Mastodawn

When one of your direct reports brings up a problem in a meeting, treat them as though they had just volunteered to solve it.

This proactive, solutions-oriented approach ensures that you will soon stop hearing about what’s actually happening in your company.

Follow me for more management tips!

Kumar McMillan Jun 25

@maxleibman @rtmgla I know it was a joke but this is how open source software works 😂 A bug report without a patch is like shouting into the void.

Max Leibman Jun 25

@kumarvibe @rtmgla Indeed! I think that happens for entirely understandable reasons, but as with the manager example in my joke, it also has downsides.

If the response to every feature request and bug report is “I look forward to your pull request,” the message that is sent is that FOSS is only for developers.

Not🐧A🐧Convicted🐧Felon Jun 25

@maxleibman @kumarvibe @rtmgla FOSS is only for developers, specifically the developer who wrote it.
Nobody else.
That's the whole point of the license.

Matt Palmer Jun 25

@maxleibman conversely, the message sent by your implied belief that someone who has provided you with software under a permissive licence is also obligated to provide you with unlimited support and bug fixes for no compensation is... ?

Max Leibman Jun 25

@womble Is not implied by what I said, for starters.

Matt Palmer Jun 25

@maxleibman I took your post, in the context of the thread, to imply that "FOSS is only for developers" is not a good message to be sending. Was that an incorrect implication?

Max Leibman Jun 25

@womble I believe that “FOSS is only for developers” is not a good message to be sending. That doesn’t imply I think the developers of FOSS owe an unlimited support duty to anyone who stumbles upon their software.

Matt Palmer Jun 25

@maxleibman do you have any thoughts on a middle ground, and how to effectively communicate that to users?

Paul Ganssle Jun 26

@womble @maxleibman I mean, when people send a bug report they are telling you that your software doesn't work for their use case, they aren't (usually) demanding that you do something about it.

I for one find that useful information whether or not they want to help fix it and whether or not I want to fix it.

Matt Palmer Jun 26

@pganssle sure, and "Well-written bug reports are valuable contributions" is included in my Maintainer Manifesto. What's perplexing to me is the suggestion that radio silence is better than replying "I don't plan to fix this, but would consider accepting a patch".

RyanParsley Jun 25

@maxleibman a thing that may sound like bad advice, but works well is not always picking the most qualified person to clean the mess. Often, the most qualified person is also the most qualified person for like everything. Give that person a pass once in a while and let someone else level up a little.

GinkelKarin 🇪🇺 🇺🇦🟥Jun 25

@maxleibman omg this is sooooo true

Space Hobo Jun 25

@maxleibman So true! Also, if someone doesn't immediately have a solution to a problem, then they are unqualified to detect or triage the problem!!

clarebee Jun 25

@maxleibman You see the problem = you are the problem

wisdomer Jun 25

@maxleibman great proposal!

Csillag Tamás Jun 25

@maxleibman hehe, if they are allowed to solve the problem that is something :-). It is much worse when they know how to fix it, but are not allowed.

Arnd Layer Jun 25

@maxleibman
In the 90s, a colleague who grew up in the GDR / DDR / East Germany had a name for this: ‚Initiativstrafe‘ (punishment for showing initiative).

Third spruce tree on the left Jun 25

@iamlayer8 @maxleibman oo, I like that.

@maxleibman @spacehobo I had a manager who actively explained this was his guiding philosophy. His phrasing was, “Never tell me a problem without at least one possible solution.” It made us look more closely at the problem and examine it a bit before just casually complaining about it. Changed how I approach any “well, this could be better…” situation.

Space Hobo Jun 25

@josh @maxleibman That can be weaponised to create a toxic workplace. It puts you, the person filing the bug, with the burden of defending the solution you were forced to come up with on the spot.

Space Hobo Jun 25

@josh @maxleibman There is a level at which problems need to be accompanied with a set of possible plans of action to deal with it. That level is NOT your manager.

Your manager is meant to say "Oh yeah that sounds serious. Can you spend a little time digging into it, and come up with some possible fixes and workarounds? I may need to devote people's time to this and I'd like to know what we're dealing with. Feel free to tap so-and-so who worked on this last."

