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Manager's Handbook (2020)

themanagershandbook.com

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Re: Manager's Handbook (2020)

#131

Post by [deleted] »

khazhoux wrote: post #129
dominotw wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Of course. Goes without saying. Helping people increase their productivity --through clear communication-- is one of the main jobs of an eng manager. Curious why people are 'bewildered' on your team when you have to clearly pointed out the to get promotion you have crank out maximum number of features than anyone else ( for example). There was also failure to 'increase their productivity' if they are taking 2 weeks…

Over the years, it’s really only been a small number of people who constantly push for promotion without stepping up their own game. Their failures are often an inability to finish tasks. Or they ask for more challenging work (e.g., singing up to kick off and lead a new project we all want to see happen) and then they just fizzle out. Their frustration (and “bewilderment”) stems from the gap in what they want to acco…

[deleted]

Re: Manager's Handbook (2020)

#132

Post by eastbayjake »

iamthemonster wrote: post #65
rebeccaskinner wrote: post #37

I really dislike the idea that people should be required to have their cameras on for all meetings. I think for people who rarely see one another in person, it can be good to try to encourage people to be on video occasionally, but when and how often should really be left up to the individual. As a manager, I make it a point to try to turn my own video on most of the time, but I'd never ask someone to turn their came…

I'm not sure how common this experience is, but my company seems to have spontaneously settled into a great habit - cameras on (some with digital backgrounds) for the "hey how you going, how was your weekend?" niceties at the start, then cameras off when we get into the meat of it.

This feels like a thoughtful way to balance "Zoom fatigue" (which is very real) with the (also very real) need for human connection and interpersonal relationship building

Re: Manager's Handbook (2020)

#133

Post by SecurityLagoon »

DavidSharff wrote: post #104
rebeccaskinner wrote: post #37

I really dislike the idea that people should be required to have their cameras on for all meetings. I think for people who rarely see one another in person, it can be good to try to encourage people to be on video occasionally, but when and how often should really be left up to the individual. As a manager, I make it a point to try to turn my own video on most of the time, but I'd never ask someone to turn their came…

+1 from a manager of a fully remote small team. I find the mental overhead of the always-on camera exhausting, and I prefer voice only communication for certain types of conversations so I can dedicate all my processing power to what's being said. I also pace when I'm thinking, make coffee, lay down, etc. In a pleasant twist of fate, migrating our full company (20ish people) into gather.town has largely made it a moo…

That's really interesting. I have used gather.town for conferences before and it works really well - but I haven't seen it used on an ongoing basis. It does make sense in a lot of ways to incorporate some of those physical cues of an office environment into a WFH setting.

Re: Manager's Handbook (2020)

#134

Post by DavidSharff »

SecurityLagoon wrote: post #133
DavidSharff wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

+1 from a manager of a fully remote small team. I find the mental overhead of the always-on camera exhausting, and I prefer voice only communication for certain types of conversations so I can dedicate all my processing power to what's being said. I also pace when I'm thinking, make coffee, lay down, etc. In a pleasant twist of fate, migrating our full company (20ish people) into gather.town has largely made it a moo…

That's really interesting. I have used gather.town for conferences before and it works really well - but I haven't seen it used on an ongoing basis. It does make sense in a lot of ways to incorporate some of those physical cues of an office environment into a WFH setting.

It's strange but really cool to zoom out and see various meetings between people in different rooms, or when we bring an outside contact into our space for a meeting you can introduce them to coworkers ad-hoc (like a real office).

Swinging by with a guest, like other real world experiences translated into a 2D world, require developing a new set of social norms. For instance, if you're screen sharing through their app, you won't see someone approaching and the screen share feed will show up expanded by default for whomever enters. That can be problematic for a number of reasons (client data, personal info you were sharing with a close coworker, etc.).

We also have recreated games like tag using the confetti feature, have rituals like hitting a lap around the entire space on go karts after code reviews, and occasionally raid Client Experience's office for supplies.

It is a jealous god when it comes to CPU though and since modern JS environments are greedy as well, my fan gets a lot of work.

Re: Manager's Handbook (2020)

#135

Post by banannaise »

thesumofall wrote: post #74
rebeccaskinner wrote: post #37

I really dislike the idea that people should be required to have their cameras on for all meetings. I think for people who rarely see one another in person, it can be good to try to encourage people to be on video occasionally, but when and how often should really be left up to the individual. As a manager, I make it a point to try to turn my own video on most of the time, but I'd never ask someone to turn their came…

I must admit I’m one of those always-on people and everyone in our team does so. For those speaking I feel it is quite rude to not give them any visual cue on how they are doing: I’m I understood? Are my points appreciated? Do I bore people? Are people even listening? Personally, I think the only good reasons to turn off a camera are either technical issues or if you indeed briefly want to send the message “I am dist…

This is not at all easy for neurodivergent people. This comment reeks of "why can't you all just be normal and not weird?"

Re: Manager's Handbook (2020)

#136

Post by banannaise »

cscurmudgeon wrote: post #44
ericb wrote: post #42

> The first time someone doesn’t meet an agreement, you point it out to them immediately. If they apologize, you respond that apologies are not needed, and all that is required is that they only make agreements that they can commit to and that they meet all the agreements they make. If the person continues to fail at these, there is only one consequence that makes sense: they can no longer be part of the company.” Th…

> all that is required is that they only make agreements that they can commit to and that they meet all the agreements they make. An when you do that, the toxic manager responds with "Is that all you can do?"

Yeah, this is the equivalent of "people should be allowed to agree to any contract, and that contract should be strictly enforced." It completely ignores the very existence of power dynamics.
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