Is being a top manager a win/win?
It feels impossible to “lose” for top management or for that matter even middle management at some companies. You make 5 decisions a day at most and even if you screw up all of those decisions you have a huge golden parachute as final backup plan. It feels like bullshit when someone who works 1 hour a day at most tells me how hard the job is, when in fact it’s hard to screw up to begin with, but even if you do, it’s not a big deal. There is no PIP and associated stress of not knowing how to pay the bills. There is a parachute and next bullshit interview-dinner with a connection who can put you at the same level job to keep chilling, while being the loudest about how hard the job is. Do I just rant without knowing what I’m saying or pretty close and it is what it looks like from outside?
I mean... If I had to pick between being a top manager and not, I know which one I'd be choosing.
I love how people seem to come to the conclusion that the levels above them do nothing like there is some grand conspiracy where companies are fine paying mid/senior management 400k+ while also accepting that they do nothing all day long.. It’s so funny to watch ICs complain that their manager does nothing and then that IC becomes a manager and is like wow I have a ton of work to do…but my manager he does nothing.
Just transitioned from an IC to being a manager. It’s definitely tougher!
While there is some truth in this, being a manager is extremely hard because you are dealing with people all day long who are unpredictable at best, sociopaths at worst.
Let’s clear something up here. I’m not talking about 1st bottom layer management. Those are the poorest people in the world, they are responsible for everything and get paid way less than their manager and do way more than the ICs. I’m talking about top management positions here. To be more specific , I’m talking about cookie cutters who bullshit their way through the ranks.
There are bullshitters everywhere though; not sure why you think it specifically targets senior management, if anything the higher you go the more filters were applied to you to weed out ineffective people
My company doesn't give negative evaluations to anyone above L4. The only people who suffer negative ratings and salary cuts are L2 and L3 senior ICs who aren't good enough to become managers.
rant
Hahahahahah.. love the fiction written above