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> the manager is the agent and is assumed to have the firm's best interests in mind, but in reality doesn't. Every manager I had at every major multinational c
by Rinzler89 3y ago
> the manager is the agent and is assumed to have the firm's best interests in mind, but in reality doesn't.
Every manager I had at every major multinational company only had the interest of their own career progression in mind, not the company's, not their team's. You as an employee under them were just a means to their goal, nothing more. I naively assumed that making them look good and doing the overtime when needed to achieve their idiotic deadlines would also guarantee my ascension later, but boy was I gullible and wrong.
Going the extra mile for your boss might work out for you when everything goes smooth in the org in times of economic prosperity when there's room for everyone to move up, but when the org or economy went tits up, and things were being put on chopping block, those managers didn't hesitate to grab the only parachute for themselves and let their team sink or throw them under the bus to save themselves at the tune of "So Long and Thanks for all the Fish", so I learned the valuable lesson to not go the extra mile for any boss unless I have written guarantees of a reward.
It's the way the reward system is set up in these companies. Climb the ladder and kick it under you after you dangle the carrot in front of naive idiots to push you up that ladder for rewards they might never see. I think someone called it "the GE way".
- pyuser583 3y agoI’ve been fortunate to have some very good managers. That’s why I find this idea so horrible. I wouldn’t be where I am now if I had to “self-organize.”
- Rinzler89 3y agoI never said all managers all bad or that they should be removed and employees should self organize instead. Managers are needed so that ICs can focus on the work, the problem is that a lot of large companies, especially from traditional industries, tend to create some of the worst kinds of managers possible because their incentives are the worst.
- whoknowsidont 3y ago>I’ve been fortunate to have some very good managers. Every time I've seen this sentiment and asked for something concrete on what made them good managers I get answered with platitudes or "nice-isms." At this point in my career, the emperor has no clothes. There are no good managers, only good peers.
- maccard 3y agoI’ve had good managers and bad managers. As an IC, a good manager will shield you from the chaos, infighting, changing priorities and ever shifting timelines. They will ensure that you are aware of what’s going on, and have enough clarity to be able to proceed. A bad manager will most likely try to help by exposing you to all of the above, and cause you get caught up in all of the confusion that comes with it. Just one example.
- danielscrubs 3y agoTo piggy back on it. A good manager will shield you from other bad managers and outsourcing firms promising the moon. Quite a sad state of affairs.
- maccard 3y agoI think it’s important to say that they also protect from rogue/drive by superstar IC’s. The ones who will come along and “fix” your problem, leaving a mess that nobody understands behind them that makes them look competent and your team incompetent, when in reality they’ve just half assed the job. I’ve seen managers stand up for their teams and defend against those guys successfully.
- rgblambda 3y agoIt really reveals how clueless some managers are when they sing praises of the "rockstar" IC who from day 1 trash talked their coworkers and broke everything they touched before leaving after a few months to do the same somewhere else. It shows how managers often just base their opinions on vibes given in meetings and don't care to understand anything they're managing.
- maccard 3y agoYou can replace managers with ICs, QA, product owners, Executives, anyone really. It’s not a trait inherent to managers.
- datascienced 3y agoI dream of a graduation speech where someone says all of this stuff, or even a proper uni course “avoiding corporate bullshit in a narcissistic world and how to sue your landlord” … except the donors wont like this!
- throw156754228 3y agoI meet the idiotic deadlines, but then just take sick day(s) to make up for the ot.
- wing-_-nuts 3y ago>unless I have written guarantees of a reward. I'm sorry, this seems almost impossible unless you're a contractor with that explicitly stated in your contract.