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Ask HN: 20% of LinkedIn's recent layoffs were managers

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Re: Ask HN: 20% of LinkedIn's recent layoffs were managers

#161

Post by dilyevsky »

ditonal wrote: post #82
greatpostman wrote: post #11

I have a long held belief that engineering managers are mostly a scam, and are actually just overpaid scrum masters. This is from working at some top companies

Silicon Valley used to have engineering managers who managed engineering. As the money got bigger we got more grifters / professional manager types. First thing they do is rebrand middle management as “leaders” and the other thing they do is make management non technical. This has even bled into making higher level IC engineering roles being “above” coding. “Staff engineers don’t code, they set high level architectur…

Fantastic comment. Btw the same dynamic also exists in other areas such as other engineering disciplines, finance, etc, as Im told. Software was probably an outlier until people realized you could make a good career out of it

Re: Ask HN: 20% of LinkedIn's recent layoffs were managers

#162

Post by saagarjha »

raverbashing wrote: post #152
saagarjha wrote: post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Surely this is because Elon is there picking up the slack for the missing 80%.

"the missing 80%" you mean the ones that would go from the salad bar to the yoga class and then go into a DEI meeting and talking about how we must change "the color of our vibes"? Yeah I think Elon is almost picking up that slack. But I doubt anyone could find him at an yoga class

You’ve made up a guy and are mad about it but go off

Re: Ask HN: 20% of LinkedIn's recent layoffs were managers

#163

Post by [deleted] »

ajcp wrote: post #33
greatpostman wrote: post #11

I have a long held belief that engineering managers are mostly a scam, and are actually just overpaid scrum masters. This is from working at some top companies

You might be right, but that might be because they're just really bad managers. A good engineering manager shouldn't be there to herd engineers. A good engineering manager is there to protect their engineers from the organization, ensure they have the resources required to do the work, and to make sure their organizational goals, development, and wellbeing are being advocated and cared for. Scrum masters shouldn't ca…

[deleted]

Re: Ask HN: 20% of LinkedIn's recent layoffs were managers

#164

Post by DennisL123 »

SOLAR_FIELDS wrote: post #130
gruez wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>LI has a distinctive lack of chill right now contrary to the company image I don't get it. Did linkedin have an image of being a chill place to work?

I used to work for Large Tech Company and I would pretty frequently fly out to San Francisco Suburb for work. One of the more interesting time periods of that phase was when the office building I worked at for Large Tech Company was across the parking lot from LinkedIn in San Francisco Suburb . We frequently played a largesse game of hangman with the LinkedIn employees drawn on the windows across our parking lot. Lin…

That sounds suspiciously like the office location where you‘d see big cargo planes fly overhead once in a while.

Re: Ask HN: 20% of LinkedIn's recent layoffs were managers

#165

Post by amoss »

saagarjha wrote: post #134
dna_polymerase wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There were a lot of videos in this style from the twitter people. Turns out they run fine on 20 % remaining workforce.

Surely this is because Elon is there picking up the slack for the missing 80%.

Underrated.

Re: Ask HN: 20% of LinkedIn's recent layoffs were managers

#166

Post by lovich »

baby wrote: post #143
lovich wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Bruh, I don't know where you've been but "Engineering Manager" positions are the new "Devops" from 10 years ago in terms of needing to do multiple jobs. Every position I've both applied for and gotten has required that I can -Complete technical tasks at the minimum of a senior engineer level if not staff/principal -Train the -Project Management -System Design, to the point that I am willing to put my name on each and…

I’ve worked with engineering managers and they did none of the stuff you listed lol. I’m still wondering what they were doing.

If that is legimately the case then you are probably working fore a bad company. I would caution you to confirm that your engineering manager isn't working in the background on a bunch of non engineering tasks that kept the engineers more productive.

IMO, my modus operandi as an engineering manager is to body all the work that I can handle for a team that lets the team stay focused on the engineering work and be more productive.

Re: Ask HN: 20% of LinkedIn's recent layoffs were managers

#167

Post by mertd »

baby wrote: post #141
monkeydreams wrote: post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have 10 direct reports across 2 teams, with responsibility for a number of actual deliverable work pieces external to these staff. 10 direct reports is about half a week's work at a bare minimum without development, process improvement, etc. 20 is insane and would lead to skill atrophy and team dissatisfaction in short order.

Why does managing the team takes so much work? Do you need to hold the hand of all your reports?

It depends on the nature of the work but technical work (which -like most people here- is I assume what we're talking about) requires a lot of time investment to truly understand and give meaningful feedback.

Re: Ask HN: 20% of LinkedIn's recent layoffs were managers

#168

Post by mvncleaninst »

ditonal wrote: post #82
greatpostman wrote: post #11

I have a long held belief that engineering managers are mostly a scam, and are actually just overpaid scrum masters. This is from working at some top companies

Silicon Valley used to have engineering managers who managed engineering. As the money got bigger we got more grifters / professional manager types. First thing they do is rebrand middle management as “leaders” and the other thing they do is make management non technical. This has even bled into making higher level IC engineering roles being “above” coding. “Staff engineers don’t code, they set high level architectur…

> As the money got bigger we got more grifters / professional manager types. First thing they do is rebrand middle management as “leaders” and the other thing they do is make management non technical.

God I hate this, having to attend all of these "brown bag" meetings where we get talked down to by these grifter types about "devops mentality" or whatever or BS they've latched onto

Who gave these people the right to wave their hands in the air and talk about bullshit all day? Where do these people come from? Is it nepotism or something?

To be frank, I'd rather trade some money to never have to interact with these fuckers ever again. They're literally a disease. Or at least, unionize, but don't demand money, demand that these people shut the fuck up, permanently, or gtfo

Re: Ask HN: 20% of LinkedIn's recent layoffs were managers

#169

Post by pizzafeelsright »

_dark_matter_ wrote: post #46
coffeebeqn wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How? ICs are usually well paid unless they’re clueless. I’m paid more than any manager or sr manager at my company at staff level.

Yeah I report to a director and make more than them at senior staff level

Teach me this!

Re: Ask HN: 20% of LinkedIn's recent layoffs were managers

#170

Post by pizzafeelsright »

coffeebeqn wrote: post #41
intelVISA wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Always makes you wonder what drives those 6 people to carry entire orgs like that when they could be free, and 10x richer.

How? ICs are usually well paid unless they’re clueless. I’m paid more than any manager or sr manager at my company at staff level.

I want to learn more.
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