3 ms·
I struggle with this because I don't know what would be a better system. You do need some sort of hierarchy when you discuss promotions, or need some authoritar
by baby 3y ago
I struggle with this because I don't know what would be a better system. You do need some sort of hierarchy when you discuss promotions, or need some authoritarian decision making, or need to fire someone, etc.
But at the end of the day, these decisions could be decentralized, and most of the time they already are anyway, and the manager just ends up being the messenger.
Besides that, a manager doesn't add much to a team I find (especially when they're not really technical, which is often the case as the tech lead usually is an IC). To me, it's another role with too much free time, and when people have too much free time they end up filling that time doing politics.
- macrael 3y agoslightly orthogonal but it bugs me sometimes that so much blood was spilled for democracy but that every time we organize ourselves for work it's right back to kingdoms
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- kevinmchugh 3y agoWorkplaces are undemocratic in the way that my home is undemocratic
- macrael 3y agoMy boss isn't my Dad and I'm not a child, tho.
- epgui 3y agoJust because a structure or type of organization (eg.: democracy) works well at some scales or in some contexts doesn't necessarily mean it's what works best at all scales and in all contexts.
- dasil003 3y agoOn a healthy team a good manager will mostly stay out of the way (this could read as "too much time on their hands" if they are actually a bad manager). On the other hand, when there is systemic dysfunction in a team or organization, then what happens is the environment chews up and spits out any level of individual excellence you throw at it, burning them out, and sending them to the exits, leading to the Dead Sea Effect. These are the environments where a manager shows their quality. Debugging org issues where there's talent, everyone is busy, but nothing valuable seems to get done—that's harder than debugging race conditions in a distributed system. Solving those human problems is what pushed me (more than a little reluctantly) into management.