So you're a manager now • Hacker News Board

Re: So you're a manager now

#21

Post by Aurornis » Thu, Jul 31, 2025, 1:43 PM UTC

wiz21c wrote: post #7

Aurornis wrote: post #3

Some good advice. It’s missing one of the most difficult topics: Performance Management. Most first-time managers have already read a lot of advice about being humble, delegating, celebrating your team’s wins, and the other feel good topics. If you want to write internet advice that gets upvoted and shared you almost have to avoid the difficult conversation topics and assume that the team is full of perfect people th…

Yeah, went down that road too. It's really emotionnally difficult/grinding. And I still don't have a clue: you have to find how each person behaves. Lots of talk, influence, repeating the same thing every day, etc. Unfortunately, I've never taken any pleasure in doing that, it was just difficult and exhausting to me...

> you have to find how each person behaves. Lots of talk, influence, repeating the same thing every day, etc.

It doesn’t help that most of the management advice you find on the internet assumes that inside every employee is a happy, productive worker and their manager can unlock it with the right words.

In the real world the range of employee types is very large. Some of them are just toxic and you’re not going to coach it out of them. Knowing when and how to cut your losses is important for preserving the rest of the team.

Re: So you're a manager now

#22

Post by TheChaplain » Thu, Jul 31, 2025, 1:44 PM UTC

One-sided text that don't nearly speak the whole truth.

It fails to take into account that as a manager you may very will end up with employees that are toxic, disrespectful, cheating, lazy, incompetent, intolerant, unmanageable...

And contrary to popular belief, that it is not always the managers fault.

I had a close relative become a manager, tried their utmost for a year but gave up. It was not worth the sleepless nights, stress, therapy and sitting in the parking lot crying their eyes out after work.

Re: So you're a manager now

#23

Post by alphazard » Thu, Jul 31, 2025, 1:47 PM UTC

Aurornis wrote: post #3

Some good advice. It’s missing one of the most difficult topics: Performance Management. Most first-time managers have already read a lot of advice about being humble, delegating, celebrating your team’s wins, and the other feel good topics. If you want to write internet advice that gets upvoted and shared you almost have to avoid the difficult conversation topics and assume that the team is full of perfect people th…

In today's corporate world, it can be difficult or impossible to fire people. It's important to understand that actually removing someone from the organization is a totally separate problem from managing the performance of the team.

People who don't contribute or cause problems need to be sequestered as much as possible. Don't let them bring down the rest of the team. I think "managed out" is the term that's being used now. That is a skill that a manager of any level can use to keep their team performing even when they don't have the authority to remove someone, or the process to remove someone is many months long.

Re: So you're a manager now

#24

Post by dizhn » Thu, Jul 31, 2025, 1:47 PM UTC

swader999 wrote: post #17

b3lvedere wrote: post #5

"Be Clear. Painfully Clear. You think you’re being obvious. You’re not. Spell out expectations. Over-communicate. Set goals in plain language." Lots of managers i had the pleasure of working with, missed this memo entirely...

Repetition is critical.

People will start to tune out things you don't repeat enough very quickly.

Re: So you're a manager now

#25

Post by jebarker » Thu, Jul 31, 2025, 1:48 PM UTC

incone123 wrote: post #9

"Your Job Isn’t to Do the Work Anymore." Unless you work somewhere under-staffed with an org chart that's mostly an aspiration.

This is also only true (maybe) of the officer class of manager. The NCO class (tech leads??) certainly do the work on the ground with their staff.

Re: So you're a manager now

#26

Post by m8rl » Thu, Jul 31, 2025, 1:49 PM UTC

There are different type of leads, not only people managers. There are architects, chief-of-somethings, designers, people who give all their imagination, creativity and experience into leading teams and companies to achieve great things. Clearly that's empowering, and empowering is crucial: Preparing the ground and conditions for people to do their job as good as possible. But it's a lot more, and it's fun and you get feedback and reward.

Let's not get dragged down by this stories how pathetic the reality of leadership roles has to be, this all depends on the leadership structure and culture.

Re: So you're a manager now

#27

Post by ta1243 » Thu, Jul 31, 2025, 1:51 PM UTC

2d8a875f-39a2-4 wrote: post #13

Nah, this lays out what everyone knows going in and leaves out what you really need to know as a newby. Budget. Getting some for your team or at least for your priorities. Protecting what you get. Capex vs Opex. Upward management. Translating messages upwards. Interpreting C suite decrees. Pacing and leading. Inducting new leadership before they fuck things up. Retention. Keeping the people you need on your team. Cut…

> Budget. Getting some for your team or at least for your priorities. Protecting what you get. Capex vs Opex.

Always spend your budget, ideally about 5-10% over (find out what others do)

If you don't, next year you get less. You can't save 20k this year and spend it next year. You can't even save 20k and get rewarded for being cost efficient as you'll be punished with a lower budget next year.

Yes it's stupid.

Re: So you're a manager now

#28

Post by hcfman » Thu, Jul 31, 2025, 1:52 PM UTC

RickJWagner wrote: post #6

About 30 years ago I was in the early part of my career and was stunned to learn two of my favorite programmers were former managers. I couldn’t understand why they ‘took a step backward’ to return to programming. One of them explained “In management, they nip at you from the top, and they nip at you from the bottom”. Meaning that you had many more people with demands. A programmer usually has only one, maybe a few.…

"Later, I learned that many managers are paid less than senior programmers."

Not in Europe.

Re: So you're a manager now

#29

Post by hobs » Thu, Jul 31, 2025, 1:52 PM UTC

alphazard wrote: post #23

Aurornis wrote: post #3

Some good advice. It’s missing one of the most difficult topics: Performance Management. Most first-time managers have already read a lot of advice about being humble, delegating, celebrating your team’s wins, and the other feel good topics. If you want to write internet advice that gets upvoted and shared you almost have to avoid the difficult conversation topics and assume that the team is full of perfect people th…

In today's corporate world, it can be difficult or impossible to fire people. It's important to understand that actually removing someone from the organization is a totally separate problem from managing the performance of the team. People who don't contribute or cause problems need to be sequestered as much as possible. Don't let them bring down the rest of the team. I think "managed out" is the term that's being us…

It's just not though. People above you are making decisions to not pay what generally amounts to trivial amounts of money to (in many cases I have seen) completely fuck up their products.

I have worked with enough C levels to understand that most of them just want you to manage all the problems while they collect the money and make "strategic decisions" (follow whatever fad is hot right now.)

It's why I like working with smaller companies, usually not established enough to just make middle management eat shit and ignore customers.

Re: So you're a manager now

#30

Post by xnx » Thu, Jul 31, 2025, 1:53 PM UTC

alphazard wrote: post #23

Aurornis wrote: post #3

Some good advice. It’s missing one of the most difficult topics: Performance Management. Most first-time managers have already read a lot of advice about being humble, delegating, celebrating your team’s wins, and the other feel good topics. If you want to write internet advice that gets upvoted and shared you almost have to avoid the difficult conversation topics and assume that the team is full of perfect people th…

In today's corporate world, it can be difficult or impossible to fire people. It's important to understand that actually removing someone from the organization is a totally separate problem from managing the performance of the team. People who don't contribute or cause problems need to be sequestered as much as possible. Don't let them bring down the rest of the team. I think "managed out" is the term that's being us…

> In today's corporate world, it can be difficult or impossible to fire people

Really? In the US you can fire an employee for any reason at any time (aside from a few illegal reasons: union activity, racism, etc.).