13 reasons not to be a manager

It just so happened that over the past few years I have held a wide variety of leadership positions in half a dozen companies involved in the development of various kinds of software. I had a chance to visit both a team leader and a project manager, and a group of projects, a department head and a technical direction manager; there were from two to one hundred and fifty people, and the size of the company ranged from three to two hundred thousand employees. Only one thing remained unchanged: purely managerial work, a gradual and final departure from technical tasks.

And now, in the period between Christmas and New Year, when the tendency to deep reflection is especially acute, it comes to the understanding that, if I knew some "insider" details of managerial activity in advance, I would have made a completely different choice seven years ago.

That is why this slightly chaotic and very diverse list of moments was born that I would very much like to convey somewhere back around 2005 - let me know if someone suddenly has already learned to do it! In the meantime, maybe someone will find some of the points listed below are not completely obvious, or even useful for themselves; it would be nice to realize that it was possible to help someone make a more informed choice of profession - or just think about something important.


  1. It's a dead end
    Funny as it may seem, but one of the reasons why I once switched from technical to managerial work is precisely the notorious “glass ceiling”, that is, a vowel or tacit limit of financial and career growth, which sooner or later begins to notice every developer. It seemed that one had only to abstract oneself from technology, to get rid of the need to almost completely switch to something completely new every two years, how it would be possible to take, and bring one specific skill - here, let’s say, management - to breathtaking perfection, and there ... unlimited prospects await me! How so. Practice shows that the prospects are unlimited precisely for developers: you can change the technology, try different roles in the project, you can work in the state or be a contractor, freelancer, shareholder - or become an architect, eg. Once you become a manager, alas, you remain them forever. Having missed the next big change of technology, without becoming younger, having a family, you suddenly realize that returning to technical / programming activities will be either extremely difficult or even impossible at all - especially considering that this is due to the loss of relevant experience on the market cannot happen without a significant decrease in income. So the longer you stay in a non-technical position, the farther away the conditional “train” leaves. due to the loss of relevant market experience, it cannot happen without a significant decrease in income. So the longer you stay in a non-technical position, the farther away the conditional “train” leaves. due to the loss of relevant market experience, it cannot happen without a significant decrease in income. So the longer you stay in a non-technical position, the farther away the conditional “train” leaves.

  2. Glass ceiling is back
    Yes, yes, there is a second glass ceiling, a kind of invisible growth restrictor, which I personally was not very noticeable from the developer's point of view - probably it was masked by “reflections” on the first glass ceiling, who knows. In short, then in a relatively realistic situation - that is, without a radical change of industry (for example, from an IT manager - to vice president of some spherical Gazprom in a vacuum) and country of residence - managers in the field of software development have a rather narrow financial and career corridor in which you can "grow and develop." The ceiling is all kinds of directors and their deputies, who often turn out to be the founders and / or co-owners of the company, or their proteges. Simply put, these are those managerial positions to which you cannot “grow”, but you can only “get”; interesting,

  3. What to do?
    Despite all the pathos of the subtitle, this is not about philosophical matters, but about a very specific question - what should a manager do from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. on a working day? For technical specialties and positions, this is more or less clear and well defined: people analyze requirements, write programs, test them - there are many different things. Passing to management - especially after a rather long existence in the "engineering" Universe, where everything is relatively clearly defined - you constantly encounter a stunning misunderstanding of what you should actually do all day? If there is any kind of documentation, job description or description on this topic, then it is usually extremely vague, vague and full of stamped phrases and terms that have long lost all meaning due to excessive use, and suitable now only for bullshit bingo. But usually not even her! Moreover, attempts to find out at least the high-level goals of their managerial activities encounter the same stream of undecrypted empty words: provide, establish, support, achieve, create, etc.

