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Comment by kemiller | Hacker News Reader

I gave a lot of shit about my employees the first time I was a manager. It burned me out, but it made for an amazing team.

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Did you fight for raises? If your manager told you choose 30% to cut would you have? Of course you would, your “caring” meant nothing. Your first loyalty is to the people who decide your paycheck

Yes I fought for raises. I fought for better ratings and promotions too. If they asked me to cut I would fight to not doing that.

My first loyalty is to my team, and it's been clear to me why I have not rising as high.

Don't assume everyone is like the worst person in your head.

And as a line level manager I don’t believe you are a “bad person”. Line level managers are “powerless”. You don’t control head count, budgets, company wide decisions to reduce staff etc

I spent my entire life making absolutely sure that the last people I am going to be loyal to is those who decide my paycheck. it is a good life…

I'm on a break after getting run down in my last role at the EM / Director level, but I certainly gave a shit, and some of my directs (10-15%?) gave a shit that I gave a shit, and they're now better leaders. Most of this is from their hard work, but I gave them one possible template: genuinely care about your people. My hope is that what I spent of myself was more than made up with what they added. When you're a naive pessimist, leverage is the key multiplier of effective leadership.

one who expects the worst, yet is continually surprised when they get it. Sometimes secretly an embarrassed optimist.

Yeah. I think most orgs have no idea what they are missing.

Was it worth it?

I always found it was. Because I cared more what my employees thought about me than my managers. I wouldn't change that, ever.

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