Your Manager - Care and Feeding
The author of this text is seebs@plethora.net.
The official site is http://www.plethora.net/~seebs/faqs/hacker.html.
Questions and Answers:
Section 1: Basic understanding.
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1.1: Why doesn't my manager just do some actual
work?
- Management is a kind of work. Just as programs
need architecture and design, functional groups
of people can need organizing principles. Having
a person picked to handle this work can reduce the
amount of time spent trying to decide how to make
decisions, and can free other people up to do the
work they're best at.
-
1.2: Is it useful for me to have a manager?
- It depends on the kind of job you're doing. A
manager can dramatically improve your performance,
both as an individual and as a member of a team,
or a manager can get in the way and keep you from
working.
Work environments where managers are particularly
useful are:
- Large environments, especially with high turnover.
- Jobs where a significant amount of incoming
information must be factored into planning.
- Jobs which are prone to substantial obstructions
coming between workers and their work.
Jobs where managers may interfere are:
- Creative work.
- Fundamental engineering or research.
More generally, if the job allows for a person
(who might not be able to do the job)
to substantially help the people actually doing
the work get it done, or depends on a substantial
amount of decision making that doesn't really
require everyone's constant input, it will probably
benefit from management. If the job consists entirely
of things a single person can just sit down and
do, a manager may just get underfoot.
The good news is, a manager who does a good job
of "running interference" for his workers can
improve productivity by amazing amounts; you may
see five to ten times the productivity you would
have gotten if everyone had to stop working all
the time to interact with the rest of the company
(or the outside world). This won't happen all
the time, but it will happen.
1.3: How should I deal with my manager's management?
- The same way you deal with any other source of
requirements. Whenever possible, assume that she
is basically aware of what needs to happen - possibly
more aware than you are. Don't fight her without
good cause, and she'll be fine.
1.4: I don't understand this at all. This is confusing.
Is there a book on this?
- Probably not. There's lots of books for your
manager on how to deal with employees, though, and
if you read them, you may get a good idea of where
he's coming from.
Section 2: Social issues
2.1: My manager doesn't fit in well with our corporate
society. He seems to to a good job, but he's not
getting along with the engineers.
- This is common. Your manager may not have found
any people who get along well with "suits". A lot
of engineers don't have the personality traits (or
social skills) to adapt to people different from
themselves; you should consider making an effort
to get to know your manager, and accept his differences.
2.2: My manager seems to dress funny. Is there
any way to impress upon him the pointlessness of
corporate appearance?
- Your manager is probably aware that, in the abstract,
the way she dresses changes nothing. However, part
of her job is to interact with other people, and
there are rules of etiquette for these dealings.
Your manager's clothing, even when she's not dealing
with other people, is selected in part as a way
of telling you that she takes you seriously; it's
just like calling people "sir". It's a convention,
but that doesn't mean it's not a real convention,
and your manager is honoring it.
2.3: My manager insists on being called by a title,
and treated in a formal manner.
- Your manager's position is an aspect of a corporate
hierarchy; his title, and the formal modes of interaction,
are part of that structure. He is trying to do his
job, which involves being aware of the "chain of
command" and other corporate structures. He may
talk as though you are "beneath" him, and in terms
of who has the decision-making power, you probably
are - but this may not mean that he thinks you are
a less valuable person than he is. Try
to treat him with respect, and remember that, in
general, you show people respect on their
terms, not on the terms you might otherwise prefer.
2.4: My manager complains when I identify faults
in the work of my coworkers.
- Take your manager aside, and offer details of
what's wrong with the existing work. She may end
up not doing anything, but don't nag her about it;
she's juggling a lot of other priorities, too, and
there may be good reasons for which she's not doing
anything about your complaints. Whenever possible,
try to help people solve problems, rather than just
complaining about them.
Remember that there aren't enough great engineers
to go around; you may have to learn to live with
the work that people who are merely competent
can do.
Section 3: Productivity.
3.1: My manager complains when I spend time decompressing
with games.
- Managers are used to measuring work in terms
of "hours of work done"; in many cases, the work
they're evaluating doesn't have a "percolation"
phase, or isn't essentially unpredictable. Try to
find ways to decompress that look a little more
useful, if you can, or see if you can explain the
"background thought" process to your manager.
3.2: My manager is getting impatient during a
design phase.
- Managers are trying to deal with a lot of requirements
you may never see. The manager is trying to run
a business; he wants to know what the product is,
and when it will exist. He wants to estimate costs.
It's never possible to do a perfect job, but your
manager is going to do the best job he can
- which means he's going to try to figure out how
long your design phase is. How do you figure out
how long something takes? You measure the amount
done so far, you look at how long it took, and you
extrapolate.
Unfortunately, this doesn't work very well for
design. Still, you can help your manager if you
can find ways to express the state of the work.
Doodle things on whiteboards. Write papers summarizing
what issues you're wrestling with, and what issues
you think are nailed down. The act of explaining
may help you clarify these issues - and even if
it doesn't, it will show your manager that progress,
of some sort, is happening.