  4. Time trouble
    As soon as you get to the smallest managerial position, people who need nothing come apart from all sides - except for a small fraction of your time. After a couple of weeks, you find that more than 80% of the working time of the week is scheduled for various meetings and phone calls / conferences, and as a result there is absolutely no time left to get ready for these meetings at least. It is exhausting. Like it or not, you always turn out to be those who either did not have time, or did not prepare, or both, and the other ... and, probably, there is no way out - at least I saw people living in this regime for years, and they hardly chose this life style consciously. But they develop a bunch of different adaptive mechanisms: for example, knowing that they’re not preparing for the meeting, nor will it be possible to work on any document based on its results anyway, they lay this time in the meeting itself. So then you spend the whole day at two, three, four-hour meetings, where up to a dozen people are present, 90% of which are completely useless there. But just try not to attend! And one fine day you find yourself celebrating lunch time in Outlook as the next meeting, otherwise you just won’t be able to have lunch, your fellow managers will devour all day without a trace. How it turned out last week. what you notice in Outlook as lunch time as the next meeting, otherwise you just won’t be able to have lunch, fellow managers will devour all day without a trace. How it turned out last week. what you notice in Outlook as lunch time as the next meeting, otherwise you just won’t be able to have lunch, fellow managers will devour all day without a trace. How it turned out last week.

  5. Torn day
    It is no secret that for any mental worker - for example, for a programmer - for productive work you need "two f": focus & flow. That is - the ability and ability to concentrate on the work that needs to be done, and the environmental conditions that contribute to maintaining this concentration for any length of time. It is no secret that every episode when something (a phone call, a conversation, just a loud sound outside the window) pulls you out of the "stream" of concentrated work, costs about 15 minutes of time - it is necessary so much to return to this stream of concentration. That is why developers and engineers do not like calls, letters, “knocks” on Skype / messengers / ICQ so much ... and when you move to the manager’s camp, your working day suddenly begins to consist of 80-90% of such breaks! Meetings in which you furtively try to answer ... twenty fresh letters, telephone conversations on the way from one meeting to another, as well as colleagues who always need something urgently, right now! And while you delve into the essence of the problem, three more letters fell into the inbox, two more unanswered calls rang on the phone, and you realize that the time that you allotted for lunch has just ended and the next meeting in four minutes. And if, nevertheless (despite paragraph 3 of this list) you realize that you need to do some specific, tangible work - well, say, write a document, slides for presentation, or draw a diagram, then find how many something long continuous period of working time is simply unreal! telephone conversations on the way from one meeting to another, as well as colleagues who always need something urgently, right now! And while you delve into the essence of the problem, three more letters fell into the inbox, two more unanswered calls rang on the phone, and you realize that the time that you allotted for lunch has just ended and the next meeting in four minutes. And if, nevertheless (despite paragraph 3 of this list) you realize that you need to do some specific, tangible work - well, say, write a document, slides for presentation, or draw a diagram, then find how many something long continuous period of working time is simply unreal! telephone conversations on the way from one meeting to another, as well as colleagues who always need something urgently, right now! And while you delve into the essence of the problem, three more letters fell into the inbox, two more unanswered calls rang on the phone, and you realize that the time that you allotted for lunch has just ended and the next meeting in four minutes. And if, nevertheless (despite paragraph 3 of this list) you realize that you need to do some specific, tangible work - well, say, write a document, slides for presentation, or draw a diagram, then find how many something long continuous period of working time is simply unreal! three more letters fell into the inbox, two more unanswered calls appeared on the phone, and you realize that the time that you took for lunch has just ended and the next meeting in four minutes. And if, nevertheless (despite paragraph 3 of this list) you realize that you need to do some specific, tangible work - well, say, write a document, slides for presentation, or draw a diagram, then find how many something long continuous period of working time is simply unreal! three more letters fell into the inbox, two more unanswered calls appeared on the phone, and you realize that the time that you took for lunch has just ended and the next meeting in four minutes. And if, nevertheless (despite paragraph 3 of this list) you realize that you need to do some specific, tangible work - well, say, write a document, slides for presentation, or draw a diagram, then find how many something long continuous period of working time is simply unreal!

