> This looks a lot like a manager-once-removed undermining a reporting manager by supporting an engineer to go rogue. Yes, and this is unfortunately the best m

> This looks a lot like a manager-once-removed undermining a reporting manager by supporting an engineer to go rogue. Yes, and this is unfortunately the best move in many situations given how hard it is to fire people. The ideal thing to do is fire the incompetent manager who is a tax on their team rather than a multiplier. That unburdens the highly competent engineers on their team to do good work. However, that might not be possible or even a good idea. A failed hire might reflect badly on the upper manager, or prevent them from hiring a replacement. It might require a lengthy performance improvement plan, which means you have a burdened team for that whole duration. It's often easier to de-claw the bad manager, and take back on their responsibilities yourself. Not ideal, but the best of a bad situation. > This looks a lot like a manager-once-removed undermining a reporting manager by supporting an engineer to go rogue. The second red flag in all of this is that an engineer doing good work on their own is labeled "rogue". Management's job is to make people productive, if they can't realize that the best configuration for their team involves some individuals working largely separate from the managers own mediocre day-to-day ceremonies/projects, then they aren't doing their job. People that don't need to be managed are the best kind of people, if you can't spot them and leverage them, get out of management.