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Debate over 'fake work' and 'lazy management' in tech industry

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Re: Debate over 'fake work' and 'lazy management' in tech industry

#11

[flagged]

You can live your dream now https://news.ycombinator.com/classic Also note as you suggest the article in question does not appear on frontpage

thumbs up

Also it does not appear on the front page any longer (but that is where I saw it).

Re: Debate over 'fake work' and 'lazy management' in tech industry

#12

https://archive.is/3MbI7 (the site blocks ad-blockers, so ad-blocker users might find this URL helpful)

I have been getting this error from archive.is for two days now, I am unsure if this is on my end or what:

> An error occurred during a connection to archive.is. Cannot communicate securely with peer: no common encryption algorithm(s).

> Error code: SSL_ERROR_NO_CYPHER_OVERLAP

Re: Debate over 'fake work' and 'lazy management' in tech industry

#14

The older I get the more appalled I am at what managers are bringing to the table versus senior engineers.

I appreciate a good manager, but not really middle managers. I moved to DevOps and I report directly to a VP and it is a game-changer compared to when I reported to a middle-manager in Support.

However, the Principal (senior) Engineer I work with can be a bit of an angry ass sometimes and I am unsure he would make a good manager.

Re: Debate over 'fake work' and 'lazy management' in tech industry

#16
Just a reminder that lazy managers are the source of burnout for those who are under them. As a manager I can say, there is no easier job than just forwarding requests from directors directly to developers, not planning, and promising crazy deadlines to avoid conflict with higher management.

If someone is being paid more, this person has to work more, I have seen so many people becoming managers just to actually avoid work, or thinking that tech is too hard and too much to study. So they instead go to a whole different area where most of your previous knowledge won't be required anymore, and they don't think that they are starting from zero, so they just don't study and read 2 blog articles and think that they got how is to work with people.

Re: Debate over 'fake work' and 'lazy management' in tech industry

#17

The older I get the more appalled I am at what managers are bringing to the table versus senior engineers.

> what managers are bringing to the table

What I noticed in my org, are the senior managers are the ones who get to talk to the business people and get to muddle the waters and do a lot of repetitive work.

Sometimes things do not get done until a project manager or senior dev actually talks to the business person and gets the correct requirements out.

I don't know why it is this way at my org, but the IT director does not want to talk to PMs, Devs, or Analysts. He would rather have a top level circle of senior managers who insulate him from the actual work.

Re: Debate over 'fake work' and 'lazy management' in tech industry

#19
Maybe I'm missing a core piece from this article, but it leaves out quite a bit of agency from the employee. I never understand pieces like this that rail against employers, but also seem to cast the employees in such a helpless light.

If you're stuck in a situation where you're not getting great feedback on what to work on, that seems like a great time to just build things and experiment on your own. Do it within the rails of the corporate environment you're in, or hell do it outside and put that energy into something else. Just because someone doesn't provide a map, doesn't mean you can't escape the labyrinth and get creative.

Re: Debate over 'fake work' and 'lazy management' in tech industry

#20

Just a reminder that lazy managers are the source of burnout for those who are under them. As a manager I can say, there is no easier job than just forwarding requests from directors directly to developers, not planning, and promising crazy deadlines to avoid conflict with higher management. If someone is being paid more, this person has to work more, I have seen so many people becoming managers just to actually avoi…

> If someone is being paid more, this person has to work more

In my experience, pay rarely has any kind of correlation to the amount of work being done. I see it merely as a pay for responsibility for the work of those under you or, more succinctly, "being paid to throw yourself under the bus in lieu of anyone you're managing".

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