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> grow headcount faster than baseline Lol I was on the floor with this one. It's funny because it's true. My super went from being my super to one level above

> grow headcount faster than baseline Lol I was on the floor with this one. It's funny because it's true. My super went from being my super to one level above skip, while I was trying so hard to get a measly raise/promotion after 4 years of dedicated work. It was always "This year, we are going to work on getting you ready to operate at the next level." Want to get a promotion, just add the number of people you manage.

hinkley 6y ago
Probably why they also try to pressure ICs into management. If I am at my limits for direct reports, I can start having people report to one of my reports, and my status grows. Just like multi level marketing.
- jrott 6y ago
  > If I am at my limits for direct reports, I can start having people report to one of my reports, and my status grows. Just like multi level marketing. Absolutely it also makes it way easier to argue that you should get a promotion when you are a manager of managers. Inflating the title's of the people under you is the quickest way to get your own title boosted.
dogman144 6y ago
Yeah this got a really heavy chuckle out of me and every meaningless scrummaster story point chart I saw produced and discussed > Third, while you shouldn't take performative rituals at face value, you must still perform them— enthusiastically and with gusto.
jskdvsksnb 6y ago
This kills me. I used to work at a fast-growing startup where recruiting could never keep up with headcount, but most projects never shipped. Managers shuffled around, accumulating direct reports, then ascended to higher levels of managing and eventually jumped organizations. Ironically most people didn't want to be managers. Unless you made it to the Director level the salary raises were dwarfed by the stock grants. It was way more stress and visibility to play the game than to float around on nebulously defined projects and spend 4 years vesting

hinkley 6y ago

Probably why they also try to pressure ICs into management. If I am at my limits for direct reports, I can start having people report to one of my reports, and my status grows. Just like multi level marketing.

jrott 6y ago
> If I am at my limits for direct reports, I can start having people report to one of my reports, and my status grows. Just like multi level marketing. Absolutely it also makes it way easier to argue that you should get a promotion when you are a manager of managers. Inflating the title's of the people under you is the quickest way to get your own title boosted.

dogman144 6y ago

Yeah this got a really heavy chuckle out of me and every meaningless scrummaster story point chart I saw produced and discussed > Third, while you shouldn't take performative rituals at face value, you must still perform them— enthusiastically and with gusto.

jskdvsksnb 6y ago

This kills me. I used to work at a fast-growing startup where recruiting could never keep up with headcount, but most projects never shipped. Managers shuffled around, accumulating direct reports, then ascended to higher levels of managing and eventually jumped organizations. Ironically most people didn't want to be managers. Unless you made it to the Director level the salary raises were dwarfed by the stock grants. It was way more stress and visibility to play the game than to float around on nebulously defined projects and spend 4 years vesting