Questions tagged [people-management]
Questions relating to people management ie the practice of recruiting, training, engaging, and retaining people to optimize their talent and maximize their productivity.
184
questions
2
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5
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How to be a manager if I hate being a manager and just did it for career reasons? I need to do a passable job
I got promoted to team lead at my company a couple weeks ago. I don't really want the job, but it pays more than even principal engineer, and I was a senior engineer before. I basically neglect half ...
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62
votes
10
answers
21k
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How can I manage a remote team member who appears to not be working their full hours?
My employer has declared work from home until the end of the quarter 1, 2021 due to the pandemic. There is a six-member team reporting to me. There is one team member who shows away most of the time. ...
- 625
3
votes
6
answers
2k
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How can I ask for a quote breakdown - when agency refuses?
I work for a company that outsource some of our work to an agency. This agency specialize in branding & design, but also sub-contract other work out to designers, developers, etc.
I am new in my ...
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votes
2
answers
254
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How to discourage subordinates from unnecessarily interrupting their manager?
This is a habit that tends to form in some people (admittedly including myself), when seated near a manager: the subordinate tends to ask the manager questions all day, often about very trivial ...
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5
votes
4
answers
1k
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What could be the trade-offs between managing under-performers or just letting them go?
A number of years ago, I wasn't as passionate about my job as I currently am, so I know that for someone to develop the necessary degree of passion, enthusiasm, and work ethic to perform really well, ...
- 179
6
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9
answers
3k
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How to keep manager happy with 1 on 1 nonsense?
I joined a company last week that claimed to be a startup but seems to be closer to a big corporation. One of the bureaucracies is a weekly hour-long one-on-one session with my manager.
We had this ...
- 95
0
votes
5
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741
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The project manager sends out the stats about the work hours, bug fix rates every month, is it typical?
We are developing a product that requires 3 teams to work together: my team works on web-development, team B works on embedded system and team C bridges us together (to put in a simple way). There is ...
- 3,610
3
votes
6
answers
1k
views
Individual Contributors NOT feeling connected and Inspired by Org Mission
We recently had a survey and many employees within our company gave feedback on not being connected to the overall mission and roadmap of our organization. I am part of a team that is trying to see ...
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1
vote
5
answers
816
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How to react to a colleague that subtly puts you down in meeting?
A few important bits of context:
I am a team leader for a team of 4 + 1 temp.
We have a few projects (reports, analyses for our department) in our pipeline and our director mostly lets me prioritize ...
- 2,248
1
vote
2
answers
586
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organisational reshuffle, my former line manger will personally will not accept the change
An organisational reshuffle has occurred and I no longer report to my former line manager. Except he is a difficult person. He has already decided not to accept it and is endeavouring to gaslight me ...
- 2,100
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1
answer
282
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what does one say to a mediocre non-knowledgeable boss who manages by email only?
I have a new boss. He got us all WFH fortunately.
He also got himself to be the CIO (Chief Information Officer). He talks the talk very well but many things he says and does indicate he doesn't know ...
- 949
4
votes
3
answers
2k
views
New Team Leader, how to handle nomination criticism
I've been appointed yesterday as Team Leader; I was astonished as I am still under probation, but this means also that the company has given me an enormous trust and I've shown already plenty.
There'...
- 2,092
26
votes
5
answers
13k
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What should I do if I have sensed my guy wants to quit and I don't intend to keep him too? [closed]
There are signs that someone has plan to quit, e.g. suddenly calls in sick from time to time, frequently take "secretive" calls, avoids social interactions with co-workers, less engaged than they used ...
- 3,610
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votes
2
answers
321
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How to let the office know the use of open SSH server
I work in a software company where average number of years of experience is 12+.
There are quite a few servers that are used by developers and QAs. In some QA machines, multiple applications are ...
- 789
3
votes
3
answers
602
views
How to maintain engagement with a (newly) remote workforce?
I work on a project of ~50 people, split across 4 sites. To maintain employee engagement, we have various long-running employee engagement activities, including:
Team morning teas/coffees
After work ...
8
votes
5
answers
2k
views
How can I deal with a disruptive team member?
I'm currently acting as a Project Manager and Tech Lead within a really small team, as we are just starting out. I manage about 6 people so far, and the integration and communication between the team ...
- 197
42
votes
15
answers
27k
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Can layoffs have a "positive" effect for a business due to the remaining employees thinking "If I don't work harder, I may be the next"?
Letting go of an unqualified member is unavoidable sometimes. But my question is not about that. My situation is when the business is not thriving and my employer has to layoff people, anyone who is ...
- 3,610
1
vote
7
answers
2k
views
How do I stop obeying my junior team member all the time?
I work in a small software company. A junior developer joined my team few months back. The problem is that I am constantly obeying whatever he asks me to do.
I am just a senior person on team and don'...
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2
votes
3
answers
707
views
What to do when the manager of neighbouring team wants me to help out but not willing to train me
So the structure in our team is that several managers work under a senior manager, and each manager is in charge of one or two analysts. I am an analyst under Manager A, but sometimes Manager B comes ...
