> A boss without a clue was easy to dupe and avoid ... A boss that knew what was what would be on your case if you slacked, but also super relaxed if you were producing to expectations.
Very true. We struggled with this at a past company. Most engineers were inherently honest and hard working, but maybe 1 in 5 were constantly playing games to convince their manager that they were working harder than they really were.
Managers who were formerly engineers had no problem spotting this. It was the managers with non-technical backgrounds who struggled to gauge if their employees were really working hard.
My workaround was to coach non-technical managers to pick up clues from the person's peers. If you privately ask 3 random team members to estimate tasks and 1 person constantly gives estimates 10x longer than anyone else, that person should be watched closely for performance issues.
It also helps to group people together to finish tasks, then ask each of them how it went in private direct conversations (your schedules 1:1s). The person's honest peers will give strong hints that another person isn't pulling their weight.
Trust your employees until they prove themselves untrustworthy, but be careful. We had at least one confirmed situation where a remote employee took another full-time job but didn't quit our company. Instead, they worked on doing the bare minimum to keep their manager satisfied so they could collect paychecks until we were forced to fire them. I suspect this play will become more common now that WFH is on the rise.
Very true. We struggled with this at a past company. Most engineers were inherently honest and hard working, but maybe 1 in 5 were constantly playing games to convince their manager that they were working harder than they really were.
Managers who were formerly engineers had no problem spotting this. It was the managers with non-technical backgrounds who struggled to gauge if their employees were really working hard.
My workaround was to coach non-technical managers to pick up clues from the person's peers. If you privately ask 3 random team members to estimate tasks and 1 person constantly gives estimates 10x longer than anyone else, that person should be watched closely for performance issues.
It also helps to group people together to finish tasks, then ask each of them how it went in private direct conversations (your schedules 1:1s). The person's honest peers will give strong hints that another person isn't pulling their weight.
Trust your employees until they prove themselves untrustworthy, but be careful. We had at least one confirmed situation where a remote employee took another full-time job but didn't quit our company. Instead, they worked on doing the bare minimum to keep their manager satisfied so they could collect paychecks until we were forced to fire them. I suspect this play will become more common now that WFH is on the rise.