  6. Irregular day
    Actually, the presence of meetings filling the entire working day (see clause 4), incoming correspondence in quantities sufficient to fill the same unfortunate day (see clause 7), as well as the periodic need to do something real, leads to that you regularly find yourself working in the evening from home, lingering in the office. Interestingly, this state of affairs is considered quite normal! For example, in one company where I happened to work, technicians paid for processing double the size without question, but not for the managers. That is, everyone knew that constant processing took place without them in any way, they simply did not pay for them! So it turns out that the developer’s income under certain conditions can easily exceed the income of his immediate superior. Another example: in one company it was that the developer’s non-working time is sacred, but appointing a meeting for half a dozen managers at 20:00 was just normal practice and a regular occurrence. Summary - all of a sudden, your personal nonworking time ceases to belong to you; since the entire surrounding managerial “party” considers this situation normal, then it’s impossible to “jump off” in some painless way, only at the cost of permanently placing yourself on the list of “disloyal”, “unmotivated” or simply lazy villains ...

  7. Inbox overflow
    In those days, when I was quietly and calmly engaged in development, in a day half a dozen emails fell into my inbox. Each of them immediately received my undivided attention, was thoroughly read and answered as quickly as possible - it was right, good, and it created the feeling that I did everything in my power to help others successfully do their work - answered questions, sent some materials, etc. But when you have subordinates, the number of daily incoming letters begins to grow very quickly. I kept it for hundreds of months for months, which leads to very unpleasant consequences: even using all possible “gadgets” of the mail client - filters, folders, tags, etc., even using all the wise and not very tricks of organizing time, even disappearing in Outlook in the evenings to the detriment of family and leisure - still there is no real opportunity to even thoughtfully read all the correspondence, not to mention meaningful answers to everyone. In the bottom line, we have a steadily growing number of various “phakaps” (letters not about that, not about that, or not so written, forgotten applications - and stuff like that), growing beyond the limits of even theoretical “rake” a bunch of low-priority and non-urgent letters - spilling over into forgotten affairs, unfulfilled promises, and also the itchy feeling that you can’t cope with your flow of incoming mail, but rather, it “cope” with you. Chews and spits out. In the bottom line, we have a steadily growing number of various “phakaps” (letters not about that, not about that, or not so written, forgotten applications - and stuff like that), growing beyond the limits of even theoretical “rake” a bunch of low-priority and non-urgent letters - spilling over into forgotten affairs, unfulfilled promises, and also the itchy feeling that you can’t cope with your flow of incoming mail, but rather, it “cope” with you. Chews and spits out. In the bottom line, we have a steadily growing number of various “phakaps” (letters not about that, not about that, or not so written, forgotten applications - and stuff like that), growing beyond the limits of even theoretical “rake” a bunch of low-priority and non-urgent letters - spilling over into forgotten affairs, unfulfilled promises, and also the itchy feeling that you can’t cope with your flow of incoming mail, but rather, it “cope” with you. Chews and spits out. that you can’t cope with your flow of incoming mail, but rather, it “cope” with you. Chews and spits out. that you can’t cope with your flow of incoming mail, but rather, it “cope” with you. Chews and spits out.

