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> Like, lemme get this straight: you expect a six figure salary, full autonomy to solve problems as you see fit, and _also_ bite-sized, well-scoped bug reports/

> Like, lemme get this straight: you expect a six figure salary, full autonomy to solve problems as you see fit, and _also_ bite-sized, well-scoped bug reports/features. I take some offense at this straw man. Either give me the autonomy to solve the high-level business problems you want to make me accountable for, _or else_ I will default to expecting bite-sized, well-scoped tickets. In exchange for six figures and autonomy, I'm capable of writing my own well-scoped tickets if you think that's a good use of my time, and I might do so happily if I need to be coordinating with other talented individuals in a team built on mutual trust and respect. But if I'm stuck with minimal autonomy, pulling some tickets written by a project manager off the backlog, then hell yes I expect them to be bite-sized and well-scoped so I can do my job and not waste an entire week figuring out what the problem really is, determine who the real stakeholders are, secretly talk to the end users, pick the brains of developers on other teams, implement a few thousand lines of missing back end services, coordinate with ops to get those deployed, and finally just add that button to the UI that the product owner, half a year ago, persuaded the team would only take a day, all why being grilled every morning about why such a simple task is taking so long. Don't deny me autonomy, let me be fed me crap, and have me do someone else's job without credit while listening to them complain. Let me do my job without wasting my time; is that too much to ask?

sdiupIGPWEfh 6y ago
I'd love to know how this guy's employees feel. Tempting to give snark for snark. > Most problems in business will not fit in your well-scoped JIRA ticket. That doesn't mean you get to ignore them until they do. But you're still chaining me to Jira, aren't you? I'm still being judged by how many points of Jira tickets I close per sprint, aren't I? And I bet you're still trying to insulate me so I "don't get distracted" from my tickets. > People get paid the big bucks because they handle that uncertainty well and bring those vague, ill-defined problems to a good resolution. So I can expect to receive the autonomy needed to take on those problems after all, and also get the compensation commensurate with that responsibility? > "I'm pretty good with React" doesn't quite cut it. Is that the bar we're using for hiring engineers around here? Damn, I did _not_ interview your company well enough before accepting this job! > Yes, because of the implication: you want ownership? Great. Here's your KPIs. You didn't meet those KPIs? Here's your severance, best of luck at your next job. Hold up. I already have KPIs / OKRs / MBOs or whatever flavor of the year HR is pushing on top of the sprint metrics you're tracking, and as a senior engineer or higher, I'm already in trouble if the product fails, which is another reason I want the autonomy to make sure failure is avoided! > I made a comment to an advisor a while back about "a VP on a PIP" and they laughed. "Mike, a VP is always on a PIP. That's the role. You hit your KPIs or you're out." Why are we bringing up comparisons with VPs? Is it VP-level autonomy or nothing here?

sdiupIGPWEfh 6y ago

I'd love to know how this guy's employees feel. Tempting to give snark for snark. > Most problems in business will not fit in your well-scoped JIRA ticket. That doesn't mean you get to ignore them until they do. But you're still chaining me to Jira, aren't you? I'm still being judged by how many points of Jira tickets I close per sprint, aren't I? And I bet you're still trying to insulate me so I "don't get distracted" from my tickets. > People get paid the big bucks because they handle that uncertainty well and bring those vague, ill-defined problems to a good resolution. So I can expect to receive the autonomy needed to take on those problems after all, and also get the compensation commensurate with that responsibility? > "I'm pretty good with React" doesn't quite cut it. Is that the bar we're using for hiring engineers around here? Damn, I did _not_ interview your company well enough before accepting this job! > Yes, because of the implication: you want ownership? Great. Here's your KPIs. You didn't meet those KPIs? Here's your severance, best of luck at your next job. Hold up. I already have KPIs / OKRs / MBOs or whatever flavor of the year HR is pushing on top of the sprint metrics you're tracking, and as a senior engineer or higher, I'm already in trouble if the product fails, which is another reason I want the autonomy to make sure failure is avoided! > I made a comment to an advisor a while back about "a VP on a PIP" and they laughed. "Mike, a VP is always on a PIP. That's the role. You hit your KPIs or you're out." Why are we bringing up comparisons with VPs? Is it VP-level autonomy or nothing here?