As an engineering manager, I feel pretty strongly that leadership should be cultivating a culture where they’re inviting people to challenge strategy/tactics, and their people feel comfortable challenging them. Part of that is recognizing the power dynamics at play, and consciously making room for other people to contribute to decisions. Realistically sometimes leaders have to take decisive action that doesn’t take into account all of the input they would ideally have received if the time was there, but in general I think one of the most important qualities of a leader is knowing when to shut up and let your team take the reigns.
I’m currently living in a place a lot like you describe, and I hate it, but for now it’s the only economically feasible option for my family. Walkable neighborhoods in my town are outrageously expensive, and while I could appreciate living in a more rural setting, anything reasonably close to my town that would allow for reasonable commutes is also outrageously expensive. The current economic climate kind of forces people into these suburban hellscapes :/ I would move in a heartbeat if there was an economically viable option.
> Walkable neighborhoods in my town are outrageously expensive
Yep, bingo. People asking whether we really want these kinds of development only need to look at the price of housing in desirable walkable town centers. The home-buying market craves more of it.
I’m in a fairly small town but the price of a townhouse walkable to downtown is easily double an equivalent single-family detached suburban house a 10 minute drive away.
Yea at my company, we consider moving from senior eng to level 1 mgr a parallel move, and many senior engineers have tried management, decided it wasn’t right for them, and made arrangements to move back to IC. It has worked out really well for us. I made the move from IC to manager at this company, ended up liking management a lot more than I thought I would, and am staying in management for the foreseeable future. I probably never would have made the move if there wasn’t an escape hatch to go back to IC.
Would be great to see more companies using a similar model.
This is what I’m hoping I can do at some point in the next few years. I’m feeling pretty burnt out and I’m thinking the free time would be well worth less pay at this point. Was it hard to find a 3 day/week type situation?
