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What to do when your non-technical boss is just plain wrong

articulateventures.com

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Re: What to do when your non-technical boss is just plain wrong

#11

Post by jrs235 »

A comment on the first comment of the article: "This last part reminds me of something recently. Because management needs to feel like they have control over what's going on, as a technical person, you should do the right thing, but only 90% when you show it to them and make the 10% that is miss quite obvious. The reason is so that when you present it to them, they can point out the missing piece of the project and feel like they have contributed."

I hate this. I hate having to play these games and tricks. I want to work with people that are aware of [psychology and] how much time is wasted having to do such things. However, I realize most people don't know nor care about psychology and so I am the one that should adjust knowing the things I do. It just sucks because I still struggle with it.

Re: What to do when your non-technical boss is just plain wrong

#13

Post by bluetidepro »

jrs235 wrote: post #11

A comment on the first comment of the article: "This last part reminds me of something recently. Because management needs to feel like they have control over what's going on, as a technical person, you should do the right thing, but only 90% when you show it to them and make the 10% that is miss quite obvious. The reason is so that when you present it to them, they can point out the missing piece of the project and f…

I couldn't agree with your comment more! This is the same situation I am in with my job. I know I have to play these stupid and pointless mind games/tricks to get the right thing to happen, but I wish I didn't have to. It's a lose-lose situation, and this is definitely not the first job I have had that had this problem. I don't get what it is with people in upper management having to be right all the time. The reason you hire people in certain specialties is to trust them with the issues, just like I trust upper management to handle upper management issues. It's a very frustrating (and never-ending, it feels like) cycle.

Re: What to do when your non-technical boss is just plain wrong

#14

Post by excid3 »

jrs235 wrote: post #11

A comment on the first comment of the article: "This last part reminds me of something recently. Because management needs to feel like they have control over what's going on, as a technical person, you should do the right thing, but only 90% when you show it to them and make the 10% that is miss quite obvious. The reason is so that when you present it to them, they can point out the missing piece of the project and f…

I was the one that posted that and I agree with you. It is frustrating to do, but I've just simply started presenting things that are just shy of being finished. Show them early, so they know what's going on and it smooths things out quite a bit.

Re: What to do when your non-technical boss is just plain wrong

#15

Post by btilly »

tks2103 wrote: post #2

I couldn't shake my knee-jerk response to this title: "Get a technical boss"

The talents needed to be good technically are uncorrelated with the talents needed to be an effective manager. I've experienced both, and I'll take a good nontechnical manager over a bad technical manager any day. (Note, my definition of "good" and "bad" here has to do with my experience of working with the person, and not their ability to climb the political hierarchy.)

Re: What to do when your non-technical boss is just plain wrong

#16

Post by conover »

jrs235 wrote: post #11

A comment on the first comment of the article: "This last part reminds me of something recently. Because management needs to feel like they have control over what's going on, as a technical person, you should do the right thing, but only 90% when you show it to them and make the 10% that is miss quite obvious. The reason is so that when you present it to them, they can point out the missing piece of the project and f…

"That looks great. Just one thing – get rid of the duck."

Re: What to do when your non-technical boss is just plain wrong

#17

Post by tgrass »

jrs235 wrote: post #11

A comment on the first comment of the article: "This last part reminds me of something recently. Because management needs to feel like they have control over what's going on, as a technical person, you should do the right thing, but only 90% when you show it to them and make the 10% that is miss quite obvious. The reason is so that when you present it to them, they can point out the missing piece of the project and f…

These are no more 'games and tricks' than having to expend more energy walking uphill than downhill is a game or trick.

I am horrible at inter-office politics. I want so badly for things to be "efficient" - but it is always efficient for me. My boss has me print hard copies of email and put them in a physical folder AND has me copy the email as a PDF and sstore it in a sub folder of the project folder. Mind-blowingly inefficient on so many levels. But it's his way, and it's his firm. And I fought him on it, and so many other things, for so long, really fought with both of us screaming, I have poisoned the well. He won't ever trust me because I handled our conflicts so poorly in the past. He's allowed to handle them poorly - he pays my salary.

Re: What to do when your non-technical boss is just plain wrong

#19

Post by JohnBooty »

conover wrote: post #16
jrs235 wrote: post #11

A comment on the first comment of the article: "This last part reminds me of something recently. Because management needs to feel like they have control over what's going on, as a technical person, you should do the right thing, but only 90% when you show it to them and make the 10% that is miss quite obvious. The reason is so that when you present it to them, they can point out the missing piece of the project and f…

"That looks great. Just one thing – get rid of the duck."

For those wondering about the reference here: http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/2012/07/new-programming-jar...

Re: What to do when your non-technical boss is just plain wrong

#20

Post by larrik »

tks2103 wrote: post #2

I couldn't shake my knee-jerk response to this title: "Get a technical boss"

What if you want someone who is actually a good boss, though?

Most tech people I know make awful bosses, because being a good manager is usually about being the lightning rod for all the BS, so that the tech people can actually be productive.

Likewise, a non-technical manage who learns enough to technology to be dangerous is even WORSE.

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