4 ms·

Yep, and it's worse when someone I don't even report to demands regular status updates. Rising-up in that firm meant demonstrating leadership by getting people

Yep, and it's worse when someone I don't even report to demands regular status updates. Rising-up in that firm meant demonstrating leadership by getting people to report to you, even if in an unofficial capacity. Or there was the company where we had four (!) hours of meetings per day: two in the morning and two in the afternoon. All we ever discussed is what we didn't get done during lunch time. After I left all that, my one question when interviewing with a hiring manager became: "How often do you have meetings?" A lot of people got very flustered with that one.

Ididntdothis 6y ago
This happens a lot in my company. When things fall behind, first you tell your direct manager what’s going on. Then you tell the same thing in a meeting two levels up. Then somebody really high comes and wants a meeting too. But he doesn’t really understand the project so you have to spend a ton of time explaining what this is really about. And this goes on and on. Everybody wants to have their own meeting. It always amazes me that we have this whole reporting structure and tracking tools like Jira but somehow the critical information doesn’t really flow up. In theory they all would look at Jira and some status reports and then be up to date without wasting the time of the people who are doing the work.
- Klinky 6y ago
  Jira seems really poor out of the box for project tracking. Getting a quick high level view of where a project stands is difficult and requires dedication by project/product teams to maintain, which no one seems to do. I wish there was a better way to do work-breakdown structures, though I think some agile evangelists might say that's too "waterfall".
- DenisM 6y ago
  The straight jacket of a project management software is not always helpful, but your manager must be able to effectively collect, analyze, and communicate status in both directions. In fact that’s the only mandatory part of the job. Your situation is highly dysfunctional. If you are not quitting just yet consider taking charge - collate the status of your project (you and people you coordinate with) into a tidy status update that your manager can take to their manager. It’s a difficult skill, but you will earn undying gratitude. And god help you if you can add a meaningful chart (as opposed to a bullshit chart) to your stays update - you will instantly become the savior of the team. Fun story. I have once received a promotion based on a single ducking spreadsheet of this sort. I was so mad about all my other “hardcore“ engineering work not meaning diddly squat by comparison, I asked if they can take the promotion back (they refused). I came to terms with it eventually - I started walking up the management chain asking what happened and eventually I was told that hiring someone to write solid code is a question of throwing money into the hiring pipeline, but hiring someone to provide meaningful insight or direction is mostly a matter of luck.
DenisM 6y ago
> How often do you have meetings? This deserves to be added to the Joel Test!

Ididntdothis 6y ago

This happens a lot in my company. When things fall behind, first you tell your direct manager what’s going on. Then you tell the same thing in a meeting two levels up. Then somebody really high comes and wants a meeting too. But he doesn’t really understand the project so you have to spend a ton of time explaining what this is really about. And this goes on and on. Everybody wants to have their own meeting. It always amazes me that we have this whole reporting structure and tracking tools like Jira but somehow the critical information doesn’t really flow up. In theory they all would look at Jira and some status reports and then be up to date without wasting the time of the people who are doing the work.

Klinky 6y ago
Jira seems really poor out of the box for project tracking. Getting a quick high level view of where a project stands is difficult and requires dedication by project/product teams to maintain, which no one seems to do. I wish there was a better way to do work-breakdown structures, though I think some agile evangelists might say that's too "waterfall".
DenisM 6y ago
The straight jacket of a project management software is not always helpful, but your manager must be able to effectively collect, analyze, and communicate status in both directions. In fact that’s the only mandatory part of the job. Your situation is highly dysfunctional. If you are not quitting just yet consider taking charge - collate the status of your project (you and people you coordinate with) into a tidy status update that your manager can take to their manager. It’s a difficult skill, but you will earn undying gratitude. And god help you if you can add a meaningful chart (as opposed to a bullshit chart) to your stays update - you will instantly become the savior of the team. Fun story. I have once received a promotion based on a single ducking spreadsheet of this sort. I was so mad about all my other “hardcore“ engineering work not meaning diddly squat by comparison, I asked if they can take the promotion back (they refused). I came to terms with it eventually - I started walking up the management chain asking what happened and eventually I was told that hiring someone to write solid code is a question of throwing money into the hiring pipeline, but hiring someone to provide meaningful insight or direction is mostly a matter of luck.

DenisM 6y ago

> How often do you have meetings? This deserves to be added to the Joel Test!