Comment by sgt101 | Hacker News Reader

Comment by sgt101 | Hacker News Reader

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>"is for people to more directly leverage their leaders."

I just couldn't parse this until I read the rest of the article. I think that the author is saying "Ask for help from your boss when you are stuck."

This is good advice, if you are personally empowered. If you can afford for your boss to go batshit crazy and crap on everything and everyone including you - then just go for it. If you can't afford for that to happen then you need to exercise this advice with caution. When you are in a really bad spot then the first thing you need to do is work up an escape plan - then you can go to your boss.

As an example, if you are debt free and have a good credit history go and get a credit card and get a high limit. Then if you are fired you will have some funds to work with. It's not ideal, but if you are fired you won't have the card and you may find things much more difficult. A better escape plan is to be a fair way along in the hiring process somewhere else.

I think you're thinking of career-ending fuckups (where you definitely should try all avenues, quickly, including asking trusted peers for help), rather than the article's more mundane examples of being blocked, having prioritization issues with another team, feeling overwhelmed, etc. If you can't talk to your manager about that kind of thing and expect some help (or at least some advice/sympathy), then agree with your point that it's time to look for another gig. That's no way to live...

> If you can't talk to your manager about that kind of thing and expect some help (or at least some advice/sympathy),

Perhaps I'm imagining it, but I believe this always has a side effect of incrementing a little counter in manager's head - one labeled "oh, they're failing to deliver again". The first few times around you might get sympathy, but then you'll start seeing irritation, and few rounds later you'll find yourself on a Performance Improvement Plan.

If you're constantly failing to deliver at the same rate and level as your co-workers, yes it is going to increment a counter.

If you're delivering work though, and keeping management aware of blockers that need to be resolved, then no it wouldn't. I've seen more co-workers wind up on management's bad side because they were afraid to say when something was going sideways than ones that asked for resources or help resolving a problem. Turns out management hates it when they think something is on track and then 2 days before the estimated due date they find out "we're 6 months behind" a lot more than they hate hearing "we need some resources to resolve X Y and Z or we will need an extra 6 months"

Your manager is not an idiot.

They generally can tell who is failing to deliver because they are constantly stuck on trivial things and who genuinely can’t do more and need help. If you go see your manager because the team next door is blocking you explaining clearly what you have tried and why you need the issue to be escalated you just sound professional. Same thing if you can tell you are going to be late in your delivery and need something specific done to help especially if you do it with a lot of time left.

Also I have a pro-tip. Managers intentionally ask people they view as competent and trustworthy to do the thorny things that need to get done. So surprisingly the people who are expected to need the most help are often the most valued.

I would bet that that counter increments much more quickly when people say nothing about being off-target before it's too late.

The level of palpable fear in your approach, suggests you have only ever had bad managers.

Really this is senior leaders, not managers. In fact my line managers have (with very few exceptions) been great people.

Proper, proper senior leaders - folks who run the 80k FTE companies worth $40bn or more... well those are a different breed. There is a lot at stake, they are like wild animals in that their motivations are not available to you and they can act in very unpredictable ways.

I have seen rooms full of people emptied out of a business over a three month period due to an ill judged meeting that went badly. Could have been avoided... wasn't...

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