“Keep It Up” is Manager-Speak for Leave Me Alone
I’ve been ghosted in interviews and even before a formal interview stage in my working life.
I know recruiters are too busy to recruit properly so I’ve become acclimatized to this type of behavior in software development.
I thought once I made it into a corporation, things would be different. After all, you are privileged enough to be in the company so surely, they won’t treat you badly.
How wrong can The Secret Developer be?
The One-on-one
Because of corporate rules, you are highly unlikely to skip your quarterly one-on-ones (or annual if your corporation is a monster).
So, if your manager does not want to speak to you, they will not simply ghost you. They’ll want to get the meeting over as fast as possible, like that time you were asked to create some documentation.
What happens is your feedback is poor, the meeting is over as quickly as possible, and your manager will fail to carry out any of their actions from the meeting.
The lead-up
These meetings are typically stressful for the average employee. You’re mentally prepared to tackle hard topics, perhaps that infamous tech debt that’s been haunting your dreams.
If you’re like The Secret Developer you will actually prepare for this meeting. You’ll create a list of questions for your manager and a list of prompt responses for questions they are likely to ask. It’s like preparing for a job interview — an interview for your own job.
In the interview, it soon becomes clear that your manager has done no such preparation.
Feedback
My feedback at work feels like boilerplate code. I got the impression that they were happy with my work but didn’t enumerate what that meant, and that was just about it. I wasn’t given an opportunity to say how things were going or what I felt, and we just moved on.
I’d say it was an all-smiles façade but of course, we are working from home and had this meeting with the cameras off.
Outcomes
My manager said he would write up the meeting. They didn’t. They said we would have an hour meeting to decide targets for the next review period. We didn’t.
Finishing the meeting
We finished the meeting after 15 minutes because they had an urgent meeting to go to. I felt really important at the time, and with the non-delivery of outcomes, I’m certain about how central I am to the software development team here.
I guess that is my real feedback.
Why?
Why the evasion, you ask? Well, my fellow code warriors, it’s simple. These meetings are checkbox activities for many managers. A task on their to-do list, sitting somewhere between “refill coffee” and “tell the team to iteratively improve their code”.
They don’t want my feedback.
Feedback means problems.
Problems mean work.
If you fight back and bring up real issues that need to be resolved, you’re causing problems. Spoiler alert: the issue joins the spectral ranks of forgotten tasks, never to materialize into action. Which is probably why the coffee machine at work never got fixed.
Why It's Problematic
If we have meetings that can be cancelled with no adverse effects, surely, we should cancel the meetings.
Imagine the possibilities! Developers unleashed, productivity unchained! Free from the purgatory of pointless praise, we could actually get back to what we do best: solving problems that actually exist.
If my manager is letting problems fester you might say it’s up to me to contact them and resolve issues. Sure, a manager who I never see I should just call up with my issues. As I think I’ve made clear they are not interested in me, my work, or my questions.
I remember one time I had a personal issue and needed to take some unplanned leave. It took days to get a call with them so I could explain the issue face to face. No joke.
I’ve resorted to being happy that I get paid and stopped wanting more. I’ve been devalued to that extreme I’m afraid.
Conclusion
Here’s to all the software developers out there. I’m raising a glass for us and our battle against incompetent managers and poor code.
I hope if one day you get to be my manager we’ll get on great and be able to talk about the code, you and I, and how we are doing. Wouldn’t that be nice?