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Tell HN: Beware 'Ungrowth' in Your Job

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Re: Tell HN: Beware 'Ungrowth' in Your Job

#191

Post by chasd00 »

hacksoi wrote: post #184
buscoquadnary wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This right here. I realized long ago I should do whatever I can to the best of my ability. If my superiors want to do something stupid or use my skillet in a suboptimal way my responsibility is to do my best to council with them, share what I see and then do the best job I can at whatever I am assigned to, assuming over course it doesn't cross legal or moral boundaries. My job is not my Identity we have an economic a…

Your job should be your identity. You do it 8 hours a day. Your growth is extremely important. Ideally your job aligns with your values. If you haven't found this job yet you should keep searching. Do not complicate this with "economic arrangements" - you're just afraid.

> Your job should be your identity

if your job is your identity then be sure and put away some savings for therapy. The moment something happens to your job outside your control like getting laid off, company going under, workplace harassment, even nasty office politics then a mental crisis will soon follow.

Re: Tell HN: Beware 'Ungrowth' in Your Job

#192

Post by P5fRxh5kUvp2th »

theincredulousk wrote: post #141

There is a leadership book called "First Break all the Rules - What the World's Greatest Managers Do Differently". It's data driven by a large meta-survey and research project. One of the conclusions was that, essentially, the normal instinct with Performance Management to focus on improving weaknesses is wrong and leads to sub-optimal outcomes. The best managers actually doubled down on each individuals strengths, a…

Oh wow, you mean every book in existence got it wrong until this book came along and now we have THE ANSWER?!?!?!

Thank god they solved that problem!

No, this is typical "The only way to be smarter than everyone else is to do it different so I gotta do it different".

good managers are good because they're good managers, not because of this 1 weird trick.

Re: Tell HN: Beware 'Ungrowth' in Your Job

#193

Post by drewcoo »

ajkjk wrote: post #107
mattw2121 wrote: post #9

I had a situation once where we had a minor re-org and I ended up with a new manager. Literally day one, he made an attempt to change everyone's role. We were a team of developers and business analysts. He decided that everyone would become both and spend 50% of their time on each activity. Not sure why he thought this was a good idea, but he did. After he announced it, I had a 1x1 with him and clearly let him know t…

> I had a 1x1 with him and clearly let him know that he was the boss and I'd do my best to accomplish anything he assigned me. Never understood this attitude. I'd have told him that what he was doing was very inappropriate (without buy-in from the team), and if he doesn't back off I'll quit. He can ask around for other opinions so it's not just coming from me but it's a hard line. Of course this mostly works cause as…

You're treating it like a career.

The parent is treating it like a job.

No judgement from me on this, but that's the difference.

Re: Tell HN: Beware 'Ungrowth' in Your Job

#195

Post by braingenious »

buscoquadnary wrote: post #24
mattw2121 wrote: post #9

I had a situation once where we had a minor re-org and I ended up with a new manager. Literally day one, he made an attempt to change everyone's role. We were a team of developers and business analysts. He decided that everyone would become both and spend 50% of their time on each activity. Not sure why he thought this was a good idea, but he did. After he announced it, I had a 1x1 with him and clearly let him know t…

This right here. I realized long ago I should do whatever I can to the best of my ability. If my superiors want to do something stupid or use my skillet in a suboptimal way my responsibility is to do my best to council with them, share what I see and then do the best job I can at whatever I am assigned to, assuming over course it doesn't cross legal or moral boundaries. My job is not my Identity we have an economic a…

>My job is not my Identity we have an economic arrangement I do what I am asked to do

…within the predefined framework of “roles”

>If my boss wants to pay me a SWE salary and then insists I clean out the break room fridge on Friday that is his perogrative not mine.

Your wording here is kind of vague. Are you saying that you would acquiesce to anything a boss requests?

What if it’s not the breakroom but a public bathroom? What if instead of cleaning it’s foot rubs? Would you taste test exotic foods for your boss? Babysit their kids?

If the answer to any of these is even remotely close to “yes”, then to you there is no such thing as a software engineer or a software engineer’s salary. There would only be only servants and sovereigns, and servants’ wages.

Re: Tell HN: Beware 'Ungrowth' in Your Job

#196

Post by duxup »

satellites wrote: post #127
duxup wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So many developer stories out there where it doesn't sound like they ever really had a direct talk with their boss.

Every time I raise an issue like this with a manager, the manager makes all the right noises but nothing actually changes. Maybe I’m just not direct enough. But I’ve never had a conversation with a boss about an issue like a role mismatch and had it actually work out. Months will go by with no progress, multiple check ins with the same conversations, until I’m fed up and I leave. Maybe I haven’t lucked out and found…

If you raise the issues, made it clear how you feel about it ... then you've communicated.

Actions do count after that.

Communication is just the first step, after that it isn't always required if they've demonstrated they won't / can't do a thing(s).

Re: Tell HN: Beware 'Ungrowth' in Your Job

#197

Post by j0hnyl »

hacksoi wrote: post #184
buscoquadnary wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This right here. I realized long ago I should do whatever I can to the best of my ability. If my superiors want to do something stupid or use my skillet in a suboptimal way my responsibility is to do my best to council with them, share what I see and then do the best job I can at whatever I am assigned to, assuming over course it doesn't cross legal or moral boundaries. My job is not my Identity we have an economic a…

Your job should be your identity. You do it 8 hours a day. Your growth is extremely important. Ideally your job aligns with your values. If you haven't found this job yet you should keep searching. Do not complicate this with "economic arrangements" - you're just afraid.

This is such awful advice. Some folks are lucky to have the job/identity thing going on, but for everyone else it's a means to an end, and that's fine.

Re: Tell HN: Beware 'Ungrowth' in Your Job

#198

Post by SoftTalker »

1. The person who signs your paycheck (or the digital equivalent) is the one who gets to decide what your job is and what they need you to do.

2. If it's not a fit, it's not a personal indictment. Move on. Not everything you do in life works out. However, if this happens over and over, it might be you.

Re: Tell HN: Beware 'Ungrowth' in Your Job

#199

Post by alexfromapex »

This almost always comes from a bad manager. I think our industry needs to hold managers more accountable to growing their subordinates in the direction of their careers they want. If they can't, they shouldn't be managers, it's really that simple. Some may argue that personal growth is not important to the business but in reality it is because if the employees don't feel like they're growing then they leave and it costs money in churn. Look at how much Amazon's churn is costing them, it's in the billions of dollars.

Re: Tell HN: Beware 'Ungrowth' in Your Job

#200

Post by maerF0x0 »

emeraldd wrote: post #168
theincredulousk wrote: post #141

There is a leadership book called "First Break all the Rules - What the World's Greatest Managers Do Differently". It's data driven by a large meta-survey and research project. One of the conclusions was that, essentially, the normal instinct with Performance Management to focus on improving weaknesses is wrong and leads to sub-optimal outcomes. The best managers actually doubled down on each individuals strengths, a…

If you think about it MMO strategies involve picking players how fit specific roles: tank - can soak up damage and keep the big bad focused on them dps - does damage to the target while healer - makes sure everyone stays "alive" through the fight. Mismatching roles never really works well. You get similar patterns in the "real world". You're people person does well with end users, etc .. It's a more diverse group (so…

Or baseball. A good back catcher doesnt need to pitch.
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