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Self-organizing still leads to bosses, but they just get paid like regular workers.

My company does this sort of thing but with dev chapter leads. The chapter leads have no management training and no authority. They don't even really know what you're doing since they're on a separate team and have their own coding work. They're senior devs that have added management responsibilities and are just paid as senior devs. Fuck that.



Implicit in this is that managers should get paid more than senior devs. Why?

Perhaps senior devs should get paid the same as similar-level managers, principal devs the same as similar-level managers, etc.


>Implicit in this is that managers should get paid more than senior devs. Why?

Nope, not sure where you got the idea. Senior dev is paid the same as senior dev + manager responsibilities. There is no mention of pay for manger responsibilities without senior dev responsibilities.


I read that from this: "They're senior devs that have added management responsibilities and are just paid as senior devs. Fuck that."


At my current company, management is an entry level position that recruits fresh grads. It’s essentially secretarial work under a different name.

So certainly in our case there’s no justification for a manager out earning any individual contributors (but they still do, because manager).


>managers should get paid more than senior devs. Why?

Bureaucracy rules.

If almost nobody is going to be getting anywhere anyway, why not?

In a very high technology field, regardless of whether it has anything to do with computers or not, sometimes what is needed is a team of individual high-performers.

Where each member could have the same high degree of expertise in the same relevant area, or at the other end of the spectrum, unique expertise in the variety of complementary domains the project requires.

Fundamentally any one of these productive individuals could do an outstanding job (of some kind) on their own, since that's the entrance criterion.

It's not supposed to go downhill just because you have a project that needs more engineers than one.

Any one of these operators who are not already a "rock star" is just because they do not have a manager promoting them & their talents properly.

The bandleader's got to be in the band with enough talent to be respected by all the band members, and performing right there beside them when it counts most. Especially if they're all rock stars, somebody has to herd cats.

The manager needs open-ended compensation with no upside limitation, other than it can not exceed the income of a single band member, completely dependent on how well the manager promotes those under his wing and how lucrative the gigs are he gets for the band.

Otherwise no rock stars for you.

You know, how somebody really can be 10X at any time, but only if the situation is right in many ways beyond that one individual?

A good manager can bring more than that multiple to the bottom line if they concentrate on promoting & increasing the actual performers' earnings first, rather than themselves.


You might have responded to the wrong comment.


My company does put managers and ICs in the same pay range. However, due to market rate, managers tend to be higher in the range and make make more than devs. The new chapter lead thing is BS because you have people working 2 jobs for the price of the cheaper 1 (there is no market adjustment for that role). Who wants that extra work for no benefit?


Reminds me a bit of that Tyranny of Structurelessness essay, well worth a read.


I never heard of it before this discussion. Here is a link that I found on Google: https://www.jofreeman.com/joreen/tyranny.htm


I had this job except I didn’t even get paid as a senior dev.




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