

Ask HN: How to work when I have too many masters to serve? - san_dimitri

I am working as a research engineer in Silicon Valley. One of major problems at work is I have too many masters to serve. Though I am a very self motivated person and avoid other distractions during my work to be very productive, I am having to serve more than one manager. Because of our flat management hierarchy the senior researchers are being a pain in my case. How should I work so that this problem will not affect my work and results. PLEASE ADVICE.
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djb_hackernews
Lots of missing information.

Do you have a boss? I'd gather requirements without any promises and talk with
him to decide what is important.

If that isn't an option I'd bring everyone together to discuss what is
important and get everyone to agree. Everyone, this includes you. Provide a
reasonable timetable and a reasonable schedule for the next iteration. (This
is borderline Agile, but personally I try to stay away from rigid processes)

Also, do you HAVE many masters to serve, or are you trying to please everyone?
I don't have to explain this line of questioning.

Main point, communication is key. Talk to your bosses, talk to your
colleagues.

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san_dimitri
Thanks a lot for the info. I planned for a meeting tomorrow. The lack of
communication among the top guys is affecting me because each one has their
own set of tasks and usually they are tangential to the others. I wanted to
make sure that all of them understand each other. Thanks for the reply.

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bricestacey
It takes a lot of effort to get colleagues aligned with your personal goals.
It's not clear what your situation is, but...

If you have multiple supervisors requesting things, realize when it comes to
getting things done it's oftentimes a big power struggle. It's probably best
to prioritize them according to power and push those projects through. Use the
situation to exert power on your supervisor's behalf. Do it the right way and
you can earn your colleague's respect and cooperation.

This works horizontally with your peers, but also vertically. If supervisor A
is more powerful than supervisor B then push back on supervisor B due to
higher priorities with supervisor A. If you're not overrun with work, instead
of pushing back on B, you can make a deal: senior researcher C must assist you
to get the project done. In either situation, you're proxying A's power and if
you're lucky some of it will rub off on you.

The crucial detail is in how you execute. Leadership is just a euphemism for
ability to exert of power in a way that people like.

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tobylane
If you do find out you have one boss, you could ask the others to go through
him first, to pass your work to him.

