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"Are you a manager and think I’m terrible at time management? Which meetings would you cut?" The immediate thing that raises questions is your meetings with "T

"Are you a manager and think I’m terrible at time management? Which meetings would you cut?" The immediate thing that raises questions is your meetings with "Team #1" and "Team #2", which is a bit unusual. General practice is that it takes a manager per team; so if you're managing two teams yourself then it's expected that you'll be overloaded (and if there's not many people then perhaps you can't afford the overhead of managing them as two separate teams and need to "merge" them in practice, having one common meeting instead of two separate ones) and on the other hand if there are separate team leads for these teams, then I'd argue that you don't need to participate in as many direct meetings as you do and instead delegate more to them and the teams themselves. If you "need to know" then perhaps review the meeting minutes without direct participation.

kjs3 5y ago
You don't know how he's defining 'team' in this context. I often organize management of my big-T Team by referring to groups of teammates focused on a particular task or project as a small-t team, especially if they're on-going tasks. So this week I had a couple of people working on a 'team' covering API issues, another group covering IAM, and another set on key management. But then this reply is just full of "I don't actually know what your on-the-ground reality is, but that definitely won't stop me from telling you what you're doing wrong".
- PeterisP 5y ago
  Well, I'm answering an explicit question by the OP based on the information provided; but my observation from the schedule is that he seems to be running two teams as if they are big-T Teams - if those are actually two small-t teams of four people each, then IMHO he should devote less meeting time to each of them or merge some of the meetings. In your big-T Team, would you schedule a separate daily standup for each of the task/project small-t team you're supervising, and organize separate social events for each of your "groups of teammates" as OP is doing?
  - kjs3 5y ago
    Sorry to be overly negative/confrontational/whatever, but an annoyingly frequent (for me...once a quarter or so) part of my own "what does this engineering boss do all day" is push back on people who have no idea what my team does every day or how they do it, or what makes them as productive as they are or even what the output eventually is, drop by to tell me what they think I should be doing (usually accompanied by a rep from the PMO and shilling a new tool to enable said 'way I should be doing it'). If all you have is a hammer... On the other hand, I get a lot of managers who ask my opinion about how they are running things, which for me starts with "why did you make the decisions you made up to now and tell me what is or is not working", not "let me give you my dissertation on the One True Way...". IMHO he should devote less meeting time to each of them or merge some of the meetings. Fair enough, "less time in meetings" is always something to pursue. Perhaps aggressively, even ruthlessly. Lawyers schedule meetings in 6m increments and I've considered it. Unless the OP can't, for any number of reasons. Which we don't know. N.B. - I get lots of time back teaching people that if you think you only need 15m, then it's pretty easy to only schedule 15m and not 30m just because it's the default (in Outlook). would you schedule a separate daily standup for each of the task/project small-t team you're supervising Since 'standup' implies things that do not apply to how my team organizes work, I'm pretty sure 'no'. You'd need to know that to advise. Kinda my point. and organize separate social events for each of your "groups of teammates" as OP is doing I see: 4:30 PM — Going-away get together for team #2 member Which in no way implies separate social events. If you mean: 9:00 AM — Holidays peak preparation meeting for team #1 1:00 PM — Holidays peak preparation meeting for team #2 I guess it could be social. But since it explicitly says "peak", I'm slightly skeptical that in the real world it means anything other than organizing operational coverage when lots of people are taking time off for whatever they're working on. Of course, that's just my opinion. I could be wrong.
sethammons 5y ago
fwiw, nearly every software engineering manager (at least at the senior level) at my work runs two teams. That said, you hit the nail on the head: delegate. My tech leads are my default catch-all, but we have an owner on the team for different things. One engineer goes to security related meetings. Another is running point on proj_a and another running proj_b. The other thing to do is block out time on your calendar to have time dedicated focus time. You can't get anything done in 30min. You need a 60-120min block on your calendar.

kjs3 5y ago

You don't know how he's defining 'team' in this context. I often organize management of my big-T Team by referring to groups of teammates focused on a particular task or project as a small-t team, especially if they're on-going tasks. So this week I had a couple of people working on a 'team' covering API issues, another group covering IAM, and another set on key management. But then this reply is just full of "I don't actually know what your on-the-ground reality is, but that definitely won't stop me from telling you what you're doing wrong".

PeterisP 5y ago
Well, I'm answering an explicit question by the OP based on the information provided; but my observation from the schedule is that he seems to be running two teams as if they are big-T Teams - if those are actually two small-t teams of four people each, then IMHO he should devote less meeting time to each of them or merge some of the meetings. In your big-T Team, would you schedule a separate daily standup for each of the task/project small-t team you're supervising, and organize separate social events for each of your "groups of teammates" as OP is doing?
- kjs3 5y ago
  Sorry to be overly negative/confrontational/whatever, but an annoyingly frequent (for me...once a quarter or so) part of my own "what does this engineering boss do all day" is push back on people who have no idea what my team does every day or how they do it, or what makes them as productive as they are or even what the output eventually is, drop by to tell me what they think I should be doing (usually accompanied by a rep from the PMO and shilling a new tool to enable said 'way I should be doing it'). If all you have is a hammer... On the other hand, I get a lot of managers who ask my opinion about how they are running things, which for me starts with "why did you make the decisions you made up to now and tell me what is or is not working", not "let me give you my dissertation on the One True Way...". IMHO he should devote less meeting time to each of them or merge some of the meetings. Fair enough, "less time in meetings" is always something to pursue. Perhaps aggressively, even ruthlessly. Lawyers schedule meetings in 6m increments and I've considered it. Unless the OP can't, for any number of reasons. Which we don't know. N.B. - I get lots of time back teaching people that if you think you only need 15m, then it's pretty easy to only schedule 15m and not 30m just because it's the default (in Outlook). would you schedule a separate daily standup for each of the task/project small-t team you're supervising Since 'standup' implies things that do not apply to how my team organizes work, I'm pretty sure 'no'. You'd need to know that to advise. Kinda my point. and organize separate social events for each of your "groups of teammates" as OP is doing I see: 4:30 PM — Going-away get together for team #2 member Which in no way implies separate social events. If you mean: 9:00 AM — Holidays peak preparation meeting for team #1 1:00 PM — Holidays peak preparation meeting for team #2 I guess it could be social. But since it explicitly says "peak", I'm slightly skeptical that in the real world it means anything other than organizing operational coverage when lots of people are taking time off for whatever they're working on. Of course, that's just my opinion. I could be wrong.

sethammons 5y ago

fwiw, nearly every software engineering manager (at least at the senior level) at my work runs two teams. That said, you hit the nail on the head: delegate. My tech leads are my default catch-all, but we have an owner on the team for different things. One engineer goes to security related meetings. Another is running point on proj_a and another running proj_b. The other thing to do is block out time on your calendar to have time dedicated focus time. You can't get anything done in 30min. You need a 60-120min block on your calendar.