In reply to Toyman! :
I'm trying to get more like that. I took this spot and worked what I do because I expected to have to support my wife once she couldn't work anymore this was enough money and good insurance to do that. Now that it didn't work out I'm looking at things that are less stressful.
P3PPY said:
This also reminds me that I'm a very entry-level manager, perhaps heavily weighted for titular alone??, and need to carefully find the next job as a stepping stone to figuring out the biz side. And yes, at this position, as wae said, it's a lot of "if your team is too busy you need to be in there too"
This part needs to get fixed. Player/coach works well for a short time for growth but until you let go of the technical bits and focus on team, you are berkeleyed.
I'm 54. I doubt I will retire before 68-70, assuming I don't die first. I enjoy what I do for the most part. I make enough to pay the bills, save a little, and spend too much on frivolous stuff. That's good enough for me.
wae
UberDork
12/10/21 1:03 p.m.
Paul_VR6 (Forum Supporter) said:
P3PPY said:
This also reminds me that I'm a very entry-level manager, perhaps heavily weighted for titular alone??, and need to carefully find the next job as a stepping stone to figuring out the biz side. And yes, at this position, as wae said, it's a lot of "if your team is too busy you need to be in there too"
This part needs to get fixed. Player/coach works well for a short time for growth but until you let go of the technical bits and focus on team, you are berkeleyed.
This is very much true. There's a lot more to being a people manager than just signing off on expenses and timecards and telling them what do to. If your management maintains the expectation that you're going to being doing "the job" you won't be able to provide the mentoring, career development, and (for lack of a better word) indoctrination of your subordinates. I've been in that place before and had to get work myself out of it. It started because I needed a raise, but was already at the top of my job description's pay grade. So they made me a "manager" so that I could be pushed up to a new grade and now my former peers were my direct reports. But I was still responsible for doing "the job". It took a while, but I had to learn to delegate tasks and set aside time for doing "manager stuff". I set aside about 15 hours a week, going so far as to block the time off on my calendar, so that I could deal with checking in on what my reports were doing, collecting updates about the business to share with them, doing the stuff like approving requests and timecards, and looking at their goals and reviews and thinking about how they were tracking. I was out the door no later than 1700 every day except Friday and I made sure my guys were as well. A manager I had a while ago maintained that anyone in the office past 1pm on a Friday is a moron, and I've passed that along and tried to live it. That's not to say that I haven't worked the occasional weekend or been slaving away on a Friday evening, but those are the exception.
I had an opportunity to go do some Cool Stuff in the growth part of our business a couple years ago, so I gave up people managing for the time being and learned a very valuable skill: Professing ignorance. When someone screws the pooch and they want me to come in and play the role of operations staff or professional services implementer, I just throw my hands up and explain that I'm not really a "behind the keyboard" guy anymore and I just don't feel comfortable doing that without some operations-level training.
I read a story on Facebook years ago, no idea if it was true but it stuck with me. Paraphrased heavily:
There was a guy that joined the military as soon as he could because he wanted to further his life. He spends almost all his time overseas and basically never sees his family, his son grows up and he just gets pictures and videos but he is determined to live The Good Life and give his family the best life he can. He apparently sees some action and is somewhat highly decorated
He ends up retiring from the military and gets a super high paying job that also is overseas and away from home. This makes him very very wealthy but he wants his retirement to be very easy and his family to never have to want for anything ever.
He finally decides to retire, his son is almost off to college and he looks forward to being home and having family time for extended periods of time. He flies home and gets into his retirement gift from his wife: a brand new Corvette. His wife has organized a huge Welcome Home party for him and he is eagerly awaiting.
As he drives home he is T - Boned by a car that was driving recklessly and dies instantly
His wife can't handle it and commits suicide a few months later.
The son inherites the fortune but ends up turning to drugs and overdoses less than a year later.
Something that took decades of sacrifice to come to fruition doesn't even last a year and no one enjoys it.
I'm not sure if the story is true but it definitely made me realize that tomorrow isn't promised and our time is the most precious of gifts
Toyman! said:
I'm 54. I doubt I will retire before 68-70, assuming I don't die first. I enjoy what I do for the most part. I make enough to pay the bills, save a little, and spend too much on frivolous stuff. That's good enough for me.
I literally could have written the same thing except I'm 38.
This is what it feels like for me lately.
Except my scale says "work" on both sides.
If you're working more than 100% during normal conditions you're screwed when the E36 M3 hits the fan. There's simply no slack left in the system. I tell people all of the time "Life is a marathon, not a sprint". Meaning you can work at a 60 hour pace for a month or two, but it's no way to live. To be good at my job you need to be creative constantly. It's really hard to be creative when you're exhausted.
In reply to CAinCA :
I was thinking life is like an endurance race. You really need to save some of the car for the last stint.
I'm doing the Wally here. Expect to work 10 more years. I start a new job in January that puts me back 18-20 years in my career. No management, no supervising, just show up and do my job. Got a pay raise in the process (how did that happen?). It will be different for me not being the lead dog. Hope I can adapt to not being in charge...
A few of you guys are reading my mail?
I am in that weird place between doing and leading. It was supposed to be be a temporary stepping stone scenario. It's feeling fairly permanent at the moment.
Thats the trap, once you commit to both you end up a bit stuck unless your management isnt all shiny happy people. In general you need to switch roles/teams or companies entirely from what I have found.
In reply to Paul_VR6 (Forum Supporter) :
Yeah. That seems to be the way. I have been a lead engineer for several years. Basically, I am topped out in my technical field. There is no where to go but management, otherwise pay is capped at small performance based raises. More importantly, I really would like to stop working during the holidays. I enjoy the work, but I hate the timing. I could take a lateral move to a different technical area to escape the holiday work. Of course, it's a dead end for advancement.
TLDR: I put in for a management role, and here I am in the twilight zone.
I'm trying to engineer a situation where I work a primary job for about nine months a year, the other three I work side stuff that interests me + take vacations + take care of myself in general. At minimum, half of the time I'm in that nine month slog I want to be able to work from home, because driving to a desk in an office when I have one here at home without all of the total BS that goes on in offices is of use to me. I get on the clock, do my thing, complete the tasks and get off the clock without wasting time driving to it. That's what I want. And no more than 45 hours a week, period, or management has clearing stopped managing properly.
I don't know if that answers your question.