  8. Pure, uncomplicated liability
    In managerial circles, they like to hand out responsibility for something. This is usually done with great pathos, presented as an incredible positive and happiness for someone who receives such responsibility, but there are a couple of pitfalls. Firstly, to give up such happiness is almost impossible - well, that is, without getting into the list of disloyal, ungrateful villains, saboteurs. Secondly, almost never any details are provided about what, in fact, it will be necessary to “answer” (see also point 3). It is understandable why: after all, this whole ritual is the throwing of the bunt from the higher managers to the lower ones, and such a throwing occurs either because the throwing "smacks of", or because the original happy "responsible" just could not figure out what it really is. Well, the hands didn’t reach, it happens, only you can’t admit it, can you? Thirdly, of course, responsibility is only distributed in its pure form, that is, without any power or resources that can really affect the accountable situation. In fact, it turns out a veiled appointment of the guilty party for the inevitable future "fakap", and the appointed one should cry with pride that they chose him. What is the result? The already familiar feeling is that you need to be in time even more, time is even less, there is no sense left at all, and failure is inevitable. and the appointed one must weep with pride that they have chosen him. What is the result? The already familiar feeling is that you need to be in time even more, time is even less, there is no sense left at all, and failure is inevitable. and the appointed one must weep with pride that they have chosen him. What is the result? The already familiar feeling is that you need to be in time even more, time is even less, there is no sense left at all, and failure is inevitable.

  9. No "not my job"
    What happens if you ask a developer to, say, wash the floor in the office? He will turn his finger at the temple and explain that it is not his job, and, accordingly, will not do it - and this will be accepted quite normally, since everyone understands what the programmer’s work is, and therefore it is very easy to determine what it is not. So a huge surprise for me was that in management circles this is not so! Since management itself (as a specialty, profession) is something cloudy, fuzzy, highly dependent on the context of the organization, where everything happens, which context usually remains undefined (see paragraph 3), managers have practically no way to say that this is not his responsibility - without (of course!) an extraordinary record of himself as a loved one on the list of unreliable traitors, undermining the very foundations of the company. As a result, the average manager periodically finds himself engaged in the purchase of office furniture, finding workers, writing marketing materials and a bunch of other things that are poorly amenable to any intelligible categorization. Just because ... well, not to strain the developers, right?

  10. Enchanting contingent
    In the early 1990s, when I was at university, there were 4 of us programmers. And in parallel with us, 19 groups of economists and managers gnawed into the granite of science, and it would be naive to assume that they would disappear from the face of the planet, only after receiving their diploma. Oddly enough, they all went somewhere to work, and some of them ended up in organizations involved in software development - of course, not in the position of programmers! These guys, they are by definition smarter and more cunning than everyone else - they immediately go to management. How and why people with zero experience and education "about nothing", but with the cherished letters "MBA" take on any leadership positions - this has remained beyond my humble understanding, but the fact remains: if it’s quite difficult to meet a random person among developers (well, at least the interface is still distinguished from an abstract class), then among managers it’s easy! Crowds of people with strange work experience and without any useful skills are randomly migrating from washing powder sales to software development, while they sincerely do not see the difference - is it all the same what to lead? Accordingly, they are once reluctant to understand the intricacies of the industry, they make a career - which, in fact, is their main and, at times, the only true "specialization", so that, suddenly finding myself in this nice circle, in a couple of months I I have personally seen enough of such an amount of impudent lies, set-ups, tantrums, cunning plans for seizing power, “Friendship against” and all kinds of alliances - for the previous years 10 non-managerial work and half can’t be won! That is, in short - the managerial layer has its own, special, incomparable atmosphere; someone will be in it like a fish in water, but someone can very quickly become very, very disgusting.

  11. Food chain reporting
    One of my colleagues invented (or borrowed from somewhere) a funny term - “reporting food chain”. This is when the big boss demands to give him some kind of report, and orders the lower managers, who, in turn, begin to pull their subordinates and demand some data from them, and those run to their subordinates ... and so on. A chain is formed (more precisely, a tree) of people and their actions, the end result of which is a colorful report for someone very important, and such a chain can penetrate all levels of the organization hierarchy through to the bottom. Needless to say, no one is already trying to understand why all this fuss was originally needed, 3-4 levels lower than the big boss. Another thing is interesting: in large organizations, where there are several levels of management, inevitably, some kind of parasitic elements — managers who just do that participate in one or more of these chains. Formally, they may have some very sonorous position, but in fact they are in hibernation until they are awakened by the beginning of data collection for one of those reports that traditionally pass through them. At this moment, it’s better not to get in their way: realizing that these reports are the only thing that justifies their existence in the organization, such guys will sweep away everything and everyone on the way to the cherished numbers and graphs! They will stop critical projects, tear out important people from teams, convene dozens of meaningless meetings, arrange some scandals - but they will get their precious numbers, and then back into hibernation. Worse than getting in the way of such a data collector, there can only be permanent integration into the reporting chain at its very last stage - which often happens with newly made, inexperienced managers; that unfortunate person who is caught is waiting for endless tables of useless figures that must be obtained by such a date, or not ...

