Ask HN: Jr colleague promoted, is now my manager. Best way to talk to our boss? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Jr colleague promoted, is now my manager. Best way to talk to our boss?

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I have been at the company, a 50 - 60 person startup, for about a year. I was hired into mid-level position running a program with strategic importance. Company pivoted into an area where I have less domain knowledge, but where my technical skills are still valuable.

Recently, a person I previously managed was promoted and is now my manager. They have more domain knowledge in the new focus area, but have never managed a team before, and have limited work experience. I plan to talk to our boss about the changes, but do not want to make this about my ego (though if I am honest, mine was bruised slightly). My larger concern is that this indicates my future at the company is limited. I also work remotely (1 of 5), and though the company constantly says this makes no difference, I am not so sure. Any advice on how to raise my concerns in a productive way is appreciated.

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Managing people is something much more easily done face to face. So is interfacing with senior management and execs.

On an entirely distributed team where upper management also works remotely, then yes it makes sense to have managers who are remote. But if there's an office where either management or a large chunk of the team are present most days, a non-remote manager will have a MUCH easier time being effective.

I would guess that this decision was 95% about physical presence and 5% about factors like seniority and domain expertise. Physical presence has been a non-negotiable factor in hiring or promoting managers everywhere I've worked that had a part-remote engineering team.

And based on my experience managing people both remotely and in person, being face to face makes a huge difference. Even the simple fact that it's impossible to make eye contact over video conference impacts rapport and understanding. And being remote when decisions are being made at the office means you're going to have a much harder time staying in the loop about business priorities - and a big part of a managers job is to communicate those to their team.

And all of that is important both to the people who report to you and the people you report to.

Decide what track you want to take with your career. If management is a part of it, either look for a job on a 100%-distributed team or plan to start spending your days at the office.

The advice often received and piped to such change is: Shock -> Resistance -> Acceptance -> Commitment

Expect to be told something similar to this. Check yourself, is this what's happening?

On finding a manager:

Report to and build an effective relationship with the most senior person your can find. For manager tier in a large company this is probably an MD, D or Partner. Gain their trust. Get a couple more as mentors. Make sure there are 2-4 levels of corporate hierarchy from you and them. This removes any kind of hostility they may have from yourself appearing as competition. For a small company I guess this means report directly into a Founder. If you're 50-60 people, and already managing a team, are you in this position already? If not your org is already way too hierarchical.

Being a remote worker, add value:

A remote worker is often seen as a function. Give them something to do and they do it. Same is true of branch offices. Get closer to headoffice and promotions happen faster as implicit exposure happens faster. This is a downside of remote working. In what way are you contributing that an outsourced provider cannot?

Being a manager is not being an expert:

Promoting someone with niche knowledge to management doesn't seem to make a lot of sense. It is a manager's job to manage, not be an overbearing expert, that's what delegation and judgement is for. Is there anything else going on?

What I'd say:

If you really are happy in the job and would like to stay, I'd ooze maturity. Don't say this, as I don't know it fits your exact situation, but if it is like I'm imaging it, I'd change it to an opportunity to build a closer relationship: "I know I managed XXX before, and now they're managing me. I just want to say that's fine as I find value in doing YYY, the core part of my job, and you don't need to worry about any hostile reaction from me."... <<reaction>> [Get some opportunity to talk about my own plans for the coming year, basically a hook I can use to check-in with them in the future.] Don't do this in email. Skype face-to-face at the least.

Relationships are key:

And, for anyone working remotely, spend huge efforts to not just send a tracker of what you've done, but have a regular check-in and 1-1 every week with your boss and anyone else you find valuable.

Just to clarify: You were both at the same org level but you were the more senior developer and mentored them?

Did you previously let your boss know you wanted to move into management?

Do you have significant experience remotely managing an on-site team?

Since it is a small startup I'm going to assume "manager" encompasses a large number of different roles. In these kinds of situations I'd pick the employee with domain knowledge every time! It is critical for setting direction, analysing project requirements, dealing with other teams, dealing with customers, etc.

Are they good at their job? Do they get along with the team? Do they handle pressure well?

What do you mean when you say this other person has limited work experience? <6 months, <2 years, <5 years?

You are the only guy working remotely and you are surprised that you did not get "promoted" to manager? Are you kidding me?

Of course he got the "promotion" because he is on-site and he can do managerial work a lot smoothly than someone who is remote.

Also, it's not really a promotion, it's a change in career. If you so much wanted to be a manager maybe you should go be a manager and not a developer.

If you are worrying about the money then ask for a raise.

If you are worrying about the fact that he is not managing you then quit.

Find another job. Who are you going to raise your concerns to? It is standard practice in management positions, maybe all positions, to leave when someone is promoted over you. This is also the standard way managers are "fired."

> I also work remotely (1 of 5), and though the company constantly says this makes no difference, I am not so sure

This is probably it.

Have to agree here. Even if you actively try to be fair about company culture, there is an intrinsic bias unless everyone is remote.

Sorry for this very generic message but here's the rule of thumb in tech for 2017. Especially in Silicon Valley:

- Be as young as possible (young people work with young/younger people)

- Don't work remotely (too many local people now your employer will replace you)

- Don't be outdated (a new fresh out of college will be up to date, you won't because of your daily job)

- Associate yourself with the hottest stuff out there (It's never too late, build something on your own and show it)

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