3 ms·

I learned a similar lesson outside of tech... with low wage employees. Often people would have problems dealing with our employee's and complain, but if we dug

I learned a similar lesson outside of tech... with low wage employees. Often people would have problems dealing with our employee's and complain, but if we dug a bit deeper, it was very often an issue with training, manuals, high turnover, or managers not being good at setting expectations.

scruple 4y ago
> managers not being good at setting expectations Expectation setting (and all of the things that fall out of it) is such a huge problem in my experience. I'm always trying to get clear expectations out of management. I had a ~decade gap in my career where the expectations were vague, ambiguous, bullshit... And worst of all misaligned. First-time engineering managers, specifically, were all so bad at this. I've walked from jobs where this was the root problem. Recently, I've landed in a company and on a team where the expectations are crystal clear and, as a result, and closing in on 20 years in this industry, I feel like I am able to do some of my best, most impactful work. Work that will likely outlive my tenure with this organization, and it feels fucking amazing!
- steveBK123 4y ago
  New managers (or bad ones) have a hard time serving the basic functions of - filtering incoming noise, making priority decisions, and allowing some room for ICs to breathe. The last one - allowing ICs to breathe is extremely important. Most of my best / most impactful / bragged-by-others work was completely unplanned/unscoped/side project kind of stuff where I saw a recurring problem that could be addressed. Most of these were really like 1-2 days of focused work to get to 80%, then when management saw what it got them.. periodic planned/scoped/in-sprint tasks for improvements. New/bad managers often have a hard time not planning their ICs time down to the minute.

3 ms·

I learned a similar lesson outside of tech... with low wage employees. Often people would have problems dealing with our employee's and complain, but if we dug

by kevin_nisbet 4y ago

scruple 4y ago
> managers not being good at setting expectations Expectation setting (and all of the things that fall out of it) is such a huge problem in my experience. I'm always trying to get clear expectations out of management. I had a ~decade gap in my career where the expectations were vague, ambiguous, bullshit... And worst of all misaligned. First-time engineering managers, specifically, were all so bad at this. I've walked from jobs where this was the root problem. Recently, I've landed in a company and on a team where the expectations are crystal clear and, as a result, and closing in on 20 years in this industry, I feel like I am able to do some of my best, most impactful work. Work that will likely outlive my tenure with this organization, and it feels fucking amazing!
- steveBK123 4y ago
  New managers (or bad ones) have a hard time serving the basic functions of - filtering incoming noise, making priority decisions, and allowing some room for ICs to breathe. The last one - allowing ICs to breathe is extremely important. Most of my best / most impactful / bragged-by-others work was completely unplanned/unscoped/side project kind of stuff where I saw a recurring problem that could be addressed. Most of these were really like 1-2 days of focused work to get to 80%, then when management saw what it got them.. periodic planned/scoped/in-sprint tasks for improvements. New/bad managers often have a hard time not planning their ICs time down to the minute.