I absolutely hate daily standups. I switched jobs to a company that holds one "standup" a week, and my stress has dropped significantly and my productivity has increased. Daily standups were draining my energy much more than I realized at the time.
Ask HN: Does anyone else have anxiety during standup?
31–40 of 43 posts
Re: Ask HN: Does anyone else have anxiety during standup?
#32A previous job was like this, and I am a very uneven worker - sometimes I do a lot when I'm in the flow, sometimes I hardly do anything (despite wanting to). On those days when I hadn't done much, my manager, the product manager, and the project manager, would all imply pretty strongly I hadn't done enough at the next standup, and ask why I hadn't done more, and so on. Pretty stressful. What I started to do was, when…
Great! Now we have to manage the "managers" and also do the work.
Re: Ask HN: Does anyone else have anxiety during standup?
#33A previous job was like this, and I am a very uneven worker - sometimes I do a lot when I'm in the flow, sometimes I hardly do anything (despite wanting to). On those days when I hadn't done much, my manager, the product manager, and the project manager, would all imply pretty strongly I hadn't done enough at the next standup, and ask why I hadn't done more, and so on. Pretty stressful. What I started to do was, when…
Great! Now we have to manage the "managers" and also do the work.
You nearly always have to “manage up”.
Re: Ask HN: Does anyone else have anxiety during standup?
#34A previous job was like this, and I am a very uneven worker - sometimes I do a lot when I'm in the flow, sometimes I hardly do anything (despite wanting to). On those days when I hadn't done much, my manager, the product manager, and the project manager, would all imply pretty strongly I hadn't done enough at the next standup, and ask why I hadn't done more, and so on. Pretty stressful. What I started to do was, when…
"an uneven worker" sums me up nicely.
Re: Ask HN: Does anyone else have anxiety during standup?
#35For the record, the 100% correct answer to your name being called in standup is, "I am working on the task which is In Development. It will be delivered to the QA team on time. No blockers."
Re: Ask HN: Does anyone else have anxiety during standup?
#3630 min standups? That gives me anxiety just reading that. Unless there’s a legit reason standup should be like five min tops.
What’s blocking you?
Anything else, including what you’re working on, should just go in slack or better yet if you have a B tier or better manager, should be visible on a board somewhere for them and your team to see.
Re: Ask HN: Does anyone else have anxiety during standup?
#37A previous job was like this, and I am a very uneven worker - sometimes I do a lot when I'm in the flow, sometimes I hardly do anything (despite wanting to). On those days when I hadn't done much, my manager, the product manager, and the project manager, would all imply pretty strongly I hadn't done enough at the next standup, and ask why I hadn't done more, and so on. Pretty stressful. What I started to do was, when…
I have also used this strategy with great success.
If there is micro-management, where people are looking at numbers and times of commits or ticket updates or whatever instead of outcomes and impact, it only makes sense to give them what they (think they) want.
In terms of standup updates, if the audience wants some 5 minute summary, it can be given, it doesn't need to be reflective of the reality of the past 24 hours, it could include some content saved up from previous days, etc.
Re: Ask HN: Does anyone else have anxiety during standup?
#3830 min standups? That gives me anxiety just reading that. Unless there’s a legit reason standup should be like five min tops. What’s blocking you? Anything else, including what you’re working on, should just go in slack or better yet if you have a B tier or better manager, should be visible on a board somewhere for them and your team to see.
Yeah, we have 30 minute standups, and they often overrun. We don't, on the other hand, have grooming or estimation sessions or retros. The result is that the same issues plague us each sprint, not least badly defined stories ending up in the sprint.
Re: Ask HN: Does anyone else have anxiety during standup?
#39Earlier quoted context omitted.
this is the way, surprised others don't use this. From working in the corporate world, 60% of the job is just keeping a certain kind of appearance up.
Yeah. But man what a shit way to get by in life.
well, there are worse ways to get by in life. After many years of software engineering, i no longer find the work i do that challenging or meaningful, it is just something to do to pay the bills.
Re: Ask HN: Does anyone else have anxiety during standup?
#40Especially in bigger companies, a part of your job isn't to necessarily be productive all of the time, but to have the appearance of productivity so your managers can report to their managers that everything is going at maximum efficiency. Devote some time every week to come up with a pile of bullet points of potential accomplishments/tasks you did so you always have something irrefutable to say to cover your ass. Always have some bullet points in reserve you're ready to speak about in a pinch.
I think meeting occasionally to discuss a project is great, but anything non-trivial in technology takes days or weeks or longer, not hours. 2 standups a day is highly counterproductive. Have you talked with your fellow engineers about this?