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Working from home is powering productivity

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Re: Working from home is powering productivity

#21

Post by alphazard »

sevensor wrote: post #8
ChrisMarshallNY wrote: post #6

> is highly dependent on how well it’s managed. That's the kicker, right there. I am kind of in despair, at the quality of tech managers; especially "first line" managers, these days.

I see an absolutely shocking number of managers promoted from the IC ranks, who not only have no preparation for management, but no experience at any other company.

You are describing the best kind of manager for two reasons:

1. They understand what their reports do, can mentor the less experienced ones, and are a competent peer to the more experienced ones, rather than an obstacle.

2. If they turn out to be bad managers, there is a low stakes, no hard feelings, path for them to go back to being an IC. There is a huge aversion to firing people, so bad managers who can't do anything else tend to stay around creating problems much longer than bad managers who can also contribute.

Your presentation of "experience" and "preparation" as the most important things for a manager is typical gatekeeping that we see from the bureaucratic class--parasites without any real skills.

Re: Working from home is powering productivity

#22

Post by datavirtue »

scottyah wrote: post #11
atomicnumber3 wrote: post #4

Now we'll get to see which is more powerful: the invisible hand of the free markets, or the human tendency of power to accrete with autocrats, who seem to struggle immensely with the idea of letting people have the freedom to control their work environment and hours.

It'll be determined by who can effectively train the next generations of employees.

If that's what the market wants.

Re: Working from home is powering productivity

#23

Post by [deleted] »

datavirtue wrote: post #18
whatshisface wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is no guaranteed way to create managers from scratch, business specialists don't understand the technical facts well enough to resolve the kinds of disputes that arise at the project manager level, and as you observe ICs are not always inclined to make other people's work their primary concern.

It's an outdated arrangement. All you need are respected VPs that know their area and foster collaboration toward ideal technical/operationl goals in line with the business objectives. If your approach is invoking fear and exhibiting aggression to drive outcomes you have already lost half of the productivity battle. Jaime Daimon is the new Jack Welch. Too busy looking good and laying down the law to focus on innovati…

[deleted]

Re: Working from home is powering productivity

#24

Post by purple-leafy »

Work from home makes me LOYAL to a company, and makes me work my arse off! If you want to keep good employees, give them agency.

I do hybrid, I’m half-half from home and in the office. I work so hard when I work from home, and I’m so happy when I work from home, my desk is setup how I need, I get free coffee, I can listen to music, my dog sleeps on the bed. Most importantly, more of the work gets done.

I think the option to go into the office (on your own accord) is important. The main pro of the office is I can talk to team-mates and do learning sessions with them (the juniors).

But I do these as well from home every day too.

Unfortunately my work place is putting in place a 4 day in the office mandate, like we are children. All it does is make me want to look for jobs that respect employee agency.

Re: Working from home is powering productivity

#25

Post by dalyons »

atleastoptimal wrote: post #15

Companies that require RTO, if they actually want their employees to return to office, should prioritize in their messaging the objective benefits/cost to working in the office. No vague-speak, no shaming people claiming that workers "don't work" at home, but rather objective analysis on what exact benefits they seek to accrue by mandating that work that could be done anywhere in the world must be done in separate ro…

It’s an open secret that there is no data that supports RTO. If there was, at even one company, it would be screamed from the rooftops.

(I don’t believe it’s all covert layoffs either - it’s imho the more banal reason of c-level personal feelings and groupthink)

Re: Working from home is powering productivity

#26

Post by torginus »

sevensor wrote: post #8
ChrisMarshallNY wrote: post #6

> is highly dependent on how well it’s managed. That's the kicker, right there. I am kind of in despair, at the quality of tech managers; especially "first line" managers, these days.

I see an absolutely shocking number of managers promoted from the IC ranks, who not only have no preparation for management, but no experience at any other company.

I wonder, what do you see as a desirable alternative?

Re: Working from home is powering productivity

#27

Post by l33tbro »

I despair a little at this. If I can do my job at home, then surely somebody can do it in the global south in tandem with AI for peanuts. Client-facing stuff gets centralised to a smaller team of specialists, and the ship gets much tighter.

How long until megacorps and SMEs actually execute this reality? The management class and their unnecessary underlings like me have only been so resilient because companies are still on the last days of this post-covid efficiency wave, coupled with the buffer of capital from the money that was created in the last few years.

I'm usually not a doomer, but it's hard to see a way around the next downturn not creating irreversible culture change through AI offshoring and mass layoffs.

Re: Working from home is powering productivity

#28

Post by nostrademons »

toomuchtodo wrote: post #7
CapeTheory wrote: post #3

Take that, Jassy.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planck%27s_principle > A new scientific truth does not triumph by convincing its opponents and making them see the light, but rather because its opponents eventually die and a new generation grows up that is familiar with it.

A corollary is that they existing big-tech companies will never embrace remote work. You need to start new companies which are remote-first and then replace big tech with them.

Re: Working from home is powering productivity

#29

Post by eikenberry »

ChrisMarshallNY wrote: post #6

> is highly dependent on how well it’s managed. That's the kicker, right there. I am kind of in despair, at the quality of tech managers; especially "first line" managers, these days.

This is just as true in office. A bad manager is a bad manager no matter where they manage.

Re: Working from home is powering productivity

#30

Post by ip26 »

ryandrake wrote: post #17
ChrisMarshallNY wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the (US) military, the sergeants run the army. NCOs are highly-trained, and have been the secret of managing battlefield chaos, for generations. They don't do strategy, but they do tactics, like nobody's business, and are often highly valuable input into development of strategies. They are given tremendous agency, and are highly trained. The military does a great job of training and retaining highly-experienced, a…

> First-line managers have a similar role, but they are treated like garbage by their superiors, and consider their position a "necessary evil," towards higher ranks. This is because most companies don't have a promotion track above "Senior Software Engineer" that doesn't involve people-management, which is an entirely different job. It's as if you ran a restaurant and in order for your highest rated chef to get prom…

Counter argument: if we accept the military example as doing leadership/management well, you can say the same about their career track. Far as I can tell, there’s no “IC” track above Corporal, which has an average age of 21yo.
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