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I know of a team (~20 devs, a handful of managers) in the middle of a fantastic experiment in burning out the developers. First, a new remote senior leader too

I know of a team (~20 devs, a handful of managers) in the middle of a fantastic experiment in burning out the developers. First, a new remote senior leader took over. He doesn't visit the team or understand them well. He puts pressure on the managers to deliver projects that make his bosses happy by looking sexy, even if they cause more operational issues for the customers. Operational issues = oncall hell, so more devs burn out and quit. The experiment is going great. Phase two began recently. Of the three remaining managers, one quit and one was fired for not brown nosing to the remote senior leader enough. (Push back on bullshit projects? That can't be allowed). The single remaining manager is the ultimate brown noser who happily causes his devs on call hell in order to make senior leadership happy. The devs are all looking elsewhere for work. The general mood is in a freefall. People are taking long vacations away in cities that also have lots of tech jobs. It's all a fantastic experiment in how to implode a software organization. I really hope to meet the control group some day- they won't believe how lucky they are.

izzle49 8y ago
I think I work here :)
- prolikewh0a 8y ago
  Me too!
lovich 8y ago
What is with companies denying remote work but then bringing in some level of management that works remotely? I've seen happen it in a few places and it feels like animal farm half the time
- 0xJRS 8y ago
  Worked a job at a startup once that had a 40hr "butt-in-seat" policy. The PM would be the one to record the exact time you sat down, the exact length of your lunch, and the exact time you left. This also included breaks. There would be a report to management every Friday and then a 1 on 1 with the manager if he didn't "like" what he saw.
  - 0xJRS 8y ago
    Oh, our manager _and_ our CTO lived 2 states away and were flown in every tuesday through thursday.
  - opportune 8y ago
    Why would you even work at a place like this?
itronitron 8y ago
I sincerely hope that you are not the remote senior leader, or the remaining manager, in this story :)
fatnoah 8y ago
That basically happened to my startup. I led an fairly high-performing Engineering team in an east coast based startup. We were acquired by a west coast company and shortly thereafter, I got pushed into an IC role and a new manager moved to the east coast temporarily to oversee things. A year later, the new manager moved back so all management is now on the west coast and the formerly high performing teams went from releasing every 2-4 weeks at time of acquisition to a grand total of about 5 releases in 18 months. On an average day, about 50% of the office population is "working from home" and every couple months another team member moves on to greener pastures.

izzle49 8y ago

I think I work here :)

prolikewh0a 8y ago
Me too!

lovich 8y ago

What is with companies denying remote work but then bringing in some level of management that works remotely? I've seen happen it in a few places and it feels like animal farm half the time

0xJRS 8y ago
Worked a job at a startup once that had a 40hr "butt-in-seat" policy. The PM would be the one to record the exact time you sat down, the exact length of your lunch, and the exact time you left. This also included breaks. There would be a report to management every Friday and then a 1 on 1 with the manager if he didn't "like" what he saw.
- 0xJRS 8y ago
  Oh, our manager _and_ our CTO lived 2 states away and were flown in every tuesday through thursday.
- opportune 8y ago
  Why would you even work at a place like this?

itronitron 8y ago

I sincerely hope that you are not the remote senior leader, or the remaining manager, in this story :)

fatnoah 8y ago

That basically happened to my startup. I led an fairly high-performing Engineering team in an east coast based startup. We were acquired by a west coast company and shortly thereafter, I got pushed into an IC role and a new manager moved to the east coast temporarily to oversee things. A year later, the new manager moved back so all management is now on the west coast and the formerly high performing teams went from releasing every 2-4 weeks at time of acquisition to a grand total of about 5 releases in 18 months. On an average day, about 50% of the office population is "working from home" and every couple months another team member moves on to greener pastures.