Comment by microtonal

10 hours ago

Actually, they are eliminating 3000 of the 4500 engineering manager positions. However, of those 3000, they are moving 1400 to an engineering position. The article also says that engineers are spending 35% of the time coordinating with their managers and that they want to cut the red tape with this move.

Of course, it's hard to tell how much is PR and how much reality. However, if there is substance to it, it would want me to work there even more, since they value engineering culture over management culture. Having more velocity is good.

> of those 3000, they are moving 1400 to an engineering position

Interesting. In old companies the only way to climb the ladder (get a raise) was to get into management. And then if they were a bad manager, they might get 'sidemoted' into some position where they could still contribute. Anyway, back in the old days, it was not uncommon to see 'managers' or even 'directors' with no direct reports.

So are you saying that there are not new positions open for engineers that were actually doing engineering and that instead some managers that were not doing engineering will now suddenly have to pick up the thread again and start doing engineer?

That would be disappointing for engineers that were actually doing engineering, as yet again their grade increases would be taken by management types.