If you're an active reader here, try to think about how many times you've heard (and even agreed) when someone here has told someone else to start looking for a new job. Personally, I've seen it a lot more than I expected: it's almost starting to sound cliche.

I get that there are bound to be a number of companies that are bad at developing software or managing a software project, but it almost seems like it's getting worse and more frequent, maybe we're just hearing from them and not all of the places that have decent work atmospheres/conditions.

So I ask:

In your experience, and through your developer friends do you find that it is common that companies have bad development environments and if so:

• Why do you think it's common?
• What do you think could be done to fix it as a developer, as a manager, as an industry?
• Do you think it's improving?