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Mental health in software engineering

vadimkravcenko.com

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Re: Mental health in software engineering

#91

Post by ryandrake »

Clubber wrote: post #26
AnimalMuppet wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Worse is when it's a salesman, not the CEO. It's infuriating. I always wanted to tell that salesman that he got to go back to the customer and tell them that we weren't going to do it, since he was the one who promised it without finding out whether and when we could do it. Of course, I never had the clout to force that to happen...

It's always sales it seems. We're doing stuff under the gun right now because sales promised a huge new client we had something that wasn't ready yet. They didn't bother to ask us, they just promised so they could get their commission.

Good salesmen can sell the product that we already have. Terrible ones can't, and instead sell a product we don't have and then frantically beg R&D to make that product right away.

Re: Mental health in software engineering

#92

Post by convolvatron »

n4r9 wrote: post #57
xyst wrote: post #11

This is a person that should have never been in a leadership position. I have worked under these types of people that were great engineers themselves but couldn’t lead worth shit. No trust in the team. Always doing shit themselves. No discussion. Backdoor discussions. Always bending to the will of management. Everything is “important”/“critical”. It’s micromanaging to the worst degree. At the same time, I would likel…

It's an oversimplification to say they "should have never been" a leader. In truth, they could have used specific training in prioritisation, delegation, and emotional intelligence. I find it's rare that this sort of training is provided. Instead, good performers are thrown into the deep end to see if they can hack it.

maybe? the worst managers I've had are expressing real substantive emotional or general dysfunction. I don't know that training is really going to help with that.

its also a big culture question. I personally view the model where the manager is 'in charge' as being fundamentally unhelpful, and alot of organizations as a whole promote this model.

that alternative being 'the supporting adult in the room that trying to help the team do their best work and make hard decisions if absolutely necessary'

Re: Mental health in software engineering

#93

Post by sublinear »

xyst wrote: post #11

This is a person that should have never been in a leadership position. I have worked under these types of people that were great engineers themselves but couldn’t lead worth shit. No trust in the team. Always doing shit themselves. No discussion. Backdoor discussions. Always bending to the will of management. Everything is “important”/“critical”. It’s micromanaging to the worst degree. At the same time, I would likel…

A union wouldn't change anything for the better (in the United States).

The tech industry would just hire abroad more.

If they ever did decide to hire union workers for whatever reason it would just be another layer of bureaucracy killing the company and stressing out employees.

Re: Mental health in software engineering

#94

Post by coldtea »

eschneider wrote: post #83
coldtea wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The CEO tells the Director of Engineering how long a time a feature "could be built" in? A new one, they suddenly pulled out of their asses too? Why even have a Director of Engineering position then?

To take the blame, so, so obviously.

Ah, of course!

Re: Mental health in software engineering

#95

Post by fnordian_slip »

albert_e wrote: post #59
sesm wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In most companies I worked for the standard "I'm not feeling well today, taking a day off" was enough. Nobody asked for details.

one of the big companies recently replaced "sick leave" (only you can be sick to avail this, not a family member you care for) with "wellbeing leave" (you dont feel up to a day at work, take the day off - no questions asked) and doubled them from 5 days a year to 10 days a year. I am usually cynical about big corporates and their people policies, but this is one I can applaud.

5 vs 10 days is still ridiculous imho. I've just read an overview about the us system [0], and it does seem rather absurd, when you're looking at it from a German perspective.

[0]https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sick_leave

Re: Mental health in software engineering

#96

Post by jghn »

tossandthrow wrote: post #90
kortilla wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How do you find gigs that actually pay like FTEs?

at least where I am at, the contractor rate is more than double the FTE rate.

Yes. Contractors typically get more per hour. It still works out cheaper for the company as they don't have to pay for the benefits, PTO, and that sort of thing. And of course the contractor still has to pay for insurance, covering their own PTO, etc.

Re: Mental health in software engineering

#97

Post by ryandrake »

dblohm7 wrote: post #89
jongjong wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's so weird. I started to think that maybe this is intentional. It looks as though investors want to invest only in over-optimistic people who believe that we're living in some kind of utopian paradise; at the same time they avoid investing in anyone who has had so much of a faint whiff of how the sausage gets made. It's like the entire system is desperate to keep optimists optimistic and pessimists pessimistic. Wh…

It's because the emperor has no clothes. Most of the VCs I've met have been complete airheads.

All it really takes to be "an investor" is to have money or be able to get money. There is no prerequisite of intelligence, business sense, product taste, operations wisdom, or sound judgment. Although they all seem to act as if they magically have these, as if the Investor title suddenly imbued them with these traits.

The only thing stopping me from being an angel investor is that I don't have $1M burning a hole in my pocket. But if I did, suddenly I could sit down in a conference room, put a polo shirt on, dangle the money from a fishhook, and people would take what I said about their business idea seriously. It's such a joke.

Re: Mental health in software engineering

#98

Post by hiatus »

surfingdino wrote: post #31
redmattred wrote: post #4

“Your lack of planning is not my emergency”

"It was. Now you are fired." how it typically goes at startups.

Then the startup has to ramp up a hiring pipeline to backfill or dump the work onto someone else. Either way they won't get what they want.

Re: Mental health in software engineering

#99

Post by mdgrech23 »

xyst wrote: post #11

This is a person that should have never been in a leadership position. I have worked under these types of people that were great engineers themselves but couldn’t lead worth shit. No trust in the team. Always doing shit themselves. No discussion. Backdoor discussions. Always bending to the will of management. Everything is “important”/“critical”. It’s micromanaging to the worst degree. At the same time, I would likel…

I'm glad you came to the realization that we need unions. We're also overmanaged because the actual managers e.g. the C suite thinks we need to be watched over. Historically the rate of workers to managers was way lower.

Re: Mental health in software engineering

#100

Post by ChrisMarshallNY »

I wish this person luck.

I won't make any comments on their fitness/accomplishments/whatever. I am not in their shoes, and can only appreciate the honesty of their exposition (which they seem to be embracing and using as their platform).

> In business, there’s no place for perfection. There’s no space for having everything under control. In fact, not only can’t you influence most of the things around you, but most of the things are uncertain.

I have found this to be true for life, in general; especially when dealing with other people.

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