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Comment by digitalsushi | Hacker News Reader

As tech lead on my team, I ask them to make it to standup and I'll forgive any other absence. It's 15 minutes, we time box it so we just hang up on second 900 if we even make it that long.

My team won't update ticket comments, they wont read emails, they won't read Teams channel questions directed at them. I try to keep these things at a minimum so that I can't be accused of making a point about over-stimulation - I get it.

But if they start to skip standup, the one time each day I can ask them where the hell one of my things I need is, then I have no reliable connection to them at all. And I'm not a boss so all I can do is beg.

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> And I'm not a boss so all I can do is beg.

There must be an interesting story that explains why companies everywhere created the powerless tech lead position separate from manager. The tech lead is stuck in an impossible situation, apparently.

Having previously been in a project lead position, I've wondered about this myself. It's downright impossible to get a team to follow a project plan when you have no management authority over them. You can report the facts to their managers, but sometimes the managers don't care and there is no recourse.

I concede that an individual's response should also be within some amount of reason in a given context. If your team isn't responding to anything in a reasonable amount of time, that's a serious problem. To me, ticket status and Teams channel questions are way more important than the vast majority of emails or standups. However, in your situation, there's some benefit (mainly to you) to standups.

You're in a tough position, it sounds. You're a lead, yet likely restricted to leading technology and not so much people. I don't know what your leadership style is, but I've noticed some people are treated like bosses for merely acting the part, so that's something to consider.

Also, what I meant to say was that a person should skip standup if it actually benefits their productivity. They should show up to some standups, perhaps most. Hypothetically, standups could be done well, but I don't usually experience this. I don't think people should never show up to team rituals.

I worked at a place where story comments were answered by the next day, slack messages were answered pretty quickly too. It sucks that standup was the only place you could get anything from anyone. I think it's basic communication skills

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