<story><title>People don&apos;t work as much as they say</title><url>https://drmaciver.substack.com/p/people-dont-work-as-much-as-you-think</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>ChrisMarshallNY</author><text>I’ve been reading some variant of this, for many years.&lt;p&gt;One of the reasons that I &lt;i&gt;hated&lt;/i&gt; being a manager, was because the job involved a &lt;i&gt;lot&lt;/i&gt; of sitting around, waiting for stuff to happen.&lt;p&gt;I couldn’t work on my own projects (because I was on paid work time), and it would have been irresponsible, in the extreme, to put myself into the critical path (because it was no guarantee that I would be able to reliably work). I sometimes tasked myself with projects for work, but they were almost always ignored by my company, and that hurt.&lt;p&gt;I’ve heard that being a soldier in a combat zone is long hours of idleness, punctuated by short periods of terror and stress.&lt;p&gt;That pretty much describes my time as a manager, without the “terror” part (and the bullets and explosions).&lt;p&gt;It sucked.&lt;p&gt;I now work at home, on my own technical tasks. I get a &lt;i&gt;lot&lt;/i&gt; done. My personal productivity is through the roof.&lt;p&gt;I take a lot of breaks. Sometimes, I even nap.&lt;p&gt;But I don’t have a time clock. I will often start coding, at 6AM (sometimes, before I even get in the shower, after my morning exercise), and will continue to code, until I hit the sack. I often test my software, while I’m sitting in bed, and will enter issues, from my iPad.&lt;p&gt;When I have a problem that I’m chasing, or I am in the middle of a big implementation phase, I can work for many hours, straight. I will barely come up for air, and I feel absolutely exhausted, when I finally step back (nap time!).&lt;p&gt;I’m not particularly concerned about a measured life. I get a lot done; &lt;i&gt;far&lt;/i&gt; more than I ever did, when I was being paid.&lt;p&gt;And I’m having a blast.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>_n_b_</author><text>As a manager, your main job is to make your ICs effective at doing their work.&lt;p&gt;That means you need to be dealing with poor performers, rewarding with outstanding performers, trying to improve uneven performers, managing expectations from your management and shielding your team from the vicissitudes of your bosses as much as possible, fighting for things your team needs while shielding them from the demoralizing realities of working for a big company where HR and IT etc. don’t give two shits about the actual mission (if applicable), keeping an accurate budget, making sure your team is individually recognized for their success but that you take the blame for their failures, responding to changes in direction and getting your team on board, being the face of management even when that’s unpopular, and doing all the other little things required to keep the team going as effectively as possible.&lt;p&gt;There’s a lot of work to do there, and it can be incredibly rewarding when it’s going well and incredibly frustrating when it’s not.&lt;p&gt;It can also mean you have days when your team is working &lt;i&gt;all out&lt;/i&gt; to deliver and the only thing you can do is order pizza and keep distractions away. Those are boring, often frustrating days.&lt;p&gt;It’s not for everybody, but that’s what I think a good manager does. I think it’s often easier when you manage a team and aren’t an expert at what they do (although you still need to understand at a relatively deep level), since that minimizes the chances of you trying to dive in and solve the problem.</text></comment>
<story><title>People don&apos;t work as much as they say</title><url>https://drmaciver.substack.com/p/people-dont-work-as-much-as-you-think</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>ChrisMarshallNY</author><text>I’ve been reading some variant of this, for many years.&lt;p&gt;One of the reasons that I &lt;i&gt;hated&lt;/i&gt; being a manager, was because the job involved a &lt;i&gt;lot&lt;/i&gt; of sitting around, waiting for stuff to happen.&lt;p&gt;I couldn’t work on my own projects (because I was on paid work time), and it would have been irresponsible, in the extreme, to put myself into the critical path (because it was no guarantee that I would be able to reliably work). I sometimes tasked myself with projects for work, but they were almost always ignored by my company, and that hurt.&lt;p&gt;I’ve heard that being a soldier in a combat zone is long hours of idleness, punctuated by short periods of terror and stress.&lt;p&gt;That pretty much describes my time as a manager, without the “terror” part (and the bullets and explosions).&lt;p&gt;It sucked.&lt;p&gt;I now work at home, on my own technical tasks. I get a &lt;i&gt;lot&lt;/i&gt; done. My personal productivity is through the roof.&lt;p&gt;I take a lot of breaks. Sometimes, I even nap.&lt;p&gt;But I don’t have a time clock. I will often start coding, at 6AM (sometimes, before I even get in the shower, after my morning exercise), and will continue to code, until I hit the sack. I often test my software, while I’m sitting in bed, and will enter issues, from my iPad.&lt;p&gt;When I have a problem that I’m chasing, or I am in the middle of a big implementation phase, I can work for many hours, straight. I will barely come up for air, and I feel absolutely exhausted, when I finally step back (nap time!).&lt;p&gt;I’m not particularly concerned about a measured life. I get a lot done; &lt;i&gt;far&lt;/i&gt; more than I ever did, when I was being paid.&lt;p&gt;And I’m having a blast.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>bikingbismuth</author><text>I am currently a manager and the few times where I have said “I am going to write part of this solution my team is working on.” Were the times that I got a big pile of management work and blocked the team. I have since learned my lesson.</text></comment>