Manager's Handbook (2020)

I went through half of it. I think it has promise, but not really sure I would call it a handbook. Some things are just strange to me:

> A senior employee comes to you with a competitive offer in hand, asking for a promotion. You investigate the situation and decide that, since you really don’t want to lose this employee, you will cave and give them a promotion.

> You have just created a strong incentive for political behavior.

Hard disagree. People look for more responsibility / jobs all the time and when they come to you saying they want to stay and this is their condition, you better honor it and not call it "politics". They don't have to do that at all and now you're back to hiring or backfilling.

This is also literally the opposite of the highlights saying:

> Attract, nurture, coach, and retain talent.

> Keep an eye on your team's health and happiness.

> Give your team a clear path to progress in their careers.

Also this section on remote work is so out of touch:

> Always have your camera on for meetings and touchpoints. Please ask others to do so as well. This is non-negotiable. There should be no state in which you are working where your camera can't be turned on. If you look like ass, own the fact that you look like ass and understand that at some point the people you are talking to will look like ass too. If you don't want to turn the camera on because you are sitting in bed and it's all messed up, then get out of the bed and go sit at a table or something. This isn't rocket science. Be 100% of yourself at all times, but be professional.

An executive definitely wrote this. I bet they don't show their face to every call they take. The pandemic has made this normal, but prior to it I think this would be challenged. I don't need to see your face to work with you. Sure let's do it often, but not 24/7.

> The terms “management” and “leadership” are often used interchangeably, but they are actually two distinct things. In short, management is tactical and leadership is strategic.

This attitude I think harms the merit of what management really is. Management is a noble profession that people think is separate from leadership. They are the same regardless of what you think. I think Clayton Christensen said it best:

> “I used to think that if you cared for other people, you need to study sociology or something like it. But….I [have] concluded, if you want to help other people, be a manager. If done well, management is among the most noble of professions. You are in a position where you have eight or ten hours every day from every person who works for you. You have the opportunity to frame each person’s work so that, at the end of every day, your employees will go home feeling like Diana felt on her good day: living a life filled with motivators.”

I would overall call this a generic self-help guide for someone who happens to be a manager. It literally includes word for word ideas in the most random places like GTD, stoicism, and even a section on sales?

As a first-level manager you're not in control of compensation policies but you can certainly impact promotions in many ways. I have had many managers who were honest about the lack of promotion or a bigger bonus.

>The pandemic has made this normal, but prior to it I think this would be challenged. I don't need to see your face to work with you. Sure let's do it often, but not 24/7.

my rules, since i started working remotely (so ~10y ago) regarding cameras are: on if the meeting has less than 10 people. on at the beginning from 10 to 20~30. after that number, off (since it doesn't matter anymore).

that means that for team and project meetings, my camera is always on. for dept meetings, it's on at the beginning because i want people to know i'm around and paying attention (usually i turn it off after the meeting starts properly). and for company wide meetings, it's off because there are so many people that it doesn't really matter if the CEO can see me or ont.

Every time I quit it was because I wanted to quit and when asked from my employer what would have taken to change my mind I couldn't find anything realistic they could offer me to stay. But that's because in my cases compensation wasn't the main motivation for desiring to leave.

I can totally imagine a different scenario where people who are clearly underpaid must follow a different strategy. It all boils down to a) does the employer underpay the employee b) does the employer understand how much the employee feels sincerely underpaid?

Point (b) is an important nitpick because often employers and employees have radically different measures of what is "right", in particular when you throw in rules about location-based compensation.

> Promotions for example are always based on nebulous criteria that are often made up on the fly.

I think you’ve worked at some very toxic work environments, but it’s a mistake to suggest that your experience is the norm.

It’s funny to read HN comments about how all managers are terrible, devious people who are only out to abuse employees. Most of us managers started out as ICs. Do you really think we surrender our humanity and adopt evilness as our SOP on the day they give us our manager title? No, most of us enter management because we really like working with people and like helping people succeed. This idea that we only exist to spite employees is very childish.