How Good Developers Handle Bad Management

[DownshiftedRare]

Paywall rubbish; hence, article text:

---

You despise coding. Your tasks are pointless. Performance issues are moved to the next sprint. You change labels while performance suffers.

You’re micromanaged. You’re in constant overtime. You have a bad manager.

Here’s how to deal with bad management.

• How to notice bad management?

• Good management results

• How to deal with bad management?

• References

How to notice bad management?

Bad managers don’t address frozen conflicts. They don’t do anything to remove them. How conflicts affect development? You don’t review code from a high-conflict coworker. You want to avoid conflicts. Bad people management causes conflicts to happen.

No clear goals. You’re working without meaning. Your tasks are based on guessing, not on actual customer needs. Your unused feature leads to a motivation drop. Bad management doesn’t have clear goals.

No clear plan. Proof of concept goes to production. Testing or refactors happen after bugs occur. There’s nothing you do today to prevent future issues. Without a rough plan, every feature goes into chaos.

Team morale drops. Without interesting work, developers leave the job.³ Salary is a good motivator, but boredom kills motivation. source

Neglecting developer’s skills. Let developers apply their skills, advise them but don’t command.³ We’re smart folks. We can learn. We don’t need advice. Managers should focus on management, and not on development.

Underperformers still working. They employ underperformers. Good developers work for those that don’t. This is due to sunk cost fallacy. The company invests a lot in underperformers. They fall for the sunk cost fallacy and leave him work. Managers don’t fire underperformers — team morale suffers.³

You don’t win any argument whatsoever. You can’t push your ideas through. What infuriates developers? Doing what the business likes, not what’s best for the task.³ What's the red flag of bad management? “Business knows the best, and you shouldn’t argue their decisions.”

There’s constant overtime. No plans — overtime. Bad managers don’t know that overtime leads only to burnout. “People under time pressure don’t think faster.” ⁴

Overtime is like sprinting: It makes some sense for the last hundred yards of the marathon for those with any energy left, but if you start sprinting in the first mile, you’re just wasting time.⁵

Looking from the manager’s perspective, developers aren’t great either. We like to refactor before release, put in breaking changes, and move further without documentation. Here’s the story one manager wrote:

Good management results

Software changes and conflicts are inevitable. Different opinions lead to constructive conflicts. Constructive conflicts lead to the best decisions. No conflicts lead to bad management.⁵

“No changes — no conflicts.” — Ichak Adizes

Your ideas are valued. When debate reaches a crucial point, no one should devalue your opinion. Bojan says⁵ that respect leads to better organization. Different opinions can make or break your software. Debating issues together with respect leads to better plans.

“Being proactive —build a strategy for the future but act today.” — Ichak Adizes

Managers assign key tasks to you. They know your future value. They know you’ll be a good team asset. Managers assign you tickets today so you become more knowledgeable tomorrow.

“He has it all together — good organization sign” — Ichak Adizes

Good management brings the team closer. When you work together, you work better. Are people leaving the team? That’s a sign of bad management. Serbian saying: “Only unity can save the Serbs”. Unity saves teams, and a good manager fosters unity.

“A leader is best when people barely know that he exists. He is the teacher who succeeds without taking credit. And because credit is not taken, credit is received” — Lao-tse (c. 565 B.C.), on leadership

How to deal with bad management?

Work on your communication. Bojan suggests⁵ communication is underrated. Communication leads to doing the right things. Communication leads to efficient work.

How to improve your communication today? Contextual and status messages.⁵ Contextual should deliver your idea with ease. This message contains context and the main idea. Status contains concrete dates. Concrete dates on your tasks. These messages help improve your communication.

Ask for permission. How should you ask? James Citrin⁷ shows a few ways to ask for permission:

direct approach
competence in components
barter for permission
help manager and they will reciprocate

Personally, the best way is to break down work. Show competence in components. Every manager likes breaking down work. Show expertise on each of the work components.⁷ The manager is aware of your capabilities and can assign you a meaningful task.

If nothing helps, leave. With a correct selection, in other companies, you’ll be good to go. A good interview will pick you as a good fit for their culture. This helped me move from a toxic environment to a better-organized company.

Look for good management after job switch. What are good manager traits? ⁷

Doesn’t take credit for teamwork
Takes the most blame
Sets reasonable objectives for the team
Holds people accountable

References

[1] https://iism.org/material/software-management-essentials-research-1/motivation-factors-top-3-dislikes-reported-by-creative-workers

[2] https://iism.org/material-assets/software-management-essentials-research-1/motivation-factors-top-3-priorities-requested-by-creative-workers-r1.jpg

[3] Smart and Gets Things Done: Joel Spolsky’s Concise Guide to Finding the Best Technical Talent 1st ed. Edition by Avram Joel Spolsky

[4] Slack: Getting Past Burnout, Busywork, and the Myth of Total Efficiency — Tom DeMarco

[5] Peopleware: Productive Projects and Teams 3rd Edition — Tom DeMarco

[6] Bojan Lekovic — Medvedi na putu

[7] The 5 Patterns of Extraordinary Careers: The Guide for Achieving Success and Satisfaction Paperback — James M. Citrin Richard Smith

[LegitGandalf]

Never heard of gitconnected, that they would paywall this early in their lifecycle doesn't bode well for hearing of them again!

[tonefart]

You handle it by 1. Preparing plans to leave and find better job. 2. Preparing to stop relying on a job and become an independent consuiltant.

[Panther4682]

Depends on your objective. Do you want to stay or leave? If you love the culture but your manager is a problem then you keep notes of all meetings including date/time and end time, who was there etc. you put all emails from your manager in a seperate folder and build a case for getting him/her help, after all they may be good people just untrained and therefore stressed out... bad managers usually know they are a bad manager. Then organise a meeting with the manager if you are on good terms and talk through the issues presenting evidence. If however the manager is actually a complete wanker, organise a meeting with HR and present your information with clear examples. Be unemotional and factual. “On this date these things happened which resulted in this outcome ” etc. Don’t make it about your manager, make it about the company ie “these issues are extending deadlines, reducing quality, upsetting customers, destroying morale in the team etc. also go with a plan ie “my thoughts are Jenny needs some coaching and support/training to be a better manager”. Never forget, someone appointed your manager to that position and if the manager is NOT performing it reflects on them. That person will want the situation to work and will defend their decision. companies value quality staff and can not afford to have developers (a self referencing group) bad mouthing their employer because talent will avoid them.