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LHofman
4y

I see a lot of rants on this platform complaining about their boss/management.

About how they don't understand how complicated the development can be of seemingly simple tasks or how they would prefer small estimations over realistic ones.

Is that really the standard in this field of work?
Am I just that lucky to find basically the ideal boss on my first try?

My boss really understands how difficult some tasks can be even if they don't initially seem like it. He listens to my ideas as if they are at least just as important as his own. He can almost think like a real developer and is prepared to give us all tools we could want to evolve.

It is a very small firm and I'm basically the only real developer on this project, but I would follow that man to the ends of the earth.

Can some people please clear my conscience and confirm there are still good managers in this field who really care about their project and their employees/colleagues?

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Comments
  • 8
    4y
    Well, it depends strongly on your boss' technical background I guess. If he actually know, what you are doing, he will understand it's complicated. If he is more like a manager w/o technical background, he just expect you to find a solution fast, since it's your job.

    Of course there are good companies in the field, but there are also pretty bad ones.
  • 2
    4y
    One thing you may have noticed is these rants generally come from less-experienced devs in small to medium sized companies. The reason is those devs rarely have a higher up with sufficient technical knowledge as well as communication skills to mediate with non-tech people, and they have yet to gain enough experience to successfully do it on their own. In that case, explaining why some seemingly minor change takes so long definitely is a seemingly impossible barrier.

    The other problem is with devs; in several cases it's perfectly reasonable for a manager to expect something be done quickly, but the dev previously made a "clever" solution based on some assumptions about functionality and has to rewrite that part of code. Or maybe the dev is wasting time making a proper long-term product, because they didn't ask if it's only meant to be a short-lived / one time solution.
  • 2
    4y
    In addition to what the others said, there's two more factors: Company size and main product focus.

    The bigger the company, the more managers (generally speaking), which means power structures establish. Power structures by their very nature become self-serving, especially in dictatorship-like environments like companies. Thus, managers stop caring about technical details and opinions of those they view as plebs.

    Product focus: If your company is not mainly a software company (e.g. TelCo provider, law firm, ...), devs are more likely to be viewed as a cost factor, a necessary evil to an end, and not as important contributors. They get treated accordingly.
  • 2
    4y
    I’ve had 3 bosses, 2 CS engineers and a former creative head at a large ad agency. You would assume that the technical ones would be the ones with some amount of understanding of development, but in reality it was and is the opposite. The creative head would have patience to understand my point and even go as far as to search for a possible solution, the CS engineers would stand on my head until it’s done and always expect it to be done immediately. Depends on the personality I guess.
  • 6
    4y
    I would say that it also depends on generation gaps, newer bosses think different from older ones, that is also because procedures have changed drastically as well as company policies.

    Is your boss a boomer that thinks that snapping his fingers and being a royal dick gets results? Or is he someone with a hard technical background but with both feet grounded and his head outta his ass that understands that development is a complex and sometimes stressful endeavor? There are many items to be discussed here.

    My previous boss had NO technical background whatsoever, but did her best to sit with the devs to understand what they were doing, once she saw how obnoxiously complex it was she backed down and just took our word for it and dedicated to handling managerial tasks without being a dictator. Me and the lead dev were more than happy to kill ourselves for her.
  • 3
    4y
    @AleCx04 continued.

    Now that she is gone and I am the manager of the department I can concentrate on more technical oriented roles that would benefit my employees and can actually lend a hand and manage development projects in efficient ways, not only that but my lead dev and I maintain a solid relationship(before the quarantine we would meet on the weekends to have a beer or something and he is always trying to get me into sports), so everything works out.

    All it takes is finding good people or trying to appeal with more things, not just technical proficiency.

    Every other job I had before this point was absolute shit though.
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