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The truth about being a manager

sofiakodar.github.io

11–20 of 69 posts

Re: The truth about being a manager

#11
post #4

There's a note at the end: > As always, this blog post is written by me, without any AI, so all errors are my own. However, the illustrations in the post are clearly made by generative AI, are they not?

The author claims the POST is WRITTEN by them. They did not claim the ILLUSTRATIONS were DRAWN by them. Most of us are not artists. Sometimes its hard to find the right illustrations.

But what did you think of the article itself?

Re: The truth about being a manager

#12
I think this might scare some people off from management unnecessarily.

A lot of what's being described here is important for new managers to understand, but eventually, once you find your footing, you can start to determine where the rules can bend.

For instance, a lot of new managers struggle because they want to keep a foot in the IC world. I think most new managers would benefit from stepping away from the code for an extended period of time. But many experienced managers do eventually return back to writing code while still serving in a management role, although certainly not at the level they did before.

Likewise, it's really important for new managers to understand that friendship dynamics will change. But that doesn't mean that you can't foster very warm relationships with people who report to you. Just like a teacher-student relationship, you can have great fondness for each other while recognizing that there are some lines that absolutely can't be crossed.

Re: The truth about being a manager

#13

That's why I rather want to have LLM as my manager and not the other way around. Having a middleman is worse than having none.

The list of tasks piled on to a human manager are too much for a manager to do well. The role of management feels like a dumping ground for menial tasks, but oh yeah, you need to pass a coding review too, in some roles. LOL

Re: The truth about being a manager

#14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It doesn’t cover the reality that nearly all your extra pay in a progressive tax system goes to the government. UK is hitting 70% marginal rates , or even 1000% for people with children.

Dang, where do they pay 2x?

I edited, but in big mega corps could easily be 5x your junior staff.

Re: The truth about being a manager

#16
post #12

I think this might scare some people off from management unnecessarily. A lot of what's being described here is important for new managers to understand, but eventually, once you find your footing, you can start to determine where the rules can bend. For instance, a lot of new managers struggle because they want to keep a foot in the IC world. I think most new managers would benefit from stepping away from the code f…

If it scares you off, thats a good thing. A manager who doesn't want to do these things might not be an effective manager. I think its better to go in eyes open to what it really means. I think the author did a good job of that.

I was hoping for more upsides, but, I'm not surprised by the short list either.

Re: The truth about being a manager

#17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's pretty much the first bullet point

It doesn’t cover the reality that nearly all your extra pay in a progressive tax system goes to the government. UK is hitting 70% marginal rates , or even 1000% for people with children.

That feels tangential to the article and not super relevant. Whenever you're offered something with more pay it'll be your personal decision whether or not the pay justifies the role change or whatever.

Some would argue going from a regular SWE to a Senior, Lead, or Staff is also not worth the pay depending on how it impacts your life.

Re: The truth about being a manager

#18
Looks like either you are missing the whole point of being a manager or you are selling it for sympathy. Either way it is not all that bad as you paint it. Otherwise why would lot of people dream of being promoted to a manager?

You need to have the taste to enjoy your role. Managers have the power. They are "inside" people for the company while everyone below that level are just workers.

Managers are in the loop for everything. They knew what's going on, they get to know lots of people, they are more visible. They get more opportunities to have some important internal contacts, and show off their leadership skills. People listen to them.

They have decision making power, which means they can turn things into the way they like. They can put people in roles, reward those you like, punish those you don't like. Who don't enjoy that?

You said you bring work home. That's not how a manager works. You need to delegate work. That's' the whole point of having a team. You need to be good at getting work done, not doing it yourself. Just focus on the results.

You don't need to attend daily stand-ups and give status. You fine-tune the calls to your convenience. If you are good, you can create a system that requires minimal effort from you. Automate everything. Assign someone to do that automation. And so on.

Re: The truth about being a manager

#19
post #5
post #4

There's a note at the end: > As always, this blog post is written by me, without any AI, so all errors are my own. However, the illustrations in the post are clearly made by generative AI, are they not?

Why does AI want to stress me with that cup about to fall off the desk

My SO is on the spectrum and likes to align cups and things along the edges of tables. I ask her not to be an edgelord in the most egregious cases, but I've also gotten better at not stressing over "it's on the edge".

That cup is still not ok lol.

Re: The truth about being a manager

#20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Dang, where do they pay 2x?

I edited, but in big mega corps could easily be 5x your junior staff.

But by the time you're ready to be promoted to manager, you're usually at least senior-level, if not higher. No one is (or should be) getting promoted from junior to manager.
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