Did a little XMas shopping this evening. We got run out of the office at 2:30 PM (those of us who were still there and working.) You normally don't have to tell me twice to make me gone, but today I did have something I needed to finish because it gated other developers. Companies do so much to instill motivation in employees (developers in particular I'm talking about) and yet nothing motivates me as much as the thought I might be letting my team down. That's the way to do it. The company as a whole is abstract, and even your individual contribution to the value of stock or stock options. What is more tangible and concrete is the look on the faces of the guys in your office or their tone of voice on the phone when they needed something from you and you couldn't or didn't deliver it.