A practical code of conduct for engineering teams focused on building respectful, productive, and inclusive work environments.
DigitalOcean's Engineering Code of Conduct is a set of social rules and guidelines designed to help engineering teams build respectful, productive, and inclusive work environments. It addresses common interpersonal pitfalls in technical workplaces, such as condescending corrections, microaggressions, and disruptive feedback, with the goal of fostering psychological safety and clear communication.
Engineering teams, managers, and tech organizations seeking to establish or improve their team culture, especially in distributed or collaborative environments where effective communication is critical.
It provides practical, actionable guidelines beyond generic conduct rules, focusing on real-world scenarios like code reviews and meeting etiquette, and emphasizes enforcement and collective responsibility to ensure it remains effective.
Code of Conduct for DigitalOcean's Engineering Team
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Specific guidelines like 'No feigning surprise' and 'No condescending well-actually’s' provide clear, real-world examples to prevent common interpersonal pitfalls in tech teams, directly from the README.
Focuses on creating a 'pleasant, productive, and fearless community' by addressing microaggressions and encouraging comfort with admitting gaps in knowledge, especially for underrepresented groups.
Offers practical advice for giving feedback that is actionable rather than critical, both in person and in code reviews, as detailed in the 'Giving and Receiving Feedback' section.
Includes mechanisms like immediate compliance expectations and a Code of Conduct Guild for resolution, ensuring it's more than a feel-good document, as stated in the 'Enactment' section.
The social rules are explicitly borrowed from the Recurse Center, which may reduce originality and require teams to adapt it heavily for their specific context, as noted in the footnotes.
Enforcement relies on a 'Code of Conduct Guild' and management chain, which might not exist or be effective in all organizations, especially smaller or less structured ones.
It focuses on social guidelines without deep ties to legal or HR policies, which could be a gap for teams needing formal disciplinary procedures or compliance frameworks.