In most cases I find engineers are great people and friendly, maybe introverted but still friendly. On the other hand most managers tend to be fake friendly and less of what I would call a good person. Is this cause by the roll, or does the roll attract that type or something else?
I feel like fake smile is of least concern in what makes a manager terrible...
Manager needs to have completely different skill-sets compared to an engineer and unfortunately, being a good engineer is the prerequisite for being a manager. Very few people have both the skill-sets, and hence we are stuck with mediocre managers who don't know how to manage!
I don't think this is what I have seen the major problems I have see is managers that are non technical and ask for miracles or fluff what their teams accomplishments or deciding bad technical decisions. Like can't code yet micromanaging app doesn't.
No, but working at Facebook does.
There’s a member of the tribe at my current company. He’s not technical and has shitty people skills, so I have no idea why he’s a director. Oh I know why, because one of the co-founders is a member of the tribe too! Funny how that works.
Damn forgot nepotism in the poll:/ I've seen this too.
The best part about this poll is the two people sticking up for terrible managers are from Oracle 😂
My manager at Apple is incompetent and a major dick
Management in tech becomes a political shitshow requiring you to become a douchebag to survive.
Being a manager has had me more emphathetic, I get to hear all sorts of things at 1on1 that I didn't inquiry about. Sick and dying relative, life debilitating illness, mental illness, Visa struggles, etc. Most people are silently carrying their burden, showing up everyday and trying to do their best. I however have slowed that on the small talk, if you say stupid shit around me, I might be forced to report you to HR especially if there are witnesses. I need to mark a clear separation between friendship and leadership so when I give instructions you don't end up taking it lightly. Can't really ping pong and bar hop like in the past. It's a balancing act and the optics can make some of us seem a bit colder than we actually are.
I follow this simple priority set. 1. Take care of your people 2. Take care of yourself 3. Take care of your job If you can't do 3 without doing 1 don't manage. Not sure why it's so hard
Become a manager and then you will know. The thing that you so nicely put at #1 on your list is extremely hard to ensure. People want different things - some want good projects, some want extra time off to spend with family, some want promotions before they are ready, etc. but inevitably everyone wants high TC. A manager at pretty much any place has extremely limited powers and with Leetcode just around the corner, it is impossible to keep people motivated. The other day I had a direct under one of my managers come up to me and say: "I have been offered 20k more/yr at Amazon, and I want to leave. I'll stay if Oracle pays me 50k/yr more". This person was hired from Google, was given a higher title, a fat paycheck (think ~450k), and some of the most interesting projects on my team. And in 13 months, he is looking to switch jobs. How do I take care of him again?
You don't have to, taking care of people isn't handing out money. Hopefully you utilized his skills to solve the problems you don't trust with bad coders