> implements major features quickly, cranks out design documents, fixes a ton of bugs, helps to organize the work of their teammates, brings people together from different teams to make technical decisions
This is almost superhuman. Basically combines everything from a entry level all the way to staff engineer. tons of , quickly, cranks out, helps, brings together. Sounds like a parody.
Yea if this is what is required to get a promotion with 2% increase in pay, no surprise most ppl aren't motivated to step up. And managers are bewildered and frustrated why people take 2 weeks to implement a feature when they should be "cranking out" code.
> And those people are bewildered and frustrated that they're not getting promoted.
They shouldn't be if these superhuman requirements are clearly understood by everyone. Example of previous promotions where people achieved this and concrete examples of what you mean by "fixes tons of bugs". Not something secret in your head. What does "ton" mean to you as a manager. You should have no problem saying, You didn't get promotion because you didn't fix "tons of bugs" , end of discussion. Expecting people to read your mind and wondering why are 'bewildered' is total failure of management.
>people by and large do mediocre work, and fail to ever increase the scope or quality of the work they deliver.
Your explanation for why people arent performing to your expectations seems to be that they are lazy or stupid or both. I really pray i don't work for someone like this.
And yet as I wrote this, I had several specific people in mind, who do literally all the things I listed: they design, they code, they help organize the project, they reach out to other teams, etc. I didn't say they do all those things every day! :-) Their productivity stands out clearly above that of most of their peers. It's not just me that notices -- I've get slacks from other people on how these folks kick ass. And I've seen this at every company I've worked at. There are the top engineers who deliver the most features and functionality, at the highest quality standards, and done quickly... and then the rest of the team.
> Expecting people to read your mind and wondering why are 'bewildered' is total failure of management.
Of course. Goes without saying. Helping people increase their productivity --through clear communication-- is one of the main jobs of an eng manager.
> Your explanation for why people arent performing to your expectations seems to be that they are lazy or stupid or both. I really pray i don't work for someone like this.
I know my statement may offend egos, but again: any manager will tell you that the productivity of engineers --by any metric-- is very unevenly distributed. It's not because of laziness or stupidity. Talent and skills are simply not evenly distributed. Sucks, but that's just how it is.
And then during performance-review season, promotions will go to those engineers who are performing clearly better than their job-level peers.
> Of course. Goes without saying. Helping people increase their productivity --through clear communication-- is one of the main jobs of an eng manager.
Curious why people are 'bewildered' on your team when you have to clearly pointed out the to get promotion you have crank out maximum number of features than anyone else ( for example). There was also failure to 'increase their productivity' if they are taking 2 weeks to deliver basic stuff.
I might be wrong here but sounds like management style is that of a passive observer that rewards 'top N' , punishes 'bottom N' and lets everyone else just stagnate.
> I know my statement may offend egos
It has nothing do with ego, you are obviously right, people are different. I just dislike 'fixed mindset' managers. Managers who have absolved themselves of any responsibility to improve or elevate their teams by proclaiming things like
> people by and large do mediocre work
> Talent and skills are simply not evenly distributed. Sucks, but that's just how it is.
There is just no benefit to me working for someone who holds these attitudes about me and my 'talent and skills'. I simply have nothing to gain.
Over the years, it’s really only been a small number of people who constantly push for promotion without stepping up their own game. Their failures are often an inability to finish tasks. Or they ask for more challenging work (e.g., singing up to kick off and lead a new project we all want to see happen) and then they just fizzle out.
Their frustration (and “bewilderment”) stems from the gap in what they want to accomplish versus what they’re able to accomplish at this point in their career. They reject the feedback that they're not performing at the next career level, because from their POV, they're working hard and feel that their own results and deliverables are the max a person can achieve.
While this certainly could be attributed to a communication failure on the manager's part, my experience (and my POV as manager) is that it rather reflects on the individual engineers themselves -- some just naturally get a ton of shit done, some are able to push themselves and grow, and others struggle to grow despite the effort they put in and despite my attempts to coach them.
This is almost superhuman. Basically combines everything from a entry level all the way to staff engineer. tons of , quickly, cranks out, helps, brings together. Sounds like a parody.
Yea if this is what is required to get a promotion with 2% increase in pay, no surprise most ppl aren't motivated to step up. And managers are bewildered and frustrated why people take 2 weeks to implement a feature when they should be "cranking out" code.
> And those people are bewildered and frustrated that they're not getting promoted.
They shouldn't be if these superhuman requirements are clearly understood by everyone. Example of previous promotions where people achieved this and concrete examples of what you mean by "fixes tons of bugs". Not something secret in your head. What does "ton" mean to you as a manager. You should have no problem saying, You didn't get promotion because you didn't fix "tons of bugs" , end of discussion. Expecting people to read your mind and wondering why are 'bewildered' is total failure of management.
>people by and large do mediocre work, and fail to ever increase the scope or quality of the work they deliver.
Your explanation for why people arent performing to your expectations seems to be that they are lazy or stupid or both. I really pray i don't work for someone like this.