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

businessinsider.com

61–70 of 249 posts

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

#61

I’m seeing a lot of comments that seem to point to first line management as the problem here. In my own anecdotal experience, I’ve seen a lot more “fake work” come from listless leadership that lacks a true vision for the product. That rolls down to Product Managers that can’t prioritize features and don’t really understand what they’re building or why. Ultimately this leads to engineers and members of the team worki…

Yeah those managers aren't any more lazy than those idle employees. Everyone is just going through the motions. The fish rots from the head.

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

#62

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 No, they should deliver more value. Best managers I had didn't have that much tasks scheduled. They: 1. Made important decisions right. 2. Processed all incoming requests, both from their reports and from outside, swiftly and with full attention. 3. Had enough psychological stamina to say "no" when it's necessary and defend their team from pressure and anx…

I think all industries in general fall victim to this sort of fallacy, and I advocate for a stronger push towards goal driven work. Not how much did you work but how much did you accomplish. In some fields these are closer to a 1:1 relationship but definitely not in development.

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

#63

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

try archive.today || archive.ph

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

#64

I’m seeing a lot of comments that seem to point to first line management as the problem here. In my own anecdotal experience, I’ve seen a lot more “fake work” come from listless leadership that lacks a true vision for the product. That rolls down to Product Managers that can’t prioritize features and don’t really understand what they’re building or why. Ultimately this leads to engineers and members of the team worki…

same in my experience as well so youre not alone.

i dont see a solution though, its not like upper management is going to fire themselves.

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

#65
Fake work exists because of VC-driven hiring. After taking VC funding, usually the easiest way to show some results is via a hiring spree. However, usually the current product suite or customer base does not need such a large support staff. Then follows the fake work.

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

#66
Is there really a “debate” over “fake work”, or is that just some made up term a clueless and unethical VC tweeted?

There’s been a hard push from capital to put pressure on labor. All these fantasy stories about “fake work”, “people working two jobs”… are all just cover stories for capital and execs to ramp up the pressure and punitive actions. I’m sure BusinessInsider is more than happy to play along. While this article may look pro-labor in the surface, it’s trying to legitimize concepts that are very much pro-capital.

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

#68
> We have a good leader, which makes all the difference.

I think this is the trick right here. Our paycheck might come from such-and-such company, but really we work for the people in our management chain. I'm currently at Amazon, and I've been pretty lucky with having good leaders, but part of that is because I've had the luxury of being selective (my first director in my time at Amazon was someone I had worked with previously, and when I switched teams I joined to work with someone I knew).

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

#69

I’m seeing a lot of comments that seem to point to first line management as the problem here. In my own anecdotal experience, I’ve seen a lot more “fake work” come from listless leadership that lacks a true vision for the product. That rolls down to Product Managers that can’t prioritize features and don’t really understand what they’re building or why. Ultimately this leads to engineers and members of the team worki…

The projects I've enjoyed the most is where I felt I was building something meaningful, as in something I believed would help the company grow. And asking questions that challenged the point of specific thing was encouraged - when I voiced concerns that RoI isn't there, it was at least considered and sometimes changed the plan. I don't expect my suggestions to be right, because I see only part of the picture, but I assume so does upper management, leadership, etc. It's just impossible to grasp the entire thing. Like you can't be just dev and not think about how customers will be using what you release. For me working like that feels more fulfilling and I like to think it helps to mend these perspectives.

On the contrary, worst time I had was when I was just receiving roadmaps to crunch through, that were "set in stone", came from "up there" and suggestions or personal findings weren't part of development. Yes, the technical challenge was there but that alone doesn't cut it. So it felt like I'm just a cog in a machine and after some time the mood just drops and burnout starts creeping in... I find it very consistent.

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

#70

I’m seeing a lot of comments that seem to point to first line management as the problem here. In my own anecdotal experience, I’ve seen a lot more “fake work” come from listless leadership that lacks a true vision for the product. That rolls down to Product Managers that can’t prioritize features and don’t really understand what they’re building or why. Ultimately this leads to engineers and members of the team worki…

> Gut from the top if you want to get rid of the problem. It’s not the L5 engineer or the first line manager that’s holding any product back.

I tend to agree but there's a real danger in leaving engineers to their own devices. I know this will be downvoted, but software engineers are the worst at planning their own work. The vast majority will just go off and do wtf ever they want. There really has to be guard rails to keep an organization sane and somewhat focused.

But this post is spot on, productivety is a business problem. Software engineers will work, probably more than anyone else in the org, typically.

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