I’d rather have an engineering manager who does nothing rather than one who wastes everyone’s time and runs around trying to get credit for everything under the sun while throwing people under the bus if anything goes sideways.
Once you move beyond a mid level developer [1], line level managers are more or less useless in my experience. They don’t control raises, promotions, budgets or strategies.
I worked at two companies before I got into consulting where I was recruited to lead major hairy initiatives, the conditions of employment for both was that I wanted to report to the director/cto - someone who controlled budgets.
[1] no matter what your title is, if you are just pulling well defined tasks off the board, you’re a mid level developer.
I do, and I don’t. Not for lack of trying, but a (non-exec) job is usually full of people who are not in that situation and it creates all sorts of awkwardness I’d rather not deal with. For example, I was out at a team dinner one time and someone asked me where I lived and when I’d bought my place, and they replied with “so you’re rich then,” and I had nothing to say to that except feel awkward.
Also when shit hits the fan layoff-wise management tries to use fear as leverage, which just causes me to quit, leaving my teammates in the lurch. (I’m reminded that Warren Buffett said they don’t try to manage most of the business mangers under them, because many of them are independently wealthy and that would take away their desire to keep showing up. That’s probably why execs are insulated from these dramas too.)
Lastly, if you work with vapid people as I did, they will low-key judge you by your possessions while flaunting theirs, and that’s just nonsense I don’t need in my life.
That being said, I don’t mind working, just not “for money alone,” if that makes sense.
IME it still can’t answer “is the state of Oregon entirely north of New York City” correctly. It’s possible they hard coded it since I posted about it online. How do you reconcile its inability to answer this simple question with your rather optimistic view of its capabilities?
Edit: lmao at downvotes over discussion…well, I use burner accounts. You have no power here.
