Mastodawn

"Good engineering management" is a fad

https://lethain.com/good-eng-mgmt-is-a-fad/

#HackerNews #GoodEngineeringManagement #Fad #EngineeringManagement #Leadership #TechIndustry #ManagementTrends

"Good engineering management" is a fad

As I get older, I increasingly think about whether I’m spending my time the right way to advance my career and my life. This is also a question that your company asks about you every performance cycle: is this engineering manager spending their time effectively to advance the company or their organization? Confusingly, in my experience, answering these nominally similar questions has surprisingly little in common. This piece spends some time exploring both questions in the particularly odd moment we live in today, where managers are being told they’ve spent the last decade doing the wrong things, and need to engage with a new model of engineering management in order to be valued by the latest iteration of the industry.

Dr Robert N. Winter Apr 20, 2025

Remember when meetings were held in rooms? Now, every desk is a conference pod. Every conversation is public. Every project update echoes across the office like a Gregorian chant of corporate chaos.

If you've ever found yourself trapped in a meeting while overhearing three others… this one's for you.

#WorkplaceCulture #Meetings #HybridWork #OpenPlanOffice #ZoomFatigue #CorporateLife #OrganisationalHumour #Leadership #ManagementTrends #Satire

https://robert.winter.ink/why-is-everyone-in-my-meeting/

Why Is Everyone in My Meeting?

Once upon a time, meetings were things you went to. They happened in rooms with doors, had chairs—of questionable lumbar support—and came with a vague promise of biscuits. Video calls were sacred rituals—booked with reverence, conducted in purpose-built spaces with technology that failed only half the time. Then came open-plan offices. Then came COVID. Then […]

Dr Robert N. Winter