Dick is a bad manager
Posted: September 24th, 2010 | Author: montague | Filed under: Dick the manager, management, work | 27 Comments »I’ve worked as a developer for a few years now. During that time, I’ve had two kinds of managers. The first kind is what I consider the “good” kind–a person who respects his team as a collection of individuals. Each is an expert in his/her problem domain and each was hired for a reason. The relationship is one based on mutual respect and trust. It’s ok to take a long lunch once in a while, or cut out an hour early on Tuesdays, as long as the work is getting done. One of my “good” managers actually said to me, “I don’t give a shit if you come into work high and wearing a chicken suit as long as you do your job well.” A person like that inspires loyalty, dedication, and a sincere desire to perform well. Nothing is more motivating to me than actually liking my boss and wanting him to succeed.
Now, the “bad” manager (let’s call him Dick). Dick is the kind of guy who eyes you suspiciously from over his monitor, looking for reasons to walk by your desk to make sure you have only work-related windows on the screen. He spreads stress around like it’s a communicable disease. He’ll assign a task, tell you exactly how you should do it, and then “stop by” repeatedly to check on progress. Dick is oblivious to the fact that his constant presence is hampering productivity.
In my experience, management like Dick’s transforms the work atmosphere from one of creativity and “let’s get it done” to one of fear and “we better not fuck up”. This fear can be paralyzing. It only takes a couple small missteps for a developer to start second-guessing everything he does. Eventually, Dick is left with empty, soulless developers who function as living extensions of his will–just how he likes it. Every question or decision is met with “Ask Dick”, “You better check with Dick”, and “I’d run that by Dick if I were you…”
I’m not saying Dick doesn’t have his place. Some personality types mesh perfectly well with Dick’s Machiavellian management style. Specifically, it seems to work on people who don’t feel very attached to their jobs. They have separate, thriving lives outside of work, and are fully able to leave all baggage at their desks before they go home. Others, however, react poorly to Dick’s domineering. They plot and squirm a bit, scheming for ways to escape. These are usually the more creative, ambitious employees–employees who feel constricted by Dick’s… well, rigidity. In most cases, these employees move on to greener pastures. Unfortunately for Dick, they are so happy to be leaving that they are loathe to tell him what they really think in the exit interview–don’t burn bridges and all that. So Dick continues to be a dick with no understanding of how horrible a manger he is.
Have any of you ever sat down with your manager and explained that the current methods aren’t working? How did it go?
Luckily, I am in a granted research position (but that won’t last forever), and my thesis advisor is more of the good kind than the bad… As long as I can show him something, he is happy with what I am doing.
The problem with “Dick”‘s style is not only the way he treats his employees… But also that they may get even less done. I can be extremely productive for 2 hours in a good day, doing what may have taken me a whole week, and this can happen a lot, or rarely. When I am in small productivity cycles, there is nothing I can do about it: I either do small repetitive tasks that need to be done, or I just try to empty my mind with relax time. If my manager does not understand such a thing, I get less done, and the result is worse.
Of course, there are always slackers: there needs to be a way to measure things done, more than hours spent making it look like you are working.
Cheers,
Ruben
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You know that scene from Full Metal Jacket where they beat Private Pile with bars of soap? Yeah this needs to happen to asshole managers. Everyone of them.
Excellent article, I’ve only had a few years of experience in the tech field but I can already think of examples of both types of managers. In my last job I actually had a Dick, and I made it well known why I was leaving, what I thought of his management style, and where I thought it would take him and the company. They shocked me by seeming genuinely interested in the feedback I was giving and told me they would still provide a good reference.
I have a feeling a better title for this article would have been “Is your manager a Dick?”
I am Dick,
Can you clear your desk please.
You’re fired.
Get back to work Some Guy!
There is a third kind of manager, who is typically a ‘nice guy’ who doesn’t have a problem with chicken suits or a bit of browsing or working time as long as the job gets done *but* micro-manages the crap out you stopping by every 15 minutes to see ‘how you’re getting on’, just like Dick.
Micro-management sucks ass.
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my last 2 bosses are Dicks
Don’t be a Dick.
The chicken suit line reminds me of Anthony Bourdain’s quote about having a manager who didn’t care if you were ‘up all night smoking crack and worshipping satan’ as long as you came in on time and did a superb job.
Bad managers are almost without exception completely oblivious to how bad their managerial style is. And I don’t mean they’re oblivious in the sense that no one has pointed this out to them, but that even when spelled out clearly to them they are mentally unable to grasp or internalize what it is that has been said to them.
I would advice against a sit down with most of them as nothing good can come out of it.
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I worked for Dick as a contractor.
Dick didn’t show up to my interview, but hired me anyways. He took away my project away my project and gave it to a stubborn, incompetent junior developer. When the contract work was finished, he told me he would not be offering me a full-time position.
A week later, the day I was going to sign a competing offer of employment he changed is mind and pulled strings all day to draft an offer. Needless to say, I elected not to work for dick.
