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Tech pays Industrial Psychologists, I don't know why we don't put them to work on this. I restarted my software career doing remote work. I didn't have a probl

by kodah 3y ago

Tech pays Industrial Psychologists, I don't know why we don't put them to work on this. I restarted my software career doing remote work. I didn't have a problem finding things to do because my responsibilities were clear (read: I had a good manager) and I was self-taught so I already had a muscle for seeking knowledge on my own. I suspect that remote work success is highly influenced by an equation involving how good your manager is and how much you innately know about what things your role is responsible for which can be propped up or replaced by seniority. I also suspect that new grads don't have muscles for finding/seeking internal and external information on their own, which feels powerless. There's ways to solve all these things without treating all of these folks the same. Frankly, I think these are all the problems you and I relate to, but what's really solved for the business by returning to an office isn't productivity or happiness. It's a real estate problem.

ghaff 3y ago
>I suspect that remote work success is highly influenced by an equation involving how good your manager is I suspect the people on here who like to hate on managers either have a bad one or just don't realize how much crap they're being shielded from--a lot of which is inevitable in a large organization (where you can't tell everyone "hey figure it out on your own").
- kodah 3y ago
  That could explain some situations, but I very well doubt it's as simple as "managers are unappreciated". Some managers are given wide latitude in controlling their teams work. Some managers execute on that, others don't. Some managers are given a lot of control over hiring. Some execute on that, other don't. Some managers are given wide latitude over reviews. Some managers execute on that while others don't. The reason managers are perceived to be less useful in tech usually, in my experience, boils down to where they spend their time and political capital. They either spend it on their team and enabling them or on themselves and enabling themselves. All of the above are ways that could go either way and the feeling is generally an accumulation of those decisions over time. I guess I could surmise that there's just a lot of "bad" managers in tech, but I don't think that's a useful sentiment without knowing why.

by kodah 3y ago

ghaff 3y ago

>I suspect that remote work success is highly influenced by an equation involving how good your manager is I suspect the people on here who like to hate on managers either have a bad one or just don't realize how much crap they're being shielded from--a lot of which is inevitable in a large organization (where you can't tell everyone "hey figure it out on your own").

kodah 3y ago
That could explain some situations, but I very well doubt it's as simple as "managers are unappreciated". Some managers are given wide latitude in controlling their teams work. Some managers execute on that, others don't. Some managers are given a lot of control over hiring. Some execute on that, other don't. Some managers are given wide latitude over reviews. Some managers execute on that while others don't. The reason managers are perceived to be less useful in tech usually, in my experience, boils down to where they spend their time and political capital. They either spend it on their team and enabling them or on themselves and enabling themselves. All of the above are ways that could go either way and the feeling is generally an accumulation of those decisions over time. I guess I could surmise that there's just a lot of "bad" managers in tech, but I don't think that's a useful sentiment without knowing why.