I’ve never been fond of the management cycle, but here’s my two cents:
managers of developers should have at last a basic primer on what the hell we’re rambling about before asking us questions; we need to spend more time doing to meet deadlines, but if we spend 30 minutes explaining it in the form of apples we’ve lost 30 minutes of progress
managers should be understanding of their staff and shouldn’t try to be too bossy (within reason, of course) over the order of operations things need to happen, developers can feel more human if it feels they have a say in what happens
They shouldn’t:
hide behind a desk, it’s so unfulfilling when you get an email or IM from your boss saying “good job” or “great work” - take the 2 minutes, stand up, come to my desk and just tell me in person, I get a rush of adrenaline, like “wow I did good, and my boss loves it sweet, let’s do it again” as opposed to an email saying “good job”
if a developer asks for a raise, it’s usually a good reason; don’t keep saying “we’ll schedule a meeting” or “I don’t feel you deserve one” - hear the developer out, for example, one boss I’ve had refused to give me a $2 extra per hour raise, despite saying I’d deserve a raise, and reporting we profited over $10k every month the past year, you can afford an extra $2 an hour
don’t ask me “is it possible” when I’m focused, I’ll always tell you yes to shut you up so I can think; ask me if it’s possible when you have my full and entire attention
“deadlines” aren’t realistic, instead have the developer break down every task individually and give estimate on each task with time for debug, regressions, and tests - don’t ask us for a “general estimate” because we’ll underestimate without thinking fully
I’ve never been fond of the management cycle, but here’s my two cents:
managers of developers should have at last a basic primer on what the hell we’re rambling about before asking us questions; we need to spend more time doing to meet deadlines, but if we spend 30 minutes explaining it in the form of apples we’ve lost 30 minutes of progress
managers should be understanding of their staff and shouldn’t try to be too bossy (within reason, of course) over the order of operations things need to happen, developers can feel more human if it feels they have a say in what happens
They shouldn’t:
hide behind a desk, it’s so unfulfilling when you get an email or IM from your boss saying “good job” or “great work” - take the 2 minutes, stand up, come to my desk and just tell me in person, I get a rush of adrenaline, like “wow I did good, and my boss loves it sweet, let’s do it again” as opposed to an email saying “good job”
if a developer asks for a raise, it’s usually a good reason; don’t keep saying “we’ll schedule a meeting” or “I don’t feel you deserve one” - hear the developer out, for example, one boss I’ve had refused to give me a $2 extra per hour raise, despite saying I’d deserve a raise, and reporting we profited over $10k every month the past year, you can afford an extra $2 an hour
don’t ask me “is it possible” when I’m focused, I’ll always tell you yes to shut you up so I can think; ask me if it’s possible when you have my full and entire attention
“deadlines” aren’t realistic, instead have the developer break down every task individually and give estimate on each task with time for debug, regressions, and tests - don’t ask us for a “general estimate” because we’ll underestimate without thinking fully
Nice, thank you, Michael. I personally definitely should say "good job" out loud more.