3.3: My manager doesn't understand why I need
to do this.
- See if you can make time to try to explain it.
Try to find ways to work through your problems that
meet your manager's expectations for what people
"working" look like.
3.4: My manager complains whenever something I
need to do wasn't written in my job description.
- Try to explain to her that the task needs to
happen, and no one else is doing it. You might suggest
getting "general troubleshooting" added to your
job description. Try to get documentation on how
useful the work you're doing is - ask other employees
to testify about the importance of what you're doing
for them, for instance.
3.5: My work is done, but my manager wants me
to look busy.
- Explain that your work is done. If your work
is moderately periodic, such as phone support, suggest
some low-priority tasks you could soak up... or,
as an alternative, explain that part of the job
is that you're effectively "on retainer", to make
sure they have someone when the job does
need to be done.
3.6: I'm stuck, and my manager won't stop pressuring
me to get unstuck.
- The best solution I've ever heard is to ask your
manager what happens if he loses his keys. How long
will it take to find them? Once he's done looking
everywhere he can think of, why doesn't he keep
looking in all those places over and over and over?
This is the best analogy to difficult creative work
that most people will have had experience with.
3.7: My job is boring and there's nothing to do.
- Ask your manager for more interesting work, or
try to get a transfer to a different department,
or look for new work.
3.8: My manager wants me to stop "showing off".
- Try to avoid stepping on other peoples' toes
too much. If someone you're working with can't get
his job done, and it's faster for you to do it,
go to your manager privately and discuss your concerns.
If she says to live with it, do; there are many
reasons why this could make sense.
3.9: My manager insists that I come in to the
office.
- While much productive work can be done on your
own time, in your own place, there's a lot of benefit
to social interaction with coworkers. Your manager
is trying to make sure that you all see each other
occasionally, and build some social bonds. He's
also probably aware that, when you do come
in, you may get into a spontaneous conversation
about some design issue, which can save weeks of
work if you get the right people together. Not all
meetings are productive; that doesn't mean no meetings
are.
Section 4: Stimulus and response
4.1: My manager is doing a good job. Should I
thank her?
- Yes! Managers, just like everyone else, need
to know when they're doing their jobs well.
4.2: My manager did something that bothered me,
and I want to get back at him.
- Don't punish him. Talk to him. Explain
why the behavior bothered you. Ask him why he did
it, or why this was necessary. Try to understand
his reasons; they may be good ones, such as "if
we don't finish this project soon, we run out of
money to pay you in about three months".
If you find that the reasons are good, try to
be understanding. Let your manager know that you
were convinced. If you aren't convinced, try to
live with the inconvenience anyway.
4.3: My manager wants me to do management; I am
not interested, but she seems offended by this.
- Your manager is from a corporate structure in
which one advances in a hierarchy; she may not be
aware that you're enjoying your work for its own
merits, not doing it in the hopes of being "advanced"
to a new position. Try to explain that you're doing
the kind of work you are because you enjoy it.
4.4: My manager can't raise my salary any more
because I earn as much as he does.
- This is silly, but it may be beyond your manager's
power to fix. See if you can find alternatives -
maybe he can offer you extended benefits. If all
else fails, try to get him to give you permission
to do freelance consulting on your own time, and
pick up some supplemental money.
4.5: I can't believe the manager on my staff is
worth as much as we're paying.
- As you go through the day, try to keep track
of all the things you're using and depending on
that "just happen". Did you pay that phone bill?
Who did? Your manager is probably doing a lot of
things you aren't even aware are happening; this
is allowing you to focus on what's important, doing
your job.
Section 5: What does that mean?
5.1: My manager doesn't speak English. At least,
I don't think so.
- Managers have evolved their own set of words,
just like technical jargon, to communicate more
effectively. Unfortunately, one of the things it's
designed to communicate is "I can speak long words
without stuttering". Still, the chances are that
most of what you're hearing does have meaning, although
it may be a little verbose.
[It is also possible that English is not your
manager's native language, and that it's not yours
either. Feel free to substitute a more appropriate
language.]
5.2: My manager is demanding an estimate for something
I haven't figured out yet.
- Your manager is trying to decide trivial little
things like "where does the paycheck come from".
If paychecks are to come on regular schedules, the
company's income must come on, at least, a predictable
schedule - which means your manager needs to have
some idea of how long it will take you to do something.
Try to estimate. Go ahead and warn your manager
that the estimate is inaccurate; you may want
to use the example of "finding keys" to explain
why.
5.3: My manager has no sense of humor.
- Your manager probably doesn't have the same appreciation
for meta-humor, recursion, and obscure technical
puns that you do. Try not to depend on jokes that
require an engineering background (or at least an
engineer's attitude) as a means of communication
or bonding with people who aren't, in the end, here
to be engineers.
5.4: My manager counts from one.
- Ordinals (counting numbers) have always started
from one; counting from zero, while obvious and
natural to many programmers, is probably wrong from
a linguistic standpoint. Try to be flexible.
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