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“Manager READMEs” from some tech companies

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Re: “Manager READMEs” from some tech companies

#61

Post by greglindahl »

SeanLockItUp wrote: post #53
ggambetta wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Whenever I've managed people, I've made a point of scheduling weekly 1:1s; did that even with 12 or so reports, and it did take a significant chunk of time, but it was IMO one of the most important things, if not the most important thing, I could do for them as a manager (and also the one I enjoyed the most about the role). As other commenters have said, the 1:1 time is the report's time. It's a chunk of time in whic…

I don't know but when I was reading your comment I just kept thinking that the weekly 1:1 that you're advocating is being done for your reports is really just being done for yourself. I'm with the OP that 1:1 every 2 weeks is better.

Is once per two weeks better for you, or also for everyone else? I've noticed that people are pretty wildly different as employees. And that it's a lot easier to ask for fewer 1:1s than to ask for more.

Re: “Manager READMEs” from some tech companies

#62

Post by [deleted] »

bitL wrote: post #60
jedberg wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If I tell you what I want you won't be engaged or excited. Also, I may not tell you the right thing -- it may not play to all your strengths or what you are interested in right now. If I tell you what the company goals are and our teams goals, and then ask you how you can use your unique talents to help us achieve those goals, you'll be much more engaged in the work, and also have a greater understanding of how your…

I firmly believe cooperative talented people can self-manage and drive vision better than any top-down authority. I can understand it won't work with people that go to work just for money though.

[deleted]

Re: “Manager READMEs” from some tech companies

#64

Post by Izkata »

silveroriole wrote: post #8

Interesting that many seem to prefer weekly 1:1s. That seems far too much to me. I would absolutely dread having to spend so much time on that with my manager or my managees and I can’t imagine there are substantial benefits to it (does anyone REALLY have meaningful thoughts about their job/career path EVERY WEEK?)

One thing to distinguish is whether that's a scheduled opportunity or a forced occurrence.

For example, I have weekly scheduled 1:1s with my manager, as does everyone else he manages (we can see the times on his calendar), but rarely do we actually chat every single week. I think my last one was 2 or 3 weeks ago.

Additionally, my manager isn't actually on the team, and has no idea what goes on day-to-day. Our 1:1s are usually him getting caught up on what the team is doing and my perspective on our newer team members, rather than anything about myself. Often it gets sidetracked by something totally unrelated - one of these 1:1s was how I learned his favorite superhero is the Hulk, though I don't remember at all how the conversation actually got there.

Being able to chat often like that, and get comfortable talking to your manager, makes it a lot easier when you actually need to talk to them about something important.

Re: “Manager READMEs” from some tech companies

#65

Post by cwyers »

bitL wrote: post #20

The best company I've ever worked for had no managers (beside owners). They made it to $1B, loved by HN crowd, their products used by many of you, and nobody ever wanted to manage anything there. People just discussed stuff and decided to do whatever looked super interesting. One team there had actually a person that was behaving like a manager, and that product completely flopped on the market.

If you mean Valve... there's a guaranteed low-effort revenue stream, the Steam client has been awfully stagnant (and the parts that are client-only, like your games library, are the most stagnant of all -- Steam has slowly added tools to help curate the store, but none of those things like tags have made their way to the library, and if you've ever binged at a few Steam Sales and bought some Humble Bundles boy could you use such tools). And a lot of the people responsible for the most beloved projects have left[1][2], and they've had a bonfire of consumer goodwill over the lack of a Half-Life 3 or Half-Life 2 Episode 3. Their last game release was in 2013 with Dota 2, unless you want to count letting Nexon release some free-to-play games using their branding and a VR demo.

What I'm saying is, maybe they could use some managers?

1) https://www.engadget.com/2017/05/02/valve-chet-faliszek-writ... 2) https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/kim-swift-leaves-valve-fo...

