Right. No, we don't. He messages me when he needs help with things since I'm holding a lot more in the hands-on stuff. One of the problems is that he tends to work in a silo whereas I prefer to act as just another engineer when I'm working on those types of tasks, which means providing updates to the team, tracking my progress openly, giving info in standups, etc.
I have a good relationship with the CTO, but it still feels a bit awkward for me to be telling him or even suggesting to him what to do, but maybe that's my own issue. Perhaps he'd love to hear from me things like "We could really use your help on X" or "It would be great if you did Y." Maybe he really doesn't know how/where he can be helpful.
I think you're right that more regular communication would help. He just hasn't been great about this. He provided no onboarding to me, didn't teach me anything and I basically had to pick up everything by myself. I'm a bit worried I'm up against a behavior that has become very entrenched or that he really just doesn't have the motivation he once did.
Lots of things to unpack here and there was quite a delay in my response. But here it is.
>Right. No, we don't.
You're (in a sense) his boots-on-the-front-line guy and you two don't have a regular dialogue? Yikes.
>He messages me when he needs help with things since I'm holding a lot more in the hands-on stuff. One of the problems is that he tends to work in a silo whereas I prefer to act as just another engineer...
So there's a difference in working style which could be the root of the issue. Have you ever brought this up to him?
I used to PM with an engineer who was like this. Since it was a small team and he was very good at his job, I let it go at first but had to eventually pull his leash a bit because he wasn't truly acting part of the team. You have to have a discussion about this with him.
Do you even know what he's doing at a given point in time, even if he's working alone? As part of your team's processes you should know or have an idea, because without an idea he or another of your team members might be doing redundant work. That's not good for anyone. Even a quick message from him to the rest of the team on a regular basis simply stating "hi, today I'm working on X" might be really useful.
>* Perhaps he'd love to hear from me things like "We could really use your help on X" or "It would be great if you did Y." Maybe he really doesn't know how/where he can be helpful.*
Try that. Or go to him more regularly at the beginning of his day and say "hey, we're having problems with ABC or XYZ, can you devote a chunk of time to helping us solve it?". If you can get in front of problems and put work on his plate quickly, it might prevent him from being able to go off and do his own thing....because if he's truly burnt out or just DGAF anymore you'll be able to tell quickly.
The other factor is that you seem to be quite good at your job and he might be worried that he's stepping on your toes (and hindering your abilities or your team's progress) if he gets too involved, or worse - he's realized that with you being involved, he doesn't really have to care anymore.
I don't know if your job is in-person or remote, but I've seen this happen when companies are fully remote - the team aspect is killed and people feel less like a team and more like individual contributors....which is fine in some ways but when combined with the right type of personalities, the work becomes so fragmented and siloed that people "check out" to various degrees if they are able to. I've seen executives do this frequently.
I have a good relationship with the CTO, but it still feels a bit awkward for me to be telling him or even suggesting to him what to do, but maybe that's my own issue. Perhaps he'd love to hear from me things like "We could really use your help on X" or "It would be great if you did Y." Maybe he really doesn't know how/where he can be helpful.
I think you're right that more regular communication would help. He just hasn't been great about this. He provided no onboarding to me, didn't teach me anything and I basically had to pick up everything by myself. I'm a bit worried I'm up against a behavior that has become very entrenched or that he really just doesn't have the motivation he once did.