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Mental health in software engineering

vadimkravcenko.com

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Re: Mental health in software engineering

#101

Post by ninininino »

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…

Someone with the intellectual arrogance to proclaim someone unfit for a job after reading a single blog post by them is also unfit for leadership.

Re: Mental health in software engineering

#102

Post by bluefirebrand »

dvas wrote: post #37

I think it is so important to be able to disconnect from whatever it is that we are doing, even for a very short period of time. Go for a walk, brew a coffee or simply close your eyes and breathe. Many times, stress is created artificially. It hurts our performance and deteriorates our ability to think. Encountered numerous situations where work was "urgent" and would likely land a contract or sales for the company,…

> Encountered numerous situations where work was "urgent" and would likely land a contract or sales for the company, and everyone would be a superstar if they delivered this "crunch".

> After 2 months of pulling all-nighters and sleeping for 3/4 hours, we deliver the project ahead of time

In my career, none of these have ever paid off. Every time I've crunched this way on something dramatically urgent like this, it has turned out that the "if we can deliver this, this huge moonshot sale is a sure thing" turns into a no-sale

The sales person never seems to get cut loose for diverting the entire R&D towards a longshot for months and burning people out, though

And you can bet the sales person isn't putting in weeks of overtime for the duration, either

I basically refuse to do overtime anymore unless I'm working extra to make up for my own screw up. I'm not putting in extra to hit some other assholes unrealistic deadlines ever again

Re: Mental health in software engineering

#103

Post by ryandrake »

cjk2 wrote: post #10

I'll dump this one here as it's still annoying me a bit. So one afternoon I'm sitting there and our sales guy John came in (you know who you are if you're reading this) and described what he'd managed to sell a client. I sat there and I scribbled on bits of paper for hours, did some research and went back to him with the point that it wasn't possible from an algorithmic perspective. Basically he'd assumed that if it…

The Silicon Valley Machiavellian TechManager way to deal with this situation is to say "Yes, we will do this, but only if I get an up-front bonus and a team of twenty." The CEO instead gives you 6 headcount and a bonus schedule with performance milestones. You put the team together. Drag things out as long as you can, managing upwards with bullshit and a charismatic smile, faking the goals when you can, while the team is on a death march. Finally, when it's obvious that you'll never deliver, blame the team and parachute away to a different company with whatever bonus money you managed to get your hands on, where they offer you a "Director" title and $1M in stock because you were a "leader."

Re: Mental health in software engineering

#104

Post by mistrial9 »

afpx wrote: post #56
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…

What are the qualities of the best leaders you've encountered or worked for? Which ones are most effective at getting things done while keeping the team and senior leadership happy?

fifty percent of managers, manage through fear .. an industry veteran once said .. "virtue stories" will ignore this ugly fact of hierarchical commercial services

Re: Mental health in software engineering

#105

Post by Tade0 »

> An example of uncertainty in business is when your CEO tells you they promised a feature to your biggest client and it needs to be built ASAP as highest priority, so all hands on deck. Then a day later they tell you another feature, completely contradictory to the first one, needs to be built as well and is also highest priority. When you tell them they both can't be highest priority, the answer is: make it happen.

Hardly.

What I've found to work best in such scenarios is to always chop up the task at hand to essentials and nice-to-haves[0]. If another task comes up before you're finished, chop it up as well and ask your leadership what's more important: the essentials from this new task or nice-to-haves from that previous one.

It's never the nice-to-haves.

Also it always helps to not promise something you can't deliver - this applies to every level in the hierarchy.

[0] Sometimes, if essentials are the vast majority, you can produce versions of them which are simpler, but still workable from a business perspective, and have bringing the full-featured versions as a nice-to-have.

Re: Mental health in software engineering

#106

Post by CyberDildonics »

cjk2 wrote: post #10

I'll dump this one here as it's still annoying me a bit. So one afternoon I'm sitting there and our sales guy John came in (you know who you are if you're reading this) and described what he'd managed to sell a client. I sat there and I scribbled on bits of paper for hours, did some research and went back to him with the point that it wasn't possible from an algorithmic perspective. Basically he'd assumed that if it…

the scalability characteristics approached "all the energy in the universe" levels of compute pretty quickly

Something someone was doing in excel scaled up to taking all the energy in the universe? That does not sound right.

Re: Mental health in software engineering

#107

Post by PJDK »

sesm wrote: post #41
HumblyTossed wrote: post #25

>You cannot take a sick day by telling your team, “I have mental issues and need a day off.” Yes, you can. You can say you need a mental health day. Adults will understand.

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

Some people even take a day off sick when they are actually not feeling sick at all!

Re: Mental health in software engineering

#108

Post by whb101 »

It's great when this stuff is talked about.

The action item is always disappointing: some flavor of "take care of yourself."

If we were trees in a forest fire, then yes. Making ourselves more fireproof is the best we can do.

We're not trees, though, are we?

Re: Mental health in software engineering

#109

Post by spacemadness »

coldtea wrote: post #68
arethuza wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At one point many years ago I was Director of Engineering for a company that was planning a major new version of their product. After I'd been there a few weeks I said to the CEO that I thought I had a pretty good understanding of the scope and challenges for the new release. The CEO said "no you don't" - which led me to ask why he thought this and he said he had thought up a new "must have" feature over the weekend…

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?

Because the world of business runs on hubris.

Re: Mental health in software engineering

#110

Post by np- »

bluefirebrand wrote: post #102
dvas wrote: post #37

I think it is so important to be able to disconnect from whatever it is that we are doing, even for a very short period of time. Go for a walk, brew a coffee or simply close your eyes and breathe. Many times, stress is created artificially. It hurts our performance and deteriorates our ability to think. Encountered numerous situations where work was "urgent" and would likely land a contract or sales for the company,…

> Encountered numerous situations where work was "urgent" and would likely land a contract or sales for the company, and everyone would be a superstar if they delivered this "crunch". > After 2 months of pulling all-nighters and sleeping for 3/4 hours, we deliver the project ahead of time In my career, none of these have ever paid off. Every time I've crunched this way on something dramatically urgent like this, it h…

Agreed. Even if by some miracle you do deliver, and are considered a superstar, then what? What do superstars get? Probably just even more crunch work, since you've proven you're willing to do it.
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