
Ask HN: Have you ever managed someone paid more than you? - czep
I once prepared an offer of about 10% higher than my comp for a candidate who would be my direct report. It didn&#x27;t trouble me at all because this person would have been a perfect fit for the role.  My manager said no way and we lost the candidate. I was probably underpaid and I suspect my manager feared I would use that as leverage to ask for a raise. But honestly it didn&#x27;t bother me and I feel like the company missed out on a great candidate. Has anyone been in this position when it actually went through? Was the salary difference a cause of tension?
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muzani
I wish I did. I think programmers deserve a little more than managers, because
the work is harder.

It's similar to sports team management - sure the manager is rare and more
experienced, but they're not burning their mind off trying to meet irrational
deadlines. The stress of management mostly comes from team issues, so I'd
think paying them more would solve a lot of problems.

But it's also sort of a hierarchy thing.

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CloudNetworking
> I wish I did. I think programmers deserve a little more than managers,
> because the work is harder.

Let me guess, you're a programmer.

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muzani
I was a manager/tech lead from 2015-2019, then went back to programming
because it was such a pain dealing with underfunded teams.

Programming actually seems to pay better in third world countries, though, as
there's a shortage for specific skill sets, as opposed to developers with 20
years experience who can put together a full stack PHP site or build telco
systems, but haven't done Angular.

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lucozade
I once took over a team that had number of members that were paid more than me
and had higher titles.

The money side didn't bother me because they were more experienced and in
specialist roles that I definitely couldn't do (at least when I took over the
team). If anything it worked out to my benefit as my boss felt a bit guilty
about it so I received a promotion and a hefty pay rise at the next year end.

It also helped that none of the team had wanted the role so there was no
slight implied.

There were some odd moments. At one point one of the team, with more than 10
years more experience than me, asked me for career advice. But mostly it
wasn't much different from other team lead roles I've had.

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gshdg
Management is a skill, but it's a fairly generic and transferable one.

ICs can be specialists, and there are rare / valuable specialist skills that
can command far higher comp than a generic manager or director.

There's nothing about comp itself that would cause a report making higher comp
to undermine a manager making less. And a good manager will defer to the
report on the topics the report is an expert on.

(Tho in a pathological organization or if the report is an asshole, it might
be an indicator that the report is more valuable to the organization and could
go over the manager's head to undermine the manager if they wanted to.)

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downerending
I suspect that I was once in the complementary position of being paid a lot
more than my manager (who was quite a bit younger). His take on the situation
seemed to be that I should be that I should be doing everything twice as fast
as him, etc., since I was being paid more, and it did somewhat poison the
relationship.

Life is short--I moved on.

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antongribok
I have seen this at two Fortune 50 companies firsthand. This happens usually
when there is a reorganization and people move around (at least in my two
anecdotal cases).

Essentially you have a very valuable individual contributor who is good at
what he does, and he wouldn't be as valuable if he was forced to be a manager.

The manager above him understands this.

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amerkhalid
At my friend's company, a director wanted to higher someone but they were
asking for more than what director was making. Director was okay with it but
HR would not approve it. Eventually, they end up giving director a pay raise
to let him hire the person they wanted.

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Haxker
Your direct reports should never make more than you (in non-commission role).
How can you be the boss of someone who is defacto more valuable then you (even
as they lack the responsibility you bare). Yes, you would be underpaid in your
current roll if the candidate was being offered market value and you should
not search for validation on your position but a new job entirely

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deogeo
Why couldn't you be the boss of someone more valuable than yourself? They're
more valuable in _their_ role - that doesn't mean they'd be better/more
valuable than you in _your_ role, of management.

For example, it would make perfect sense if a dean made less than one of their
Nobel-prize winning professors. Or a coach that makes less than their olympic
athletes.

