Do You Like Your Job?

G-shock asks: "I've worked for the government (NASA), large public companies, and small startups as a software engineer. They all have something in common. It seems like management at this company is just winging it. I find myself putting all my energy, both mental and emotional, into a project only to be disappointed by decisions made by management. I really feel like management at my current employer is disconnected from what is actually going on. They manage a project, but not the people. They also seem to lack any real vision. Direction is constantly changing and proper time is not given to engineer these changes correctly. This leads to mandated quick and dirty solutions that end up being maintained with great pain for long periods of time. All this leads to me feeling cynical about the work I'm doing. What I want to know is, how can I feel good about the work I'm doing if I don't have confidence in my management? How many of you are happy with your management? Why? Why not? What can I do about this? Thanks in advance for your insight." Considering that this seems to be a common problem in technology companies, and seeing as we have been producing software for basically half a century, do you think that managing software projects is a different beast than the management of anything else? How many of you have had this problem in your career and what did you do to adjust?

Comments

I gotta be honest...

[EvilJohn]

... at this point, I wish I had a job.

Managers are morons

[Yorrike]

Though it would be unwise to tell my opinion of my managers, let's just say that most of them are morons^H^H^H^H^H^Hreally nice guys who pay me for doing nothing^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^Hworking extremely hard all day.

God I hate them^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^Hbless them.

MMMmmmmm yeaaaaa... (The problem with management)

[pOs*x]

I'm going to come along and ask you shift yourself into positive mode, mmmkay?

If you could plow through those TPS reports, that'd be great... Yeah, okay, and I'm gonna need you to go ahead and come in on Saturday, mmmkay, greaaaaat...

Attitude adjustment

[michaelmalak]

what did you do to adjust?

I became cynical. Then I became a consultant.

Odd Todd would agree with you...

[Anonymous Coward]

Every unemployed tech worker can sympathize with this guy

Re:Ex-programmers make the best managers

[catsidhe]

There are two problem with having a boss who does/ used to do what you are doing now:

1: They are under the impression that if they think something is easy, then it is easy. This is even worse when they are brilliant, and you are merely adequate, and

2: They know what you should be doing. It is a lot harder to fool your boss with 'Just stress-testing the network' (with Quake Deathmatch), when he used to do it too!

But then, sometimes he joins in!

Re:heh

[Anonymous Coward]

I would have taken the three weeks pay and then got fired!

Anyone else find it funny...

[CrazyDuke]

I've noticed, since being at Virginia Tech for a few years, that when the CS and CPE students fail, they transfer and graduate with a Management Science diploma. In, addition, the people that are just at college to party, but want something other than a Liberal Arts diploma also take this route.

Anyone else find it funny that these are the people that end up managing the CS and CPE graduates when they get a job after college? Maybe this is the reason why management sucks so much.

Re:Work for a Good Cause (tm)

[Swaffs]

"and while it's silent, we work on improving our site's image (notice i'm not linking to it... this isn't because i'm trying to be noble and not shamelessly plug my company, i am, but i'm embarrassed by the current homepage). "

Oh please, we all know its because you don't want it /.ed

the real reason you aren't linking to it:

[StandardDeviant]

this is slashdot. you're a network admin. the real reason is you don't want your pager to go off, telling you in shrill tones that every router you own has just gone Tits Up due to inbound traffic... ;-) You can be honest here, you're among friends.

(And yeah, I agree with you, working in a casual atmosphere rules. It's worth the pay cut if you have to take it, to show up wearing what you want and know that you have a good chance of making it through the day without getting screamed at.)

Re:Ex-programmers make the best managers

[tedgyz]

FUNNY STORY: I was working for a major Un*x vendor implementing 64 bit support in the dev tools.

On a dare, one of our engineers messed with the manager:

Engineer: "We tried hard, but could only get 63 bits to work."

Manager: "That's ok. We can get that last bit in a patch."

AOL

[JohnHegarty]

I work for AOL.... need say no more... ggghhhhh

I could code a better manager

[reverend0]

I think that many people feel that a technical manager is better, but I disagree. I don't totally disagree, but I do to some degree.

A technical manager is good iff they know the limit to their knowledge. They shouldn't make decisions outside of their knowledge.

A manager is good iff they support their employees to do their job (aka run interference).

There are many qualities that make for a bad manager so we should best leave those alone.

int main() {
while (Manager_EMPLOYED) {
for (int i=0; iDIRECT_REPORTS; i++) {
if (employee[i] != HAPPY) {
root = findRootProblem();
correctProblem(root);
}
for (int i=0; iDIRECT_REPORTS; i++) {
if (employee[i] == jobComplete) {
giveRaise(employee[i]);
}
else {
if (employee[i] == blocked) {
runInterference(employee[i]);
}
else if (employee[i] == resourceStrapped) {
realignProjectPlan();
}
}
}
doProjectPlan();
doBudget();
hire();
fire();
}
}

Probably needs some work but it is at least better than most I've worked with.
rev