@spacehobo @maxleibman A fair point, but my particular context was more high level than bug or issue reporting. They were focused on, “don’t come telling me the process doesn’t work without giving some thought to how you’d revise it.”

David Baakman Jun 25

@maxleibman at a previous company we actually at a certain moment had the rule: if you find a bug proactively and mention it, you are not going to be assigned to fix it.
(In practice obviously when a bug was easy to solve then usually the person who found the bug also immediately fixed it)

'I found a new problem and it can be solved with more money for my team.'

Tuckers Nuts Resist! 🇺🇦 Jun 25

@maxleibman
Eye know, Max, works like a charm!

@maxleibman Especially in large organizations where the authority or ability to fix a problem may be divorced from the requisite perspective to perceive the problem, this works really well.

It's as though every company took the Simple Sabotage Manual as a management textbook

Troed Sångberg Jun 25

@maxleibman Spot on. I was actually taught about this during a leadership course. It was called "R-" - for "negative response".

Never ever burden someone who comes up with a good suggestion with assigning them to take responsibility for handling/implementing it.

@maxleibman I have another way of doing that.
I become so obnoxious with my reporting and willingness to fix things that they stop asking me to check stuff altogether 😂

Frank Gronenberg Jun 25

@maxleibman You also might want to not pass over this opportunity to publicly reprimand them for "coming to you with problems instead of solutions."

If they continue to pester you with mundane details such as requests for clarification, budget, mandates, or really any details of possible solutions, make it sufficiently clear that delivering those isn't your responsibility.

( After all, what do they think you pay them for? )

Accept no less than three readymade solutions to each problem.

@maxleibman
Assuming every problem has two varying sets of people:
Set A: People adversely affected by a nontrivial or recurring problem, and
Set B: People who have any hope of changing the conditions that create that problem

...In my professional opinion, managers who honestly think these sets are identical, or even have significant overlap, are just so painfully adorable.

Nicole Parsons Jun 26

This "flip the script" gaslighting tactic is widespread.

Black & brown voters are importuned to solve racism.

https://www.brookings.edu/articles/black-progress-how-far-weve-come-and-how-far-we-have-to-go/

https://www.sundialpress.co/2024/04/17/its-not-my-job-to-educate-you/

https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2021/02/social-psychologist-offers-key-to-ending-racism/

https://www.aclu.org/news/racial-justice/ending-systemic-racism-requires-ensuring-systemic-equality

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/may/30/why-im-no-longer-talking-to-white-people-about-race

Women are pressed to solve misogyny & chauvinistic social practices.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/03/opinion/why-is-fixing-sexism-womens-work.html

https://www.feministcurrent.com/2013/10/10/feminists-are-not-responsible-for-educating-men/

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2024/mar/04/sexism-in-the-city-no-matter-how-hard-i-work-they-will-never-ever-recognise-me

https://everydayfeminism.com/2015/06/problem-with-educate-me/

Immigrants are told to solve xenophobia.

https://www.wearethe94percent.com/receipts-1/its-not-our-job-to-educate-you

1/

Black Progress: How far we’ve come, and how far we have to go

Brookings Review article by Abigail Thernstrom and Stephan Thernstrom (Spring 1998)

Brookings

Nicole Parsons Jun 26

2/

LGBTQ communities are hectored to solve homophobia.
https://www.npr.org/2020/06/08/872371063/microaggressions-are-a-big-deal-how-to-talk-them-out-and-when-to-walk-away

https://hbr.org/2017/03/what-a-study-of-french-auditors-shows-about-homophobia-at-work

https://www.thepinknews.com/2017/09/04/oxford-university-boss-its-not-my-job-to-stop-homophobic-views/

Why are bigots & incompetent leaders never expected to solve these issues?

It's an effective way to thwart progress by placing the responsibility only on the target.

It also serves to exhaust advocates for change, redirecting energy from advancement, to becoming unpaid labor to resolve issues for the privileged.

https://medium.com/@classylore/on-terms-its-not-my-job-to-educate-you-1bace85ddd74

okanogen VerminEnemyFromWithin Jun 26

@maxleibman
Sounds like a grest way to never have people point out problems.
Me, thinking: "i could tell the boss about this issue, but then he will assign me to fix it, and I'm busy enough!".
[Yes, i got this was the point.... eventually I got it.....]