Comment by tkiolp4
2 years ago
I think the problem is that eng. managers have not much control regarding how many meetings they have (and at what time they are scheduled). Being meetings the big chunk if their day to day work, that restricts the amount of freedom eng. managers usually have.
For engineers it’s different: we have complete control regarding when to work, and we don’t have as many meetings as eng. managers have. So there’s more freedom in my opinion.
I think it’s not very realistic for a manager to say: I’ll work extra today so tomorrow I’ll work only 1h (because you probably have meetings to attend that you cannot postpone). As engineer, I work whenever I want and rest whenever I need it (as long as I meet deadlines and the like)
Nah, but this ‘meetings to attend that you cannot postpone’ is almost always bullshit. I see a lot of managers in meetings where their presence is more hindrance than help. If they drop those they suddenly have 50% of their day free.
Of course I won’t actually know until I am one myself, but it certainly feels doable if I’m willing to sort of trust my team.
It's not typically the meetings with the team that are the ones you cannot postpone. It's the ones with key people from the business, senior managers, partners, vendors...
If you do become one and find you can control your schedule, please write it up and share!