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“Manager READMEs” from some tech companies

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Re: “Manager READMEs” from some tech companies

#82
post #77

I wonder how many direct reports these managers have. Does anyone have insight? I believe 1on1 is good from my experience in companies where there is a lot of change and a lot going on the #1 feedback I get is people want more information, more 1on1, more team time. With roughly 40 direct reports 1on1 is nearly impossible with the other demands.

At one time I had multiple teams with 16 direct reports - at that point it was very hard to have a weekly cadence for 1:1's with everyone, as that would've been 8 hours a week. My solution to this was to start with bi-weekly 1:1's, having 8 people scheduled one week, the other 8 the following week. Then each week I had office hours scheduled - this was time dedicated to the team to be able to book my time and was not allowed to be booked for any other meetings - this way people who wanted to meet on an off week could. The second step was determine who could (and wanted) to step up in to management roles - ultimately, this lead to promoting two managers under me, and moving their direct reports to being a monthly skip level 1:1, reducing my overall bi-weekly 1:1's across my part of the org.

Re: “Manager READMEs” from some tech companies

#83
post #80

>We work for 9.5 to 10 hours a day. Some people start early (7AM) some later (9:45AM), and go home accordingly.[1] This is from the "Expectations" section of one of the linked "READMEs" (Forter's). Does anyone else this is a very aggressive expectation? [1]: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1sx5ssYb_xMrmwPpyjD5xP7Rv...

Doesn't this mean that the office operates 9.5 to 10 hours a day because people work schedules are different? Means not that a single person works that much, not even the Manager but it could mean that its expect to get requests at any time in these 10h.

Re: “Manager READMEs” from some tech companies

#84

There seems to be a fair amount of skepticism about this method, but I think it’s a great system - and it can with great success be extended to everyone else in the company too - not just managers. At Dropbox, a lot of employees have (and we’re all encouraged to have) a “Working with me” document that describes your personality and work style, how you like to get and receive feedback, your career goals, your schedule…

Were the "working with me" documents started by employees or was that something someone pitched/asked for from management? I'd like to do like that. Even as an individual contributor, there are times where I find myself describing my working style or communication style to new teammates.

Re: “Manager READMEs” from some tech companies

#85
post #80

>We work for 9.5 to 10 hours a day. Some people start early (7AM) some later (9:45AM), and go home accordingly.[1] This is from the "Expectations" section of one of the linked "READMEs" (Forter's). Does anyone else this is a very aggressive expectation? [1]: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1sx5ssYb_xMrmwPpyjD5xP7Rv...

Doesn't this mean that the office operates 9.5 to 10 hours a day because people work schedules are different? Means not that a single person works that much, not even the Manager but it could mean that its expect to get requests at any time in these 10h.

No, it means each person works 9.5 to 10 hours per day and can set his/her start/stop times accordingly to achieve that.

Re: “Manager READMEs” from some tech companies

#88
post #80

>We work for 9.5 to 10 hours a day. Some people start early (7AM) some later (9:45AM), and go home accordingly.[1] This is from the "Expectations" section of one of the linked "READMEs" (Forter's). Does anyone else this is a very aggressive expectation? [1]: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1sx5ssYb_xMrmwPpyjD5xP7Rv...

Forter is an Israeli company, unfortunately 10 hours/day is now a norm in Israel.

Re: “Manager READMEs” from some tech companies

#89
post #65
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…

> the Steam client has been awfully stagnant

I’ll say. Every time I open it the only thing I can focus on are the close/minimise/maximise buttons that are still on the pre-Yosemite style.

Re: “Manager READMEs” from some tech companies

#90
post #80

>We work for 9.5 to 10 hours a day. Some people start early (7AM) some later (9:45AM), and go home accordingly.[1] This is from the "Expectations" section of one of the linked "READMEs" (Forter's). Does anyone else this is a very aggressive expectation? [1]: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1sx5ssYb_xMrmwPpyjD5xP7Rv...

Forter is an Israeli company, unfortunately 10 hours/day is now a norm in Israel.

From my month in Israel working at a startup, it seems like long lunches and smoke breaks are also a norm. Maybe they compensate?
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