31–40 of 79 posts
Perhaps it's cultural (I'm from the UK), but I can't imagine writing something so painfully self-absorbed - and then expecting people to read it.
Generally, when someone suffixes their name in a non-scholarly context with "PhD" that's usually the first clue that it's going to be pretentious and/or self absorbed.
Perhaps it's cultural (I'm from the UK), but I can't imagine writing something so painfully self-absorbed - and then expecting people to read it.
I also cannot understand the obsession with 30 minutes of 1:1 every week.
I consider that an extreme version of micromanagement. Give us developers the big picture so we know what we need to work on and can see what's important in which way, and we will find out how it's done.
If you don't trust developers to be able to communicate and plan complex jobs without 30 minutes of 1:1, how can you write "excellent communication skills" in the job posting?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I've probably seen 'subordinate' used in the same contexts. 'managee' is awful but is at least analogous to 'employer/employee'.
"Subordinate" seems even worse to me. That institutionalizes the power differential and the idea that managers are "above" their direct reports.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Why would you give employees a guide to their manager when you could give them an "Employee README" that is focused on the new employee? Why not do both? "Hey folks, here's my README, I'd encourage you to write something similar and share it with everybody."
What on Earth can/should an employee write other than "I'll come in when expected and do my work to the best of my abilities while being professional?" I'm certainly not writing anything about my personal life because that's personal and, quite frankly, none of your business. I have a tragic backstory that I don't want to share with coworkers. It's my job to overcome my past and be effective and productive at work, n…
There's a whole host of instruments that more mature companies use to uncover the different working styles and professional psychologies of employees. E.g. knowing that one colleague wants just the facts and isn't interested in the back-story whereas another wants lots of context can be very useful and ultimately help one become more effective professionally.
In Silicon Valley, people managers can easily be a waste of time and money, and can cause unnecessary drama on your team. Think about the kind of so-called developer who would rather manage people than write code.
We still need founders, executives, directors, advisors, etc. don't get me wrong. But has anyone ever come across an engineering manager worth their salt? Why did we start deploying people managers en masse to engineering teams? I miss the holy trinity setup: Dev, designer, PM. It worked well IMO.
Our industry is shooting itself in the foot with Engineering Managers. The ones I've come across are self-obsessed, as evidenced in these cringeworthy READMEs and this article that was written.
I wrote one for myself that is yet to be published. Will give it a 2nd thought. The reason I thought it would be helpful is that I am not a high feedback person. I seldom praise (need to work on that), I am not expressive, I've been told I 'play my cards close to the vest.' by someone who directly reported to me. That really got me thinking that maybe the circumstances where I am not getting what I want is because my…
The reason I would be afraid to standardize manager READMEs is specifically that I do not trust the average manager to publicly acknowledge and privately work on flaws like that. For managers who do that, I’m not that concerned about the exercise because it’s more likely to produce something useful for the employees. For the other type of manager, I’d be afraid of accidentally creating the expectation that the employee needs to adopt the manager’s style, which I would privately recommend to any employee, but which I would vehemently oppose as anything resembling an official expectation.
IMO the best managers learn to change their behaviors based on each report's needs and doesn't request that their reports conform to the manager's needs.
I had to read this sentence twice before understanding that a "report" is a person. Maybe that has become accepted terminology in some circles. I hope not. It's terribly dehumanizing.
It's usually written as "direct report" to differentiate from your boss's boss, who you indirectly report to.
From the OED:
noun: report; plural noun: reports
4.an employee who is supervised by another employee.
Unpopular opinion: In Silicon Valley, people managers can easily be a waste of time and money, and can cause unnecessary drama on your team. Think about the kind of so-called developer who would rather manage people than write code. We still need founders, executives, directors, advisors, etc. don't get me wrong. But has anyone ever come across an engineering manager worth their salt? Why did we start deploying peopl…
What is the difference between a manager and an executive? A manager is an executive of a small part of a large org.
IMO the best managers learn to change their behaviors based on each report's needs and doesn't request that their reports conform to the manager's needs.
I had to read this sentence twice before understanding that a "report" is a person. Maybe that has become accepted terminology in some circles. I hope not. It's terribly dehumanizing.
I'm a manager, I report to someone (my manager, who also reports to someone) and likewise I've people who report to me (my reports).
It doesn't change that we're all people, with our own quirks, personalities and emotions.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Why would you give employees a guide to their manager when you could give them an "Employee README" that is focused on the new employee? Why not do both? "Hey folks, here's my README, I'd encourage you to write something similar and share it with everybody."
> Why not do both? "Hey folks, here's my README, I'd encourage you to write something similar and share it with everybody." When it comes to team building, I think it's much more valuable to say "this is how we operate" instead of having everyone write down "this is how I operate". The former is a mutual guidebook for everyone to work together, while the latter feels like an edict that everyone else needs to work aro…