By the same token, you're probably more likely to be happy at work if your boss knows nothing of your job, rather than a little.
Employees are happier when led by people with deep expertise
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Re: Employees are happier when led by people with deep expertise
#12The most surprising part about this to me is that this matters at the top. Sure, for a middle manager it makes sense that it matters quite a bit. I'm pretty surprised that it matters much at the top, though. If Elon Musk decided to head a major grocery chain I wouldn't stop to consider whether his lack of experience in retail groceries mattered much. But maybe it does? Really interesting to see the analogy extend to…
Did Elon Musk have a lot of experience in self-driving cars or space rockets before Tesla?
Also an excellent point!
Re: Employees are happier when led by people with deep expertise
#13I remember being taught how to mop a floor by the store manager at a supermarket. It's a very small thing but it added to my positive feeling about the company.
Re: Employees are happier when led by people with deep expertise
#14>The benefit of having a highly competent boss is easily the largest positive influence on a typical worker’s level of job satisfaction This is one of those great discoveries that is hardly surprising and makes you wonder why it hadn't be seen before. Honestly some of my worst work experiences were getting jerked around by a superior who completely failed to understand the work required to do my job.
This is one of those great discoveries that is hardly surprising and makes you wonder why it hadn't be seen before.
Well, the traditional view of "management" is that it's a distinct job from "doing". Therefore, so the thinking goes, there is a distinct difference in skillsets, and thus the manager should be good at the managing bit, and the doer should be good at the doing bit.
The reality is that in order to effectively manage, you have to understand what the doers are actually doing.
Interestingly, this relates to a topic that came up yesterday about product managers (who are not "managers" in a traditional sense). Every time I see complaints about PMs, the root cause often starts with the PM not understanding how software is built and how developers work. Thus they disregard practical technical realities. Those folks describe as a "good" PM are often those with a technical background... who could, as it happens, do your job if needed.
Re: Employees are happier when led by people with deep expertise
#15>The benefit of having a highly competent boss is easily the largest positive influence on a typical worker’s level of job satisfaction This is one of those great discoveries that is hardly surprising and makes you wonder why it hadn't be seen before. Honestly some of my worst work experiences were getting jerked around by a superior who completely failed to understand the work required to do my job.
Because what your boss does, day-to-day, is very different than what you do. So it seems natural that they'd need different skills.
I'm a software engineer, and hiring managers has been a problem at every company I've worked at. You want someone who has written software earlier in their career, and has a degree in software engineering or similar. In other words, people who have chosen to spend a lot of time with computers -- devices that are very logical and literal.
But you also want someone who has good people skills. In other words, someone who chooses to spend a lot of time organizing other people, maybe was on the yearbook club in high school, that sort of thing.
And you don't want their knowledge of software construction to not be too out of date. So you want someone at a very specific point in their career, i.e. a few years after giving up coding.
Re: Employees are happier when led by people with deep expertise
#16This is why, all other things being equal, it's better for an engineer to work for an engineering driven company (Facebook) rather than a sales driven one (Oracle).
The opposite is probably true for a salesperson.
Re: Employees are happier when led by people with deep expertise
#17This is really interesting. I don't know if it reaches the level of detail necessary to understand how it influences lots of tech work.
E.g., "employees are far happier when they are led by people with deep expertise in the core activity of the business." Well, I have deep experience in IT and building websites, but I'm not a great programmer and I have had devs reporting to me who were concerned about that (so I've worked on supporting them in other ways).
Re: Employees are happier when led by people with deep expertise
#18The most surprising part about this to me is that this matters at the top. Sure, for a middle manager it makes sense that it matters quite a bit. I'm pretty surprised that it matters much at the top, though. If Elon Musk decided to head a major grocery chain I wouldn't stop to consider whether his lack of experience in retail groceries mattered much. But maybe it does? Really interesting to see the analogy extend to…
Did Elon Musk have a lot of experience in self-driving cars or space rockets before Tesla?
Maybe not experience, but he certainly had passion and interest in space. I don't think you could have consider him uninformed on the subjects.
Re: Employees are happier when led by people with deep expertise
#19This not exactly surprising but yes, it's nice to be able to talk to your boss about the subtleties of my work. This is what makes work interesting. I hate when it's clear that all he is interested in are deadlines and budgets.
The only thing my manager is interested in, is if i solve their customers problems correctly. Most of them have little to no knowledge of computer systems. This usually applies to both the customer and the manager.
There are virtually no any other meaningful rewards than the paycheck.
It pays the bills, which is about the only reason i have this job anyway.
Re: Employees are happier when led by people with deep expertise
#20I've had a boss who was very competent technically, but was completely incompetent as a people manager. Somehow he rose to a VP level, but still wanted to micromanage everything down to individual code reviews. It was comical at times. Eventually he was fired.
Successful managers need both people and technical skills. That is why it isn't an easy job.