Games Managers Play: Unmasking Psychological Tactics in Tech Leadership

praachi.work

13 points·abhas9··7 comments

This reads like a really weird projective GPT massaged take in my opinion.

Employees do need to be compared. You will be judged. That's just life. The framing makes it seem like there's some weird puppet master shit going on when in reality, yeah, whomever completes the task faster, better, more elegantly, whatever the manager is optimizing for, is going to be favored. That's the job of a manager.

When you realize your job isn't to complete stories, knock out tickets, or appease "the company", but to make your manager's day easier and more frictionless, is when you are doing "your job".

Optimize for optimizing your manager.

Interesting way to frame these management tactics, but the conclusions don’t seem to have much support from the rest of the context.

Countermeasures?

start your own business

Know the tricks and don't fall for them. Start competing for your managers job. Build your own concensus with your coworkers and support each other. Form a union. Find a better place to work. Work to get your manager fired and replaced. Start rumours that question the tricks. Openly talk about the tricks being played.

These are fairly reasonable tactics that are being presented in a deliberately sinister light.

It’s not inherently wrong to do any of these things. They don’t necessarily require any lies to be told. Some of them are a bit dickish, but they all could have a higher purpose, too.

Competition can be invigorating. Vague feedback may be due to not really having specific things to say.

This article is an example of games played by commentators who oversimplify a complex world.

>It’s not inherently wrong to do any of these things. They don’t necessarily require any lies to be told.

>commentators who oversimplify

Reply on news.ycombinator.com