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how do we not have a thread on how not to suck as a manager? i'm thinking about making the jump from ic to manager, why shouldn't i do it? how do i not murder people if i do do it? what even is synergy?
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Apr 7, 2023 04:26
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we literally have a poster here who is the management
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Apr 7, 2023 04:27
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management’s job is to protect their reports from bullshit coming at them from all directions and let them do their work. this mostly involves sitting in meetings
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Apr 7, 2023 06:38
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username checks out
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Apr 7, 2023 06:40
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The Management posted:management’s job is to protect their reports from bullshit coming at them from all directions and let them do their work. this mostly involves sitting in meetings drat my manager sucks rear end then all I do is sit in meetings and field bullshit that comes at me from all directions.
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Apr 7, 2023 06:42
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nudgenudgetilt posted:why shouldn't i do it? do you like sitting in meetings? do you like schedules, bug tracking, and project management? do you like reviewing hiring candidates? do you like arguing for who gets what share of the bonus pool and who gets screwed on raises this year? management might be for you
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Apr 7, 2023 06:44
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all of those things are my hobbies outside of work already. should i work in management or will it kill my enjoyment of arguing with people in meeting rooms for hours a day?
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Apr 7, 2023 06:45
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for the record: I am not in management and never will be because I am better at writing code than dealing with people, and if I had to sit in meetings all day every day I would lowtax myself. so maybe don’t base your career decisions on my experience.
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Apr 7, 2023 07:02
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jeez. has there ever been a bigger liar on the forums?
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Apr 7, 2023 07:06
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very carefully
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Apr 7, 2023 08:13
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my manager just sent out an email where he cryptically warned us that forces beyond his control would give us all a bunch more work and then whined about how much work he has don’t do that
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Apr 7, 2023 12:43
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theres multiple theories of management a) the servant leader- deflect bullshit and ensure your people have everything they need to be successful b) the RTS master- understand your teams skills so you can apply them to problems minute to minute and thus maximize their productivity c) the commander- yell at everyone under you to keep them sharp and on the ball. agree to everything anyone above you asks your team to do because more work is more better d) the minimalist- people do best when they self manage. your best service is to simply route requests from other parts of the organization to random people in your team and then they can handle the rest.
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Apr 7, 2023 15:02
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these are the kind of decisions managers can sometimes be asked to make: 1) you have enough money in the budget to give 1 person a 15% raise, or spread it around and everyone gets 1.5-2.5%. everyone has met all their goals, several have done really good stuff. 2) you have to select 2 people from a team of 20 to lay off due to business stuff. you cannot select the 2 old guys who already want to retire because that opens the company up to age discrimination. you cannot select the two shitbags on an adjacent team because their project is not the one ostensibly getting cut. 3) one of your people has done literally nothing for 4 months since their divorce. used to be an excellent contributor, but now cannot even get out of bed. breaks down sobbing every time you talk to them. how long are you going to cover for them? what do you do when your boss notices? 4) oops! you hired a malignant narcissist! this one seemed excellent during the interview, but as soon as they were on a team it became obvious that they literally cannot work collaboratively with others because everything is either about making them look great or is a sinister plot by everyone else whos out to get them!! if they stay the entire department is poisioned, now what??
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Apr 7, 2023 15:22
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fresh_cheese posted:theres multiple theories of management my ratings: a) correct b) wrong c) wrong d) wrong
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Apr 7, 2023 15:57
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fart simpson posted:my ratings: yea, but now go back and rate them on how fun/easy they are on you, the manager, while ignoring the effects on the NPCs
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Apr 7, 2023 16:04
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a friend of mine is the author of this book and even though I've no intention of ever becoming a manager, reading it was super valuable in order to better understand how my managers ought to be managing so as to top from the bottom, as you say fun fact, the anecdote on the first page of her book is about me 
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Apr 7, 2023 16:05
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fresh_cheese posted:3) one of your people has done literally nothing for 4 months since their divorce. used to be an excellent contributor, but now cannot even get out of bed. breaks down sobbing every time you talk to them. how long are you going to cover for them? what do you do when your boss notices? yeah that would be awful if that happened. heh. but hypothetically what would everyone do
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Apr 7, 2023 17:30
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Truman Peyote posted:yeah that would be awful if that happened. heh. but hypothetically what would everyone do in our case the manager and i finagled the poo poo out of everything around that person so they had time to get themselves out of their hole with therapy and family support. they were minimally contributing again by ~6 months and ultimately took a different, better job 2 years later with a lot more flexibility. it was a lot of shell game for a while though to hide that. rule 1 is to understand that the company cannot care about you. you are a cog in the machine, completely interchangeable with other cogs. people, however, might care about you, and might be able to do the right thing by you to the detriment of the company. sometimes people dont suck.
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Apr 7, 2023 18:13
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I enjoy being an individual contributor. some of my coworkers have got to be a giant pain in the rear end to manage.
