5 ms·

I had a manager for the better part of a decade who was non technical (this was a Fortune 500 company). He was awesome. Anything we said we needed, he would get

I had a manager for the better part of a decade who was non technical (this was a Fortune 500 company). He was awesome. Anything we said we needed, he would get to us. Any technical decisions he 100% left up to us and trusted we knew what we were talking about. He mainly left us alone and spent his time trying to get us more money and running blocking to keep us from being disturbed. My current manager has a technical background. I now spend the vast majority of my work week in meetings. Not because my job has changed, but because they have so many meetings that we never had under my previous manager. Scrum, backlog, retrospective, one on ones, touch bases, etc. I seriously maybe have 5 hours a week to actually program these days. If we want anything, he is likely to say no and that we can get along with what we already have. He often has opinions on how we should do things based on how he did things years ago instead of modern best practices. Give me a non-technical manager any day.

sdoering 5y ago
I learned long ago, that it really depends on the manager's personality and his/her understanding of the role. But also on the expectations being transported down from above. The problem is, imagine a company with your second managers mindset and his/her boss takes a look into the calendar, sees there are no management meeting tasks (Jour Fix, standup, and so on) in there. His/her boss would think he/she is not doing anything, because the signifiers that declare a manager actually managing are missing. I don't see these signifiers as actually managing - I see them as creating disturbance - but modern management culture seems to be seeing these signifiers as sign of real managerial work. I also find a lot of managers need to please their own ego by feeling they do something. They often need to feel important - hence too many meetings as signs of them having control.
- irrational 5y ago
  I’ve come to the same conclusion. So many of these meetings seem to exist merely to give him the appearance of doing something and therefore justifying his job and salary.
skeeter2020 5y ago
It doesn't really matter which perspective a manager comes from people or technical-oriented, their job is shield you from disruptions and remove roadblocks. Some of these are going to fit certain skillsets better but I think it's a mistake to define one or the other as universally "better".

sdoering 5y ago

I learned long ago, that it really depends on the manager's personality and his/her understanding of the role. But also on the expectations being transported down from above. The problem is, imagine a company with your second managers mindset and his/her boss takes a look into the calendar, sees there are no management meeting tasks (Jour Fix, standup, and so on) in there. His/her boss would think he/she is not doing anything, because the signifiers that declare a manager actually managing are missing. I don't see these signifiers as actually managing - I see them as creating disturbance - but modern management culture seems to be seeing these signifiers as sign of real managerial work. I also find a lot of managers need to please their own ego by feeling they do something. They often need to feel important - hence too many meetings as signs of them having control.

irrational 5y ago
I’ve come to the same conclusion. So many of these meetings seem to exist merely to give him the appearance of doing something and therefore justifying his job and salary.

skeeter2020 5y ago

It doesn't really matter which perspective a manager comes from people or technical-oriented, their job is shield you from disruptions and remove roadblocks. Some of these are going to fit certain skillsets better but I think it's a mistake to define one or the other as universally "better".