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> "Unfortunately Rick rejected months of overtures by leadership. He refused to take time off or allow any work to be delegated. He also repeatedly rejected att

by imron 9y ago

> "Unfortunately Rick rejected months of overtures by leadership. He refused to take time off or allow any work to be delegated. He also repeatedly rejected attempts to introduce free open source frameworks to replace hard-to-maintain bespoke tools. Including the security framework as you mentioned." How late in the game was this though? It should have been really clear cut: Rick: I'm going to take on this extra work Manager: Have you finished all your existing work? Rick: No Manager: Then No. Rick: But.. Manager: No. A good manager would have nipped this in the bud before it started. People complain that Rick was snappy - you would be too if you'd been working 12 hours a day 7 days a week for a year or two and the weight of the entire product was on your shoulders and getting heavier by the day - also something a good manager should have nipped in the bud.

zimpenfish 9y ago
> A good manager would have nipped this in the bud before it started. The problem here is that "good managers" are incredibly thin on the ground and even then, this situation can arise due to circumstances beyond their control (consider a politically well-connected developer, for example.)
- ergothus 9y ago
  > "good managers" are incredibly thin on the ground True, but that should be a problem to solve, not an excuse (for the industry at large). Are companies providing leadership training? Are they trying to find out if a managerial candidate is actually "good" (by whatever definition they choose)? Are they evaluating the existing managers and trying to prevent problems before they start? Are they treating their managers as resources to be invested in or scapegoats? There is a bit of chicken/egg there (they need to be good managers of their managers), but overall you can't expect to get what you aren't trying to get. If the incentives are to work on big projects to pad your resume and point fingers when they fail, you have an incentive to CREATE big projects, and an incentive to treat coders et al as someone to start building a blame narrative for in case it is useful. I've had great managers and terrible ones. The great ones maintained a long view (don't overcommit, understand tech debt, know people are human) and would fight for you, whether that meant talking with upper management or having a hard talk with you. The terrible ones assumed their job was to assign work and chide are threaten as needed. The great ones would ask for details to understand, and only occasionally raise concerns. When they did, they brought their concerns to me first, to ask what I thought should be done. The terrible managers would also ask for details, but it was to micromanage. The great managers appreciated all their staff, even the troublesome ones, and viewed their job as finding the best point of mutual happiness between that employee and the company. The terrible ones mentally (or more) divided people up into "poor", "acceptable", and "great", and then showed favoritism to the greats and disdained the floors. One constant for both, however, was that the managers that thrived at any given company were decided by the incentives the company provided, be they financial, cultural, or social.
- imron 9y ago
  > The problem here is that "good managers" are incredibly thin on the ground The problem in this case was really caused by a bad manager though - who ended up being fired. That didn't make it in to the original story and was only noted by the author in the comments. Where was the exposé on the mistakes made by management, which seem to be equally egregious? I mean you don't even have to be an exceptional manager to prevent this sort of problem, just a competent one.
  - zimpenfish 9y ago
    Even competent managers can be comprehensively stymied by a politically connected and savvy developer.

by imron 9y ago

zimpenfish 9y ago

> A good manager would have nipped this in the bud before it started. The problem here is that "good managers" are incredibly thin on the ground and even then, this situation can arise due to circumstances beyond their control (consider a politically well-connected developer, for example.)

ergothus 9y ago
> "good managers" are incredibly thin on the ground True, but that should be a problem to solve, not an excuse (for the industry at large). Are companies providing leadership training? Are they trying to find out if a managerial candidate is actually "good" (by whatever definition they choose)? Are they evaluating the existing managers and trying to prevent problems before they start? Are they treating their managers as resources to be invested in or scapegoats? There is a bit of chicken/egg there (they need to be good managers of their managers), but overall you can't expect to get what you aren't trying to get. If the incentives are to work on big projects to pad your resume and point fingers when they fail, you have an incentive to CREATE big projects, and an incentive to treat coders et al as someone to start building a blame narrative for in case it is useful. I've had great managers and terrible ones. The great ones maintained a long view (don't overcommit, understand tech debt, know people are human) and would fight for you, whether that meant talking with upper management or having a hard talk with you. The terrible ones assumed their job was to assign work and chide are threaten as needed. The great ones would ask for details to understand, and only occasionally raise concerns. When they did, they brought their concerns to me first, to ask what I thought should be done. The terrible managers would also ask for details, but it was to micromanage. The great managers appreciated all their staff, even the troublesome ones, and viewed their job as finding the best point of mutual happiness between that employee and the company. The terrible ones mentally (or more) divided people up into "poor", "acceptable", and "great", and then showed favoritism to the greats and disdained the floors. One constant for both, however, was that the managers that thrived at any given company were decided by the incentives the company provided, be they financial, cultural, or social.
imron 9y ago
> The problem here is that "good managers" are incredibly thin on the ground The problem in this case was really caused by a bad manager though - who ended up being fired. That didn't make it in to the original story and was only noted by the author in the comments. Where was the exposé on the mistakes made by management, which seem to be equally egregious? I mean you don't even have to be an exceptional manager to prevent this sort of problem, just a competent one.
- zimpenfish 9y ago
  Even competent managers can be comprehensively stymied by a politically connected and savvy developer.