Re: “Manager READMEs” from some tech companies

#66

Post by Angostura »

silveroriole wrote: post #8

Interesting that many seem to prefer weekly 1:1s. That seems far too much to me. I would absolutely dread having to spend so much time on that with my manager or my managees and I can’t imagine there are substantial benefits to it (does anyone REALLY have meaningful thoughts about their job/career path EVERY WEEK?)

I have weekly 1 to 1s. They aren’t typically about career path or job, they are protected time so that you can go through priorities and talk about any conflicts between scheduling - and they are useful for getting your boss to commit to decisions. Sometimes they only take 15 minutes. Sometimes they take an hour.

Re: “Manager READMEs” from some tech companies

#67

Post by Angostura »

apple4ever wrote: post #23
silveroriole wrote: post #8

Interesting that many seem to prefer weekly 1:1s. That seems far too much to me. I would absolutely dread having to spend so much time on that with my manager or my managees and I can’t imagine there are substantial benefits to it (does anyone REALLY have meaningful thoughts about their job/career path EVERY WEEK?)

I thought the same thing. Weekly 1:1s are worthless. That’s coming from an employee who had to do them and a manager who refuses to do them. I found them a waste of time when I had to do them. I hated them because if I needed to discuss something with my boss I would, and I had better things to do with my time than talk to him. They are also an interruption, so even if they are only 5 minutes, that’s at least 30 minu…

Your bosses did them wrong. If there's nothing to discuss they need not take longer than 5 to 10 minutes, just a chance for you to assure the boss that there are no blockers that you need unblocked and boss to briefly tell you about stuff that may be coming up on the horizon and to make sure you’re happy.

Re: “Manager READMEs” from some tech companies

#68

Post by a_imho »

silveroriole wrote: post #8

Interesting that many seem to prefer weekly 1:1s. That seems far too much to me. I would absolutely dread having to spend so much time on that with my manager or my managees and I can’t imagine there are substantial benefits to it (does anyone REALLY have meaningful thoughts about their job/career path EVERY WEEK?)

Consider that a lot of meetings happen because people need to look busy not because what is agreed on the agenda (if there is agenda in the first place)

Re: “Manager READMEs” from some tech companies

#69

Post by diminoten »

fergie wrote: post #63

A lot of these README’s seem a bit samey. Is this a trend that was stared somewhere? Was there some dude middle-managers all look up to who suggested an example README that was used to provide inspration?

It's less about writing the same README, I think, and more about there being an industry consensus on what a "good" manager says and does.

Re: “Manager READMEs” from some tech companies

#70

Post by diminoten »

bitL wrote: post #60
jedberg wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If I tell you what I want you won't be engaged or excited. Also, I may not tell you the right thing -- it may not play to all your strengths or what you are interested in right now. If I tell you what the company goals are and our teams goals, and then ask you how you can use your unique talents to help us achieve those goals, you'll be much more engaged in the work, and also have a greater understanding of how your…

I firmly believe cooperative talented people can self-manage and drive vision better than any top-down authority. I can understand it won't work with people that go to work just for money though.

My boss has told me more than once that his goal is to get the people under him to fill the role he's currently filling as our direct manager. This is, according to him, the only way he can move upward. He currently does a decently large amount of work for us as a team, but he's trying to shift that work onto us, because as you're pointing out here, cooperative and talented people can indeed self-manage.

The problem he encounters is when that doesn't work out because no group is perfect, and frankly we're probably not ready to manage ourselves quite yet.

But I think you're onto something here, and I also think every one of the managers who wrote READMEs in this submission would agree with you. From a logistical standpoint, someone has to attend all those meetings with other teams, with the leaders of the company to hear what they're thinking and translate it for the rest of the engineers, and make sure the boring stuff like vacation time, sick leave, etc. are being looked after.

It's not really about being in charge/calling shots, it's about taking a group of talented and smart people, and making sure they're getting the info they need to keep build cool stuff.

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