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Managing is a hard job, which is why so many managers are bad and yet, in spite of the efforts of C-levels for decades, the role hasn't been eliminated. There's

by madrox 1y ago

Managing is a hard job, which is why so many managers are bad and yet, in spite of the efforts of C-levels for decades, the role hasn't been eliminated. There's some wisdom in here, but I would not give this article to a new manager to read. I think it's easy to read too much into this and appear inhuman to your directs. Is there a line? Sure. Don't shit on your company, but don't do it for your directs...do it for you, because that's just not a healthy way to manage frustration. However, learn to lead in a way that's authentic. Authenticity requires candor.

palata 1y ago
> Managing is a hard job, which is why so many managers are bad Many jobs are hard, and I don't think it is a rule that most workers in hard jobs are bad. My take is multifold: - Managing takes experience. In the software industry, the evolution has been such that there aren't enough experienced people to fill all the manager positions. - Startups usually don't hire experience managers because they are deemed too expensive. They end up with inexperienced managers. If it's your first job, you never had a manager yourself, and you're suddenly managing a team, how can you be good? - It is hard to evaluate the competences of a manager. As an engineer, you can talk with another engineer and get a sense of how good/experienced they are: just ask them to talk about technology. As a manager, it seems harder to evaluate. It's easy to manage a team in a highly functional environment, so you can't say for sure that the manager is good. It's hard to manage a team in a highly disfunctional environment, so you can't say for sure that the manager is bad. - Managers are promoted from above. It's difficult to judge a manager without considering how their subordinates think about them. I have seen too many people climb the management ladder even though all of their subordinates absolutely hated them.

by madrox 1y ago

palata 1y ago

> Managing is a hard job, which is why so many managers are bad Many jobs are hard, and I don't think it is a rule that most workers in hard jobs are bad. My take is multifold: - Managing takes experience. In the software industry, the evolution has been such that there aren't enough experienced people to fill all the manager positions. - Startups usually don't hire experience managers because they are deemed too expensive. They end up with inexperienced managers. If it's your first job, you never had a manager yourself, and you're suddenly managing a team, how can you be good? - It is hard to evaluate the competences of a manager. As an engineer, you can talk with another engineer and get a sense of how good/experienced they are: just ask them to talk about technology. As a manager, it seems harder to evaluate. It's easy to manage a team in a highly functional environment, so you can't say for sure that the manager is good. It's hard to manage a team in a highly disfunctional environment, so you can't say for sure that the manager is bad. - Managers are promoted from above. It's difficult to judge a manager without considering how their subordinates think about them. I have seen too many people climb the management ladder even though all of their subordinates absolutely hated them.