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This comment may have been the tipping point into seriously considering quitting. Deep down I already felt it coming on but seeing it laid out like this hit hom

This comment may have been the tipping point into seriously considering quitting. Deep down I already felt it coming on but seeing it laid out like this hit home. The person currently in that leadership position fits every one of these bullet points and somehow remains in that position. All their direct reports just seem to accept this lot in life, everyone else does their best to avoid drawing their ire. I imagine that maybe something will happen and they will get the picture and actually grow as a leader. It's growing old though and I miss being on a team wherein this wasn't the day to day morale. Maybe they'll read this. Maybe it's you. Please take this seriously. You could do better.

theteapot 4y ago
> Maybe they'll read this. Be proactive, send them a link.
jasonm23 4y ago
Sounds like me 10 years ago, and I wish I took this advice. If you love technical work, QUIT being an exec, a VP, a manager... do the work. You WILL have a crazy time getting back into tech work, after 10 years, even if you were hands on the whole time. Management / CTO and everything in between is best served by people who are technical, and are ready/aware/willing to move into a deeply political and financial driven domain. I hated it, but it took me a years to really let that sink in and feel it hurting me. If you can short circuit that wasted time. Do.
- jon-wood 4y ago
  Absolutely agreed. I'm currently working my notice after 5 years of technical leadership, after which I've got a job lined up where I can get back to sitting down and writing code. The last few years have been great experience, and I have no doubt they'll make it easier to work with management types in the future through understanding the sort of decisions they're having to make, but I have no desire to play politics for the rest of my life while other people go and do the bits that motivate me to get out of bed in the morning.
  - johnnymorgan 4y ago
    I'm a sysadmin background, did CTO for 9 years and then moved to product afterwards from the knowledge I gained. Being on the other side of the fence has really helped me move around, I still to sysadmin/DevOps type work but mostly moved into product and I've found it really helps. Too many C level see product as only UI/UX and the teams I manage appreciate my understanding of the pain points for everyone

theteapot 4y ago

> Maybe they'll read this. Be proactive, send them a link.

jasonm23 4y ago

Sounds like me 10 years ago, and I wish I took this advice. If you love technical work, QUIT being an exec, a VP, a manager... do the work. You WILL have a crazy time getting back into tech work, after 10 years, even if you were hands on the whole time. Management / CTO and everything in between is best served by people who are technical, and are ready/aware/willing to move into a deeply political and financial driven domain. I hated it, but it took me a years to really let that sink in and feel it hurting me. If you can short circuit that wasted time. Do.

jon-wood 4y ago
Absolutely agreed. I'm currently working my notice after 5 years of technical leadership, after which I've got a job lined up where I can get back to sitting down and writing code. The last few years have been great experience, and I have no doubt they'll make it easier to work with management types in the future through understanding the sort of decisions they're having to make, but I have no desire to play politics for the rest of my life while other people go and do the bits that motivate me to get out of bed in the morning.
- johnnymorgan 4y ago
  I'm a sysadmin background, did CTO for 9 years and then moved to product afterwards from the knowledge I gained. Being on the other side of the fence has really helped me move around, I still to sysadmin/DevOps type work but mostly moved into product and I've found it really helps. Too many C level see product as only UI/UX and the teams I manage appreciate my understanding of the pain points for everyone