  12. Warm human communication
    According to PMI (Project Management Institute), a project manager usually spends about 90% of his working time on “communication”, that is, on communication; live, by phone, by correspondence in one form or another. It may sound funny and naive, but it seems to me that it is very, very much. Before the beginning of my active career in management, I led the usual quiet life of an average introvert-programmer, who is much more "high" to communicate with a computer than with colleagues; and therefore I couldn’t imagine what it would personally mean for me so much communication with different people, without respite, day after day - it catastrophically exhausts me. In a good way, you can communicate effectively with about a dozen people - keeping in mind the entire history of relationships with them, remembering all the data and the promises received, knowing what interests anyone and what drives whom. When there are more people around, the quality of communication predictably decreases: a couple of dozen - inevitably you start to lose some of the useful information, fifty - you can hardly keep at least the names of people, their faces and who are busy at the moment, and if their number over a hundred, then ... I don’t know how anyone, and I couldn’t even remember the names of all my subordinates, and communication with them turned into ongoing torture, a string of awkwardness and strained attempts to remember if this dude asked something me last week or is he only working here since Monday. Very soon I discovered that I was simply hiding from my colleagues! In those rare minutes that turned out to be free from meetings, I preferred to be anywhere, but not in my workplace, where my subordinates could find me and (oh, horror!) start some other conversation, about work or not. But there is a positive point: I understood why it was so unrealistic for me when it was my developer to always “find” somewhere your boss, not to mention discussing something vital with him!

  13. No longer mine
    In any work collective some kind of social circle develops, and if a member of the collective is not a completely unsociable beech, let him even participate in at least one of them. This is not about friendships between families and joint picnics on weekends, everything is much more prosaic - to exchange a couple of phrases about anything, to joke about bosses, customers, send or receive a link to some ridiculous garbage ... these little particles are not really working allow you to get distracted and not lose your mind in one single working day. However, as soon as you become a manager from a senior developer or team lead - at least a project, you begin to slowly notice that when you appear at a coffee machine or in a smoking room, lively conversations subside, the intonation and / or subject of the conversation changes, and then you accidentally find out that in addition to the official project chat somewhere on Skype, there is also an unofficial chat for jokes. Only they forgot to invite you there; and at this moment you realize that for the collective you are not quite your own. And at that moment when decisions about hiring, dismissal and salaries appear in your power - you become completely not your own. It seems that the point here is not even in the individual and in the team, there is simply such a standard dynamic, and, I suppose, changing it would be rather difficult - if possible at all. However, in the bottom line, we have another negative factor that actively affects the psychological comfort of the newly-made manager ... when decisions about hiring, dismissal and salaries appear in your power - you become completely not your own. It seems that the point here is not even in the individual and in the team, there is simply such a standard dynamic, and, I suppose, changing it would be rather difficult - if possible at all. However, in the bottom line, we have another negative factor that actively affects the psychological comfort of the newly-made manager ... when decisions about hiring, dismissal and salaries appear in your power - you become completely not your own. It seems that the point here is not even in the individual and in the team, there is simply such a standard dynamic, and, I suppose, changing it would be rather difficult - if possible at all. However, in the bottom line, we have another negative factor that actively affects the psychological comfort of the newly-made manager ...

That’s all that immediately occurred to me. A damn dozen is probably the most suitable length for this list.

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