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Apr 7, 2023 18:34
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the upside to being a manager is you don’t gotta do stuff, just say stuff
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Apr 7, 2023 18:44
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The Management posted:do you like sitting in meetings? These but also: Do you find yourself more and more motivated by mentoring? Are you cool with absorbing a bunch of unimportant bullshit so your team can focus on important bullshit? Read some Ask a Manager or similar. So much of it is exactly as you would expect but also some poo poo is loving wild.
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Apr 7, 2023 21:03
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The Management posted:for the record: I am not in management and never will be mods???
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Apr 7, 2023 21:19
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fresh_cheese posted:in our case the manager and i finagled the poo poo out of everything around that person so they had time to get themselves out of their hole with therapy and family support. they were minimally contributing again by ~6 months and ultimately took a different, better job 2 years later with a lot more flexibility. it was a lot of shell game for a while though to hide that. heartwarming i am not a manager as far as my job title goes but if the actual managers aren’t there on the floor I am the highest ranking of 10-15 people thru many things Ive read and etc Ive concluded my solidarity is with the people not the management. the small differences I can make is when someone calls in sick I just say “hope you feel better soon let us know if there’s anything we can do”, because the other bosses ask “what’s wrong this time?” as if you have to pass a sickness test to get the day off. or basically listen to the people and treat their problems seriously people seem to like it. i’m basically a massive pushover tho, people tell me not to let others take advantage of my friendly nature but you know what? i’ll just always cave every time
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Apr 7, 2023 21:44
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Dijkstracula posted:a friend of mine is the author of this book and even though I've no intention of ever becoming a manager, reading it was super valuable in order to better understand how my managers ought to be managing thanks for the recommendation
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Apr 7, 2023 22:29
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Share Bear posted:thanks for the recommendation
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Apr 7, 2023 22:57
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echinopsis posted:my solidarity is with the people not the management. dude, I thought we were buds
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Apr 8, 2023 03:48
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well you see, i have two direct reports, and they've both been with the company longer than i have. i just act as a sounding board and sanity checker mainly my role is to sit between upper management and my team, and tell both sides to do less. management explains some complicated product they want, i convince them that they actually want a much simpler thing that will take half the time to build. my reports explain some complicated solution that will be fun to build and solve 100% of the problem, i convince them that punting on the hard parts and only solving 25% of the problem will satisfy management for now also one of my dudes is working on chatgpt stuff. i give him the freedom to gently caress around for weeks on end. when management asks about deliverables, i remind them that the people who can not only do these newfangled ai things, but do them fast, cost several times what we pay
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Apr 8, 2023 04:17
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fresh_cheese posted:these are the kind of decisions managers can sometimes be asked to make: i guess i can attempt to respond to these 1. if you get here, you hosed up. you were supposed to be negotiating for more budget with your director long before raise time 2. someone is gonna have to do the work of the people laid off. choose the two people whose absence minimizes the amount of work that will flow to you personally 3. therapy 4. fire this motherfucker out of a cannon
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Apr 8, 2023 04:28
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number 4 is why probationary periods exist
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Apr 8, 2023 05:17
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i went from ic to manager 6 months ago. my tactic is to be a poo poo umbrella and let my peeps get on with it the most annoying thing by far is the managing up part, not managing my team. they are all good and I just need to get stuff out of their way so they can do their job but I gotta be in endless review meetings and new initiative meetings and be a human shield so my team doesn’t get dragged into bullshit. that bit is kinda lame being able to coach people and have your voice carry more weight when deciding what the business should do, that but is good
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Apr 8, 2023 05:24
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I’m teaching my boss how to manage the rest of the company so that we don’t get shafted every product cycle.
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Apr 8, 2023 05:56
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fart simpson posted:number 4 is why probationary periods exist here there is a three month period where you can get fired for any reason ar all then it’s impossible to get fired u less you like turn up drunk or steal the bosses car
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Apr 8, 2023 06:08
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here in america, we call that first period you described "employment" like, if someone's situation is different, this is enough of an exception to the rule that it's worthy of notice
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Apr 8, 2023 06:14
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i should clarify, there is actually a set of protected things that you can't be fired for in america. so if your employer wants to fire you for one of those things, they just pick another unprotected thing and pretend that was the reason. this happens approximately 10000 times per day.
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Apr 8, 2023 06:16
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echinopsis posted:here there is a three month period where you can get fired for any reason ar all it’s generally 6 months here. and after that you can get fired for any reason but they have to pay a decent amount of severance to do it
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Apr 8, 2023 08:17
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unless you like turn up drunk or steal the bosses car. then they don’t need to pay the severance
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Apr 8, 2023 08:19
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big American companies are too afraid to fire anyone unless it’s a flagrant criminal offense. if they want to fire you for being bad at your job they will put you on a “performance improvement plan”, which is basically a way to document your job performance in a way that will survive scrutiny in a wrongful dismissal lawsuit. PIP is recoverable if the goals are realistic. if they have decided to fire you, the goals will be impossible to meet.
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Apr 8, 2023 17:31
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pip is just a polite way to say feel free to work on your resume and take interviews during work hours
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Apr 8, 2023 17:35
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alley oop
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Apr 8, 2023 17:49
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off by 1 oop
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Apr 8, 2023 17:49
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