4 ms·

So many manager stories where it doesn't sound like they even did a basic check in with their subordinates...

duxup 4y ago
Communication is a two way street for sure. But I haven known plenty of devs who keep their heads down and bemoan their boss and wouldn't say anything to them anyway. Hard to know how a person feels in that case.
- blululu 4y ago
  From the sound of it the OP really did go out of their way to try to talk this one through. Of course communication is a two way street, but communication is basically the only job a manager really has at the end of the day. It is their primary responsibility and they should bear the brunt of the responsibility for any communication breakdowns. Sure devs can be hard to talk to. Managing people is fundamentally a hard job. That's why it pays well.
  - duxup 4y ago
    Yeah I can't say for any given person, OP, what they did or didn't do.
- watwut 4y ago
  Some. But there is also that thing where manager is supposedly paid for superior social skills. And lately I am realizing, that good 80% of communication work in the manager-developer relationship or within team is on developers. I mean, yeah, partly it goes with power differential where person lower on hierarchy has to do that work and management simply dont have to. But seriously, it would be nice if managers would put a bit more thoughts and effort into ... communicating and people.
  - duxup 4y ago
    Agreed, it is a two way street... but that means both have to participate for it to work too. Sometimes I think the fact that some devs move into management / senior type roles, not always great for communication. Yeah they can talk about bits, but the rest gets lost at times.
    - watwut 4y ago
      > Sometimes I think the fact that some devs move into management / senior type roles, not always great for communication. Yeah they can talk about bits, but the rest gets lost at times. Not a single person I had in mind was previous developer. Just to be clear. As much as it is popular to knee jerk assume that developers dont have social skills, this one is much LESS pronounced with developers.

Communication is a two way street for sure. But I haven known plenty of devs who keep their heads down and bemoan their boss and wouldn't say anything to them anyway. Hard to know how a person feels in that case.

blululu 4y ago
From the sound of it the OP really did go out of their way to try to talk this one through. Of course communication is a two way street, but communication is basically the only job a manager really has at the end of the day. It is their primary responsibility and they should bear the brunt of the responsibility for any communication breakdowns. Sure devs can be hard to talk to. Managing people is fundamentally a hard job. That's why it pays well.
- duxup 4y ago
  Yeah I can't say for any given person, OP, what they did or didn't do.
watwut 4y ago
Some. But there is also that thing where manager is supposedly paid for superior social skills. And lately I am realizing, that good 80% of communication work in the manager-developer relationship or within team is on developers. I mean, yeah, partly it goes with power differential where person lower on hierarchy has to do that work and management simply dont have to. But seriously, it would be nice if managers would put a bit more thoughts and effort into ... communicating and people.
- duxup 4y ago
  Agreed, it is a two way street... but that means both have to participate for it to work too. Sometimes I think the fact that some devs move into management / senior type roles, not always great for communication. Yeah they can talk about bits, but the rest gets lost at times.
  - watwut 4y ago
    > Sometimes I think the fact that some devs move into management / senior type roles, not always great for communication. Yeah they can talk about bits, but the rest gets lost at times. Not a single person I had in mind was previous developer. Just to be clear. As much as it is popular to knee jerk assume that developers dont have social skills, this one is much LESS pronounced with developers.