@ augustus
“You know that scene from Full Metal Jacket where they beat Private Pile with bars of soap? Yeah this needs to happen to asshole managers. Everyone of them.”
Did you watch the whole movie? Please leave your ignorance out of thoughtful discussions like these. We don’t need any more sociopaths runing around thinking they can take everyone else with them…
Managers like Dick need to be confronted. Talked to. From my experience (i’ve had all sorts of manager’s; Dick types are usually workaholics) the confrontation must be company (read family) wide, like an intervention of a drug abuser. the managers need to know that people care about the company as a whole. if only a handful of people say something, probably nothing will change, and the few that did speak out will be paying for it with a more stressfull work environment than usual.
In my experience, the Dick types are usually politically motivated. They want “hero” developers and they LOVE crunch time… because if their entire team is working overtime, they need a bigger team, which in corporate america, is a stepping stone to a promotion.
My previous manager was like that, and even though every single project he’s (mis)managed has been a practical failure (some didn’t launch at all, one launched but wasn’t even remotely usable), he keeps getting assigned more projects.
Of course, all he does is re-design everything badly; under his “leadership” the team turned a nearly complete server application with a clean and modular codebase and turned it into a nightmare of spaghetti code — that doesn’t actually work.
The only reason that he hasn’t been fired yet is that the rest of the management is every bit as political, so instead most of the most talented folks have been leaving.
I worked for 2 Dicks. I had a 3rd kind of “manager” before the Dicks… she pretty much forgot I existed, even had my job title wrong on my review one year. (It said “copywriter” when I was a production artist… the two positions are not even close.) She was a pigeonholer, and didn’t care about your career advancement unless it jibed with the career *she* wanted you to have. Multiple attempts at talking with her eventually found me clearing out my desk as part of a layoff, while those who played ball got to stay.
I confronted Dick #1 when he asked me “why don’t you seem happy here?” and I told him the truth. He didn’t like the truth. Two weeks later I was clearing out my desk.
Dick #2 I never bothered to confront. I kept my bitching to my personal blog, which I only shared with friends. Dick #2′s daughter (and employee at the company — nepotism at its finest) found my blog who-knows-how and while it didn’t happen for a year, I eventually had to clear out my desk.
In my adult life I’ve had 2 great bosses, 1 good boss, and 8 Dicks. After the last Dick I decided enough was enough. Now I work for myself.
Be careful not to overgeneralize. Some managers are always Dick. Some are Dick because they believe that you’ve lost their trust; regain that trust, and they’ll stop being Dick.
I’m a developer. I’m also now a co-founder at a startup, which means I’m also a manager.
I’ve got two devs working for me, both working remotely. One of them, I trust implicitly. I check in with him once or twice a day, sometimes only every other day, and things generally work fine — he gets the work done to a high standard and pretty much on time. If things are not going as fast as we would have liked, he lets me know what the delay was and when it will be done. He manages my expectations, we communicate clearly and well, no problem.
The other developer is completely unpredictable in how much he gets done when. Errors are frequent, and my sense is that he does not check his work carefully, if at all. Communication is poor and frustrating. I check on him via IM 3-5 times a day and require daily status reports. He probably thinks that I am Dick. I think that this is the level of management he has demonstrated he requires.
If you don’t trust an employee, why is that person still working for you?
I too don’t gel well with that type of manager but there are plenty of people who do. I wouldn’t say he was Machiavellian though. I don’t believe that this type of manager is trying to wreck your development work. He just doesn’t understand how to get the best out of you. If you are in this situation, try talking to him. I did that with one manager and everything changed for the better.
“Eventually, Dick is left with empty, soulless developers who function as living extensions of his will–just how he likes it.”
Oh God, yes, I’ve been there. These managers, for whatever reason, have become their own little demi-gods, ruling over their domain, directing people as if they were idiots. Inevitably, unless someone higher up in the organization sees what’s happening, the group *does* become a mindless extension of the manager as the rational, the reasonable, and normal are combed out of the ‘team’.
lol’d @ #5
Dicks are a necessity- I would not waste time confronting or trying to out-maneuver them politically . They will get what they deserve in due time…
Just acknowledge them for what they are and take what you can while looking for a new job. Everything happens for a reason and I have been quite surprised at how they put everything into perspective. Without people like that you might be stuck in a comfortable rut wasting away your life…
I am a manager and I have to respond to this article and its comments. I try not to be a Dick but it is clear from what’s written here that these people do not have an understanding of what it is to be a manager. It is pretty much all one-sided. I had to brush away the tears.
First, it pretends that all developers are competent and motivated. Consider the sad state of computer science education these days and the difficulty in hiring good developers unless you are Google, Facebook, Twitter or some hot startup offering stock options. Not every company can be one of these.
A manager tries to get the company’s work done with developers of varying quality, but mostly mediocre. The idea of just letting them “do their thing” is utterly ridiculous in most cases.
So, am I a Dick? Perhaps. But if I don’t get these cats herded, we will all be out of a job!
Hopefully, you manage the “life outside of work” types–then you’re fine… but it sounds like you need to be Dick
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