3 ms·

Not sure if it's an industry-wide trend but in the last decade, I have seen a continuous growth of unmanageable levels of work and expectation of productivity i

Not sure if it's an industry-wide trend but in the last decade, I have seen a continuous growth of unmanageable levels of work and expectation of productivity in the various places I've worked in Silicon Valley. This is made worse by inexperienced managers who are now offloading management and project management responsibilities to their direct reports. Maybe it's just the teams/companies that I'm working for but I don't see how people can raise a family and/or have a life these days working in the tech industry. Being able to make work your life has become a competitive advantage.

kache_ 5y ago
Create boundaries
dfxm12 5y ago
It's certainly not limited to the Valley. Employers of all kinds are putting the squeeze on workers, with productivity up, but not giving us much to show for it, wage-wise [0]. What can you do? Individually, probably not much, but communication is always key to set expectations and prioritize your deliverables. 0 - https://www.epi.org/productivity-pay-gap/ https://www.epi.org/productivity-pay-gap/
dkarl 5y ago
> This is made worse by inexperienced managers who are now offloading management and project management responsibilities to their direct reports. I thought this was just the currently orthodox management style in startups. Senior people manage themselves, junior people are guided by seniors, projects get managed by the people executing them. Management limits themselves to higher-level strategy. I've seen this from most of the managers I've had in the last, say, 5+ years. I prefer management that keeps in touch with the work that their reports are doing and knows enough to raise concerns, make suggestions, and make decisions when the team can't reach consensus, but I don't think that's how most people see the job of managing software developers right now.

3 ms·

Not sure if it's an industry-wide trend but in the last decade, I have seen a continuous growth of unmanageable levels of work and expectation of productivity i

by president 5y ago

kache_ 5y ago
Create boundaries
dfxm12 5y ago
It's certainly not limited to the Valley. Employers of all kinds are putting the squeeze on workers, with productivity up, but not giving us much to show for it, wage-wise [0]. What can you do? Individually, probably not much, but communication is always key to set expectations and prioritize your deliverables. 0 - https://www.epi.org/productivity-pay-gap/ https://www.epi.org/productivity-pay-gap/
dkarl 5y ago
> This is made worse by inexperienced managers who are now offloading management and project management responsibilities to their direct reports. I thought this was just the currently orthodox management style in startups. Senior people manage themselves, junior people are guided by seniors, projects get managed by the people executing them. Management limits themselves to higher-level strategy. I've seen this from most of the managers I've had in the last, say, 5+ years. I prefer management that keeps in touch with the work that their reports are doing and knows enough to raise concerns, make suggestions, and make decisions when the team can't reach consensus, but I don't think that's how most people see the job of managing software developers right now.