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Your last sentence for me is it: total crapshoot. Agreed, it’s so hard to tell. I try hire more for personality and general intelligence and assume we can teac
by verelo 3y ago
Your last sentence for me is it: total crapshoot.
Agreed, it’s so hard to tell. I try hire more for personality and general intelligence and assume we can teach process and new tools.
Historically I’ve attempted to tell developers what you said upfront, that some projects will suck but I’ll do my best to make sure you’re not always on the sucky work. I think managers often forget that cycling people in and out of fun roles is important for retention, just as is pay etc.
There is some value in expectation setting around “I’m not going to abandon you in the shit forever, but at times you’ll be in the shit and so will i, and i appreciate you sticking with me and will do everything i can to reward that”
Ted Lasso kinda stuff…but it’s not all worthless even if it doesn’t work 100% of the time.
- xyzzy_plugh 3y agoI have definitely noticed that fewer and fewer managers are fostering that type of relationship with their team. Seems like managers are doing the same, and hopping from ship to ship. I've recently seen some managers totally throw folks under the bus -- otherwise very good folks too. But otherwise I agree. The market has been quick to hire and fire which makes building and retaining talent difficult. The instability of the last several years has really left things in a seemingly universal bad state.
- verelo 3y agoThat’s a good point. I guess this is just how it goes right now. I’ve found that retaining members on a team is the best hack for high performance. You need management bought into paying them well and giving you some autonomy around HR processes and what you work on, but if you can do it i believe the returns are real.