Comment by bpodgursky
10 days ago
Sort of. There's a distinction between "managing" and "using people as resources" in many tech companies.
Many senior ICs at tech companies DO have teams assigned to them for technical tasks, but they don't have to deal with giving feedback, managing compensation, giving bonuses, hiring, etc etc. Basically they get assigned extra hands and arms to do their tasks but aren't responsible for their growth or happiness.
There is a reason you mainly see that in tech companies. Causes more problems than it solves but tech companies do it anyway for the sake of keeping top engineers happy.
If you disconnect the people in the trenches from the giving feedback & managing people then you need a whole army of people with elaborate systems and KPI scoring in background trying to reconnect the dots again so that comp and feedback have some linkage to reality.
i.e. it's done yes but it's an aberration in terms of company structuring.
It's worth it in tech companies because top performing engineers have disproportionate impact relative to average ICs. It doesn't "cause more problems than it solves". It is a correct tradeoff on balance.