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What Kind of PHB Do You Want?
the_radix asks: "I'm not a great coder, but I love computers and especially programming. Those professional programmers that I know often complain of their managers not understanding the coding process and having unrealistic expectations of programmers. As such, I am considering a new career path: management. Since middle management is all about balancing, I'm looking for pointers before I start looking for positions. What do you, as coders and programmers, want from your immediate manager? If there are any geeks out there in upper management, what do you want from your lower-level managers who keep the techs in line? I'm not asking for the basic 'stand-up-for-your-subordinates' advice, but rather requests from a coder's standpoint. Geeks have special needs, and accommodating those needs (and 'odd' behaviors) is a good idea all around, for both employee morale and department output." I think many of us would rather like one who listened or who would at least take advice from the technical staff to heart. Many times managers will not consult their coders when they make plans, they'll make the plans first and tell their coding staff later, and this causes all kinds of problems. Generally, a superior with less "pointy hair" is something we'd all appreciate, but I'm sure the rest of you can expand what I'm trying to say here, or even say it better than I can.
One of my former bosses handled feature creep quite well.
"Yes, we can add that. It will push the deadline back 1 month and cost you (the customer) an extra $150,000. Do you want to add it at this time?"
Very often, they didn't.
I like you, Stuart. You're not like everyone else, here, at Slashdot.
Words & phrases managers should never utter:
-"Appropriate"
-"Entity"
-"Mission Statement"
-never refer to what your company creates as "product"
-"Synergy"
-"Action Item"
-"Team Player"
-"Content"
-"Value-added"
-"Customer"
-"Positive/negative attitude"
Euphamisms & other false statements you should avoid:
-"Improvement Opportunity" when you mean "Fault" or "Weakness"
-"I'm not directing this to anyone in particular," when in fact you are
-"Everyone says _______," when in fact only one or two people say _______
-"Our customers sign your paycheck," when in fact the company signs your paycheck.
How to Manage Geeks (http://www.fastcompany.com/online/25/geeks.html)
from June '99 is still pretty good, IMO. I printed it and left it on my manager's desk. Then he got fired.
Plus, cubies aren't a "leasehold improvement" that creating many offices would be, when getting into a lease. Furniture has more flexibility this way, and can be taken with you. Leaseholds can't.
And as you mention collaboration is another point. It's not just an excuse, but a reality, in my experience. I've worked with the same group of people (in the same company) in offices, and then later in cubies, and there was far more interaction and communication in the latter. A company should provide ample meeting rooms for when a group needs to get together to discuss something (without bothering their cubie neighbors), or to make certain phone calls, or whatever.
Independant of the cost factor, if I were to create an office from scratch, I'd use cubies (errr, workstations) rather than offices for all.
Of course, it does depend upon the nature of the work. Web-related programming generally works well with lots of collaboration. Cranking out the latest encryption technology or MPEG5 encoding algorithm, is probably something a programmer would best do in a quiet office.
-me
Love many, trust a few, do harm to none.
http://freshmeat.net/articles/view/157
The group I'm in actually have a lot of these practices in place, and life is beautiful for us geeks...
-- A computer without COBOL and Fortran is like a piece of chocolate cake without ketchup and mustard
What I would like in a boss is what I have right now. He knows more about the business than me, but he knows that he'll get the technical information he needs from me. He knows the right questions to ask and knows that he can trust my answers. It is his job to synthesize the information he is getting from various sources and make the decision that is best for the company. Sometime he takes my advice, sometimes he doesn't, but I try not to second guess him. I just remind myself that I'd probably be as good at his job as he'd be at mine.
Outside of work my boss has a life, and he recognizes I do too. He knows there wouldn't be any point in grinding me up just to get a little more productivity. I'm sure he'll never put a DVD player in the break room (although there is Cable TV) but I only work about 8 hours a day so I can watch movies at home if I want.
I've never understood why geeks are willing to work 12 hour days to help some VC get rich as long as they get nice breakrooms, free caffine and foosball/table tennis. And dvd/vcd/mp3/cd players? Why would you need that at work? Total productivity killer. Go to work, do your job, go home. If you can't get your job done in 40hrs a week (and you aren't incompetant) then you boss should hire more people.
Some of my best friends keep "drinking the kool-aid" (what an ironically appropriate metaphor). Only to get totaly screwed in the end. This seems to be even more prevelant in programmers than other geek type jobs.
Someone please explain to me what is so great about foosball that it makes programmers not feel exploited by a company that expects them to work 80 hours a week?
Si vis pacem, para bellum
The only thing more annoying than a Libertarian is an (un|mis)informed Libertarian
Hey, I'm consistently late, I spend at least an hour after I do get in on the Web and r/r'ing to email, and I get a shitload of work done, dammit.
Don't go casting dispersions because you have nothing better to do at work than work!
^_^
-- "So, what's the deal with Auntie Gerschwitz et all?"