The #1 job of a manager (in all fields) is to keep his people working. It doesn't matter if it is engineering, manufacturing or the local burger joint. A managers #1 job is to keep his people working.
Edit: I understand other languages might have gendered nouns for words like Manager, and when learning English it can be difficult to break these habits.
In English, we have gender neutral pronouns to use when were talking about "generic people" where the gender isnt known. Managers are not just male, so when a sentence is gendered like that I struggle to parse it because I think I've missed a the reason why this hypothetical manager is male.
Please reflect on whether this is the best you can contribute to a thread about being an engineering manager.
The people you manage could easily identify with a gender that is not physically obvious and using incorrect pronouns leads to a less inclusive and potentially more hostile workplace. This is Management 101.
What do you think of this?
You can just say "they/them/their"!
I would have hoped most were aware of the pressures the transgender community is under and would offer more care than such casual takes on gender in the workplace.
A good place to start https://www.thetrevorproject.org/resources/trevor-support-ce...
You don't have to be perfect but you could at least try to be better.
It's not totally inclusive of people who identify outside of the binary genders, but saying "women can be mangers" does not exclude men or people who don't identify as either. I hope my point still remains though that using "they" as a gender neutral pronoun is a perfectly easy way to be inclusive.
> your heteronormative take on the world
I mean i am a (cis) gay male, so I don't think I have a heteronormative take on the world, but you do you.
(acknowledging this comment seems to be puposefully trolly, like a "false flag" troll)
At this stage you really need to stop and think about what you are doing and who you are hurting; they're just words to you but they're a lifetime of hurt to others.
Be . Better.
> I mean i am a (cis) gay male, so I don't think I have a heteronormative take on the world, but you do you.
You really want to call upon the equivalent of the "some of my best friends are black" excuse? I can't even...
Perhaps it would be been better (for a number of reasons) to say “not all managers are male” instead?
Someone's beloved cat died? That's your problem, because it's affecting the way they work. You need to help them through it.
Someone's working well? That's great, but you can't rest on your laurels. You need to help them grow into a more senior position so they don't get bored or disillusioned.
People who already have work to do are not responsive to new input.
By ensuring everyone is working all the time you also ensure nobody can respond to the unexpected.
The counterpoint to utilisation thinking is latency thinking (“how fast can our team respond to requests”).
An instance of utilisation thinking: “Our roads are not always full of traffic, how can we get more cars onto them?”. This is clearly absurd; why is “developers have work to do” a goal when “roads have cars on them” is not?
If you do it right, it's like 90% teambuilding and 10% line management, IMO. When that ratio is inverted is where you see mediocre management.