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Comment by wiz21c | Hacker News Reader

I'd be more interested on the "why being a manager". Considering how shitty the atmosphere seems, I wonder why people want to be managers at all...

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For me, I really enjoy helping people grow into their best selves. A lot of that means protecting them from politics and giving them the space to do their jobs effectively, make mistakes, learn and grow. It really isn't for everyone, because there's a lot less tangible rewards and the payoff can be pretty long tail, but when you can see potential in someone and then see them grow into that potential, it's a really fulfilling experience. Basically I saw that things could be better and I chose to be that better, I had a lot of amazing people that took a chance on me as well, so I owe it to them to pay it forward.

Yeah I'm not a manager, but this is exactly why the role appeals to me as a long term career option.

I'm a manager too (my question was refering to a manager as a boss of a business, which is vastly different).

What you say is very true, except when your team is a bunch of people who positively don't want to grow, they just want the paycheck and the minimum trouble possible. You're basically managing to make sure the comfort zone doesn't grow. And that's as tough as it is boring.

I have nothing against the comfort zone, that's perfectly human. But not every team member want to grow.

(me realizes that maybe I has a cultural issue with the company :-))

I'm someone who wants to find my niche as well and run a business, but I think that the reasoning is the same. When you see a problem and you build a solution, then you get to organize a group of people around that solution. Sure at first you're wearing a lot of hats, but if you can get talented people onboard for a mission that's worth getting up for every day, that's something special and I think that's what a lot of people really are working towards when managing a business. I can say this about a cultural issue. I work in a company where the culture can cause a lot of problems with motivation because I had two really poorly suited people above me that impacted large swaths of the company. Then we were purchased and for a while it was really worse. Since then I've been really lucky to have some of the most amazing management I could ask for. During the bad times I mostly protected the people I was responsible for as best I could.

What I can offer for those who aren't motivated are a few things.

1. It starts at the top. If you make yourself the top then it starts with you and you get to set the tone. A crappy boss can make a great job terrible. A great boss can make a crappy job manageable with some moments of happiness.

2. Find what drives them. Few people are okay with the status quo. This requires building trust with your people and regular communication. If you can find out what makes someone want to do more and grow you're golden.

3. If your job has growth and people just don't want it, find better people. Jobs like this typically have high attrition unless it's something like government, military, or some other rigidly structured role. If that's the case and you want more, look elsewhere. There's almost always someone willing to pay more for someone who multiplies their team's output.

Whatever your journey, I really do wish you a fulfilling and enjoyable life. A lot of times things, especially now, can seem fatalistic or just downright bad. A single candle in the dark can light the way for many others. :)

Thanks for your very detailed answer. I work for a gov't agency on a project in maintenance mode. So I guess the agency have hired the good people for the job, except me :-)

From experience - because you can only get your salary to a certain level as a programmer before hitting a brick wall. To go higher you need to take on at least some managerial responsibilities - it's not at every company, but it's common enough.

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