Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Dick is a bad manager

ieatpaste.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

61–70 of 72 posts

Re: Dick is a bad manager

#61

Post by Terretta »

edw519 wrote: post #6

He’ll assign a task, tell you exactly how you should do it, and then "stop by" repeatedly to check on progress. Let's not forget the rest of the story: Dick is not a dick by accident. He chooses this management style to keep his people on edge. Do you recognize any of these other things... 1. Dick will omit one or two critical considerations about the task that you have no way of knowing. You're expected to gain this…

Was wondering where the "Machiavellian management style" came in, since the article merely describes a pointy-haired micromanager.

Your items are Machiavellian indeed -- misguided "cunning duplicity" to "keep his people on edge" by deceiving or manipulating for his personal gain.

See also: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1615524

Re: Dick is a bad manager

#62

Post by billswift »

martincmartin wrote: post #24
jakevoytko wrote: post #10

A Dick-style manager is a sign that you've already hired some B and C quality employees. Theoretically the only bad hire could be the manager, but I've never seen a company with just one sub-par employee. If people don't get work done, bad managers overreact. Terrible managers will also take the opportunity to overreact when everything is going smoothly. They check on tasks constantly. They run extra meetings so that…

I once worked at a company whose culture slogan was "by hackers, for hackers." They're renouned for hiring top-notch programmers, and they really do. Ironically, since hackers don't understand management, they tended to evaluate managers only on their technical skills, not (much) on their people or organizational skills. As an added bonus, the company was in a protected industry and their first product (created in st…

This sounds a lot like a concentrated, high-speed version of what I read happened with Sun. I have only read articles here and there about it though; anybody know a good analysis of Sun's problems?

Re: Dick is a bad manager

#64

Post by auxbuss »

billswift wrote: post #62
martincmartin wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I once worked at a company whose culture slogan was "by hackers, for hackers." They're renouned for hiring top-notch programmers, and they really do. Ironically, since hackers don't understand management, they tended to evaluate managers only on their technical skills, not (much) on their people or organizational skills. As an added bonus, the company was in a protected industry and their first product (created in st…

This sounds a lot like a concentrated, high-speed version of what I read happened with Sun. I have only read articles here and there about it though; anybody know a good analysis of Sun's problems?

It's not really like Sun. Sun couldn't accept that it had lost the hardware game a decade before its demise. It had great kit, it was just the market was so vanishingly small that it was never going to support the mothership. It had also lost the will to give "mavericks" the freedom to do their thing. It was firing them a decade out.

"Management" at Sun was pretty tight. It's just that it didn't require that sort of management.

Re: Dick is a bad manager

#65

Post by dkarl »

Some personality types mesh perfectly well with Dick’s Machiavellian management style. Specifically, it seems to work on people who don’t feel very attached to their jobs. They have separate, thriving lives outside of work, and are fully able to leave all baggage at their desks before they go home.

- meshing with the Dick style of management

- being attached to your job

- having a thriving life outside of work

- being able to leave work baggage at work

I admit these aren't entirely unrelated. Being able to leave baggage at your desk mitigates the damage done by Dick. Having a thriving life outside of work helps you leave your baggage at work. If you don't have a thriving life outside work, you are more likely to be attached to your job.

However, in general these four things can vary independently. For example, I once had a Dick manager I hated, was apathetic about my job, was unable to leave work baggage at work, and had a personal life that varied from thriving to nonexistent during the time I worked for that manager.

Re: Dick is a bad manager

#66

Post by Dove »

tsuraan wrote: post #13
unexpected wrote: post #12

This is a related tangent that I'd like some input on: One of the characteristics of "bad management" that's shown here is Dick constantly hovering. At my company, we've arranged the cubicles so that they still offer privacy (walls are about 6 feet high), but that anyone walking by can see what's on the computer screen. Would you qualify this as hovering? We generally have no issues with casual gchatting, facebooking…

I'm not sure about that 45 degree guy, but for turning your cube so that you face out, that's sort of natural. For some people (me...) sitting with your back to a door or an area where people are generally walking is really uncomfortable. I don't like having people behind me without knowing they're there. It's not about slacking, it's just about comfort.

A desire for privacy need not have a devious root.

When I am working on a nascent idea, I am often fanatical about privacy. I absolutely do not want my most trusted friends or colleagues to so much as look at what I am doing. Not because I am doing poor work or because they might disapprove. Rather, the mere knowledge that my work is being consumed puts me in the mode of communicating rather than creating. I begin naturally thinking in terms of clarifying and explaining and consolidating, whereas when a work is mine alone, I can freely explore and leave a mess. The effect is disasterous for poorly-formed ideas. I absolutely must explore until I understand the natural form of what I am trying to create. If I think about accomodating the eyes of others too soon, I will be hampered in my explorations and may not do my best work.

Re: Dick is a bad manager

#67

Post by mfukar »

billswift wrote: post #63
imp wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To protect against marauders ;)

Not necessarily. All it requires is that people simply don't like being startled, nothing more is required than that.

I think he was making a reference to a certain Big Bang Theory character..

Re: Dick is a bad manager

#68

Post by mfukar »

gamble wrote: post #55
mfukar wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the past, I've been working with a manager who shared, more or less, your style. The work environment was less formal, with no cubicles but desks which appeared crammed, but were similarly placed to allow the manager to snoop around with zero effort. Comfortable, but privacy was a no-no. I felt violated, for lack of a better word, in that environment. The reason was twofold. First, nobody can judge how productivel…

I've noticed that the more a manager behaves like that, the less likely it is that their own space is set up to put their back to the door.

I don't think anybody with a desk places it with their back to the wall. Lawyers, doctors, teachers, professors, secretaries...but developers are more equal.

Re: Dick is a bad manager

#69

Post by lelele »

edw519 wrote: post #6

He’ll assign a task, tell you exactly how you should do it, and then "stop by" repeatedly to check on progress. Let's not forget the rest of the story: Dick is not a dick by accident. He chooses this management style to keep his people on edge. Do you recognize any of these other things... 1. Dick will omit one or two critical considerations about the task that you have no way of knowing. You're expected to gain this…

12. Dick is the manager, you are the programmer. He earns more than you, meaning he is more prized than you by your company. So, he must be doing something right, and you better understand what it is, if you want to get ahead.
Post reply on HN