4 ms·

Would you elaborate why? It came across to me as a pretty good idea. To write this well requires a certain degree of introspection, and it allows co-workers to

Would you elaborate why? It came across to me as a pretty good idea. To write this well requires a certain degree of introspection, and it allows co-workers to gain an understanding of how you work.

bartvk 6y ago
It divulges a lot of one's personality. This kind of openness would require me to feel really at home in a company. Coincidentally, that's also the reason I feel the piece was so interesting, when I'm normally more drawn to technical articles.
- caminmccluskey 6y ago
  I wrote something about this pretty recently - a pitch/anti-pitch to these sorts of guides. I do think the tl:dr is that you need a high level of psychological safety in the team to make it workable. Although I think the act of writing one can be a useful exercise in itself, I certainly hadn't thought deeply about what my preferences are for work. It also gave me some ideas of what I could work on personally. https://medium.com/better-programming/personal-user-manuals-the-good-the-bad-and-the-template-7b80db5044ea https://medium.com/better-programming/personal-user-manuals-... <- scroll down for the pitch/anti-pitch :)
  - bartvk 6y ago
    Very interesting, thanks for sharing. Is this a company-wide thing at your workplace?
- Igelau 6y ago
  > This kind of openness would require me to feel really at home in a company. Still, it's probably better to be upfront about this stuff than wait and hope other people will make the right assumptions.
  - bartvk 6y ago
    Have you ever shared an office with a bully? I have, and any personal information will be mercilessly used in an endless stream of not-funny jokes.
    - Igelau 6y ago
      No, but I have seen several highly diverse workplaces homogenize into wall-to-wall straight white men, and it was due to a lack of awareness about the kinds of questions in the article. Some of that is probably my age perspective though. I'm only in my mid-thirties, so most offices I've worked in have had anti-bullying policies that swung to the draconian side.
benrbray 6y ago
I think there is a risk of coming across as inflexible. A good manager adapts to the needs / strengths of their team members, and publishing a "this is how we do things here, deal with it" memo might send the wrong message.
DoreenMichele 6y ago
Good relationships of any sort are founded on trust. You develop that by actually interacting with a person over time and getting to know things they wouldn't be happy to post to the front page of Hacker News.

Would you elaborate why? It came across to me as a pretty good idea. To write this well requires a certain degree of introspection, and it allows co-workers to gain an understanding of how you work.

bartvk 6y ago

It divulges a lot of one's personality. This kind of openness would require me to feel really at home in a company. Coincidentally, that's also the reason I feel the piece was so interesting, when I'm normally more drawn to technical articles.

caminmccluskey 6y ago
I wrote something about this pretty recently - a pitch/anti-pitch to these sorts of guides. I do think the tl:dr is that you need a high level of psychological safety in the team to make it workable. Although I think the act of writing one can be a useful exercise in itself, I certainly hadn't thought deeply about what my preferences are for work. It also gave me some ideas of what I could work on personally. https://medium.com/better-programming/personal-user-manuals-the-good-the-bad-and-the-template-7b80db5044ea https://medium.com/better-programming/personal-user-manuals-... <- scroll down for the pitch/anti-pitch :)
- bartvk 6y ago
  Very interesting, thanks for sharing. Is this a company-wide thing at your workplace?
Igelau 6y ago
> This kind of openness would require me to feel really at home in a company. Still, it's probably better to be upfront about this stuff than wait and hope other people will make the right assumptions.
- bartvk 6y ago
  Have you ever shared an office with a bully? I have, and any personal information will be mercilessly used in an endless stream of not-funny jokes.
  - Igelau 6y ago
    No, but I have seen several highly diverse workplaces homogenize into wall-to-wall straight white men, and it was due to a lack of awareness about the kinds of questions in the article. Some of that is probably my age perspective though. I'm only in my mid-thirties, so most offices I've worked in have had anti-bullying policies that swung to the draconian side.

benrbray 6y ago

I think there is a risk of coming across as inflexible. A good manager adapts to the needs / strengths of their team members, and publishing a "this is how we do things here, deal with it" memo might send the wrong message.

DoreenMichele 6y ago

Good relationships of any sort are founded on trust. You develop that by actually interacting with a person over time and getting to know things they wouldn't be happy to post to the front page of Hacker News.