So the team I work on has this giant blue alien doll, the "build break" doll. You break the production build, you get the doll until someone else breaks it. I was wondering if some of the other devs have some fun things they do with their team. ^-^

I have two rules...

1. There will be NO, and I repeat, NO humiliation on my team whatsoever. This is not high school/college/university.
2. If there is any form of this BS because some developer/PM/boss (read wanker) says so, I will not partake in it, in any way, shape or form... NO matter how much fun it may seem to be!

Whoever breaks the build has to buy donuts!
... Yes we are much fatter now on our 12th release ^_<

@rogue63 I have an issue with buying food for others too!

At the previous company I worked for, if we got a 100% of the points in the sprint done, we would get lunch on the company's account.

Again, I have an issue with this. Firstly, I need to eat, regardless of whether or not the company buys me food or whether I pay for it with my salary, which is also used to be company's money. And secondly, it's almost like saying to a doctor, "Thanks for not killing anyone for the past two weeks. Here's a biscuit!"

@GinjaNinja Well you're just a barrel of laughs aren't you?!?! :-P

Only kidding! In a previous job we referred to "forced merriment" and everybody hated it. It has to be cultural and universal. Everybody has to buy in or it's just painful.

I also think some geographies are much more sceptical of this sort of thing than others. Just let me do my job. I may screw up now and again but I don't need a big shining beacon for everyone to know about it!

@GinjaNinja surely you must eat but why not do it with a sense of achievement (and also for free!). Your team has accomplished what you committed to - isn't that something to celebrate and be happy about if it's the culture of the company? I don't see how you can have a problem with that.

We have a lawn gnome. When you break the build we say, "You get the gnome!" and we also have vigorous debates about what is a "gnomable" offense.

@simeg We had a guy at the previous company who was so obsessed with the "free lunch" at the end of a completed sprint, he would race through his tasks to get them to "Done".

Now, I saw his code... it was certainly nothing to be desired. In fact, some of it was an absolute mess. But management was happy because "he got stuff done". Yeah, he got stuff done by making a fucking mess!

There should be NO reward for that, whatsoever!

Don't get me wrong, I'm all for acknowledgement of good work. But, I'm not a dog, so free pizza is not a reward. If we as developers are going to be professionals and taken seriously, then we need to start acting like it!

@mclark1129 Sounds like the gnome is the perfect shape to shove it where the sun don't shine!

And the endless trivial bullshit debate about "what is gnome-worthy" is a complete and utter waste of time, and a poor reflection of your team's professionalism!