). Today, they were showing around a guy who will be doing a sort of student internship there, and once again, they stopped by my office.

I appreciate that a lot, and think that it’s a good thing for a group of people to at least have a bit of an idea who newcomers are. One of the things that I have always loathed, and vowed to do differently should DedaSys ever be more than myself, is feeling like an animal in a zoo when The Boss brought someone into the office to take them on a tour, pointing at us developers and talking about what we do, with no reciprocity. “This is Dave, one of our open source guys, who is really into Linux. He once roamed the temperate forests of Oregon and his mating season is from early January to late December.” We get pointed at and talked about, and the other person remains a Mysterious Stranger. Granted, it’s not always possible to disclose everything, but I think that you can still do a lot to make people feel respected without spilling the beans on a big potential customer or investment.