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Meta to ask many managers to become individual contributors or leave

bloomberg.com

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Re: Meta to ask many managers to become individual contributors or leave

#71

Post by jchw »

firstfewshells wrote: post #43

Management is just a way to coast. I don't understand why we need to "manage" grown up adults. What we need are team leads who code and architect. Then give them the autonomy to run teams.

Running teams is management. Not everyone wants to be doing the roles involved in managing teams, so it's a designated job title. If you get rid of the hierarchy entirely, then what happens is that they form implicitly and everyone is completely confused as to who leads what, and that only gets worse as teams grow and the number of projects grow.

Some management is bullshit, but literally "run teams" is the important part. But if you get big enough, you do wind up with departments. It grows like a fractal.

Re: Meta to ask many managers to become individual contributors or leave

#72

Post by GrinningFool »

theandrewbailey wrote: post #59

What exactly is an "individual contributor"? I'm confused. This term has come out of nowhere in the past 5 years, and it sounds like you're referring to someone who backed a kickstarter campaign. If this is the new term for "employee", I'm out. I can't stand that companies refer to their customers as "consumers".

It's recognition over the last few years that the standard eng -> sr eng -> manager isn't actually a path that all engineers want, does not always suit the employee, and does not always benefit the company.

Re: Meta to ask many managers to become individual contributors or leave

#73

Post by blacksmithgu »

theandrewbailey wrote: post #59

What exactly is an "individual contributor"? I'm confused. This term has come out of nowhere in the past 5 years, and it sounds like you're referring to someone who backed a kickstarter campaign. If this is the new term for "employee", I'm out. I can't stand that companies refer to their customers as "consumers".

Individual contributor means people who directly write code (individuals who contribute), as opposed to people who manage (managers and project managers).

Re: Meta to ask many managers to become individual contributors or leave

#74

Post by henriquez »

yamtaddle wrote: post #51
switchbak wrote: post #6

The vast majority of the managers I've worked with wouldn't be particularly good ICs, not so sure of the wisdom of this move. Maybe it's a way to slow roll a bunch of layoffs.

"Here's an option you'll hate—take it, or leave" is a tried-and-true way of making people quit. "You've been re-assigned" is a common form for it to take.

Isn’t that basically constructive termination?

Re: Meta to ask many managers to become individual contributors or leave

#75

Post by [deleted] »

theandrewbailey wrote: post #59

What exactly is an "individual contributor"? I'm confused. This term has come out of nowhere in the past 5 years, and it sounds like you're referring to someone who backed a kickstarter campaign. If this is the new term for "employee", I'm out. I can't stand that companies refer to their customers as "consumers".

[deleted]

Re: Meta to ask many managers to become individual contributors or leave

#76

Post by buffet_overflow »

flashgordon wrote: post #67

I had cautiously gotten into management because I wanted to learn the skills of delegatin and really building through others and growing/coaching others. I thoroughly enjoyed this. But over time what I had realized was the role had been changing (not sure if it was just for pandering) towards being a mouth piece for leadership and hr - having to relay decisions I didn't believe in (perf seasons, promo rationales, lay…

Oh how I don’t miss those days of management.

It because a theory of mine that a large part of my job function was to simultaneously water down accountability from above, while adding enough complexity to the layers below me to discourage them from changing the status quo.

The double edged sword being, without that authority, that same power structure is forced on me, and now I’m more aware of it.

Re: Meta to ask many managers to become individual contributors or leave

#77

Post by klodolph »

r00fus wrote: post #57
disgruntledphd2 wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Look man, Apple tanked Facebooks valuation, not the Metaverse. And that's presumably why he wants the Metaverse, so he's not just a sharecropper on someone else's digital platform.

I absolutely don't know why Facebook balked at making their own phone back in the day. Facebook's entire value prop about 10-15 years ago was the fact that you could find anyone on there who you even remotely knew. Imagine (10 years ago) being able to use an FB version of Siri/Alexa to "connect me to that girl Megan from my 5th grade classroom". Sure sounds compelling. Instead FB released a half-assed "dailer app/wid…

I think Facebook didn’t have the kind of capital to do it at the time they would have needed the captial to make a phone. Keep in mind that the Windows phone was reportedly pretty good but came out in 2010 and it turned out the smart phone space didn’t give out prizes for third place. People always underestimate the cost of developing a smartphone, even when working with modern OEMs, never mind working in the 2008-2010 time frame.

Re: Meta to ask many managers to become individual contributors or leave

#78

Post by VWWHFSfQ »

r00fus wrote: post #57
disgruntledphd2 wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Look man, Apple tanked Facebooks valuation, not the Metaverse. And that's presumably why he wants the Metaverse, so he's not just a sharecropper on someone else's digital platform.

I absolutely don't know why Facebook balked at making their own phone back in the day. Facebook's entire value prop about 10-15 years ago was the fact that you could find anyone on there who you even remotely knew. Imagine (10 years ago) being able to use an FB version of Siri/Alexa to "connect me to that girl Megan from my 5th grade classroom". Sure sounds compelling. Instead FB released a half-assed "dailer app/wid…

> connect me to that girl Megan from my 5th grade classroom

if you only look at the tech then yeah it's compelling. but in reality it's creepy and people don't want it.

Re: Meta to ask many managers to become individual contributors or leave

#80

Post by vkou »

disgruntledphd2 wrote: post #15
switchbak wrote: post #6

The vast majority of the managers I've worked with wouldn't be particularly good ICs, not so sure of the wisdom of this move. Maybe it's a way to slow roll a bunch of layoffs.

It's definitely a way to reset the culture and get rid of people who don't fit what Mark is trying to achieve.

I somehow doubt Mark has great visibility into the culture of his line managers.

If he were making SVPs become ICs, I'd credit this move to him. Otherwise, it's just the big-business org doing big-business things.

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