- 398
4
votes
3
answers
941
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theft in the office
I left my personal money in my office desk drawer locked it and went home since i was leaving the office late as a sales man and its risky out there. The office is secured with CCTV cameras inside and ...
1
vote
5
answers
848
views
Dealing with conflict in matrix management
I'm a technical lead who also line manages developers. One of the devs (lets call her Alice) I manage works in a separate scrum team to the ones I'm the tech lead for. The teams do all work on the ...
- 121
2
votes
5
answers
867
views
Reviewing old code database, how to start interacting with the dev team?
TL, DR: There was this software product being developed in my company, I needed to review a lot of the codebase. How do I talk to the development team?
The not-so-short version:
Due to several reasons ...
- 3,633
47
votes
7
answers
15k
views
Can I leave in the middle of a project? (programmer) [duplicate]
I have been working here since I graduated, as a software engineer for approximately 5 years at this company. In the first 3 years I thought everything I went through was learning, even though the ...
- 259
5
votes
2
answers
2k
views
Is not having anything to talk about in 1:1 meetings a negative?
I’ve been in my current role for a little over a year now and have always had a weekly 1:1 meeting scheduled with my line manager. For the first few months, this was incredibly helpful as I was new to ...
- 61
6
votes
2
answers
3k
views
Concerning a relationship in the team [closed]
This is about a situation that isn't strictly an employed workplace, but is similar. I am on project team at a university. It is supposedly a 'professional environment', though as we are all ...
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54
votes
7
answers
15k
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How to justify getting additional team member when the current team is doing well?
I've been working in a large IT company in a 2 man team, for the past 3 years. We are very dedicated and we have a strong image as serious and reliable. Every important development comes our way.
The ...
- 629
-9
votes
1
answer
617
views
Is a high CEO salary in large corporations justified? [closed]
Being a CEO of a small company can be hard I agree, and their work can be appreciated.
However, for a large company everything can be easily delegated and they have a team of management under them. ...
- 463
5
votes
1
answer
3k
views
Backstabbing, incompetent and lazy interns
I’ve just been made president of my startup but because the budget is low I had to hire two interns. The president I’m replacing decided to select the interns I was going to work with which meant I ...
- 1,433
3
votes
2
answers
351
views
How to deal with not getting updates on a task from colleagues?
I often deal with colleagues (who are not in working in the same place), who promise to deal with some task (they have to fix something, install something, etc), but the promised deadline comes and ...
- 139
3
votes
2
answers
475
views
Can a part time employee move up in the organization? [closed]
I work part time at an engineering firm. I would like to progress to Department Manager. I am part of the technical teams and manage projects now.
Since I work 4 days a week, sometimes it takes me ...
user107558
-2
votes
3
answers
710
views
Should I transfer difficult employees to my boss or refuse to do it [closed]
So I have been with this company for over three years and got promoted recently. I have a few resources reporting to me directly who have been working for the client (through another company) way ...
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-5
votes
2
answers
542
views
A subordinate complained behind my back, what are the effective ways to resolve this? [closed]
My subordinate went over my head to complain how she isn't growing. She has only has 3 years experience. She also complained thay she expects some reward like a promotion by now given she is almost 4 ...
- 19
7
votes
4
answers
2k
views
Should I tell my manager that I am not happy
The gist of the situation is this:
the company I work for got sold
my manager used to be CEO, now he has people he’s reporting to. We are both programmers and we are working together on projects
the ...
- 181
0
votes
3
answers
711
views
How to set boundaries and define my role with the people above me?
I am a senior developer working in this team for 4+ years and have deep technical & functional knowledge about 3-4 internal applications that this team is managing.
Involved persons:
Developer (...
- 615
2
votes
2
answers
350
views
What are some of the ways / meeting tactics to deal with team members creating conflict in meetings?
I manage a team of 10 Developers and Test Engineers.
Its a new team, and team is slowly transitioning into Agile Scrum.
We have meetings on team agreements, and things like definition of done, release ...
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3
votes
5
answers
868
views
How can I get a problem employee to do work assigned to him when I'm a supervisor with no real power?
In one day I went from being the junior member of a three person team to the senior member of a three person team. It's my first supervisory role.
Unfortunately one of the new members of the team is ...
- 21.3k
3
votes
4
answers
1k
views
Introducing software management practices in poorly managed company
I believe the company I work for has very poor software&people management practices. I want to approach upper management about this. I believe I should have a concrete explanation on what the ...
- 3,633
28
votes
9
answers
11k
views
How can I avoid subordinates and coworkers putting off tasks until the last minute, then having no time for revisions?
I’ve had a recurring problem with people I work with leaving things until the last minute, then when there are problems, having no time to address them. Deadlines for “drafts” or similar sometimes ...
anon
2
votes
1
answer
671
views
Ugly email exchanges, spreading Insecurity [closed]
Background:
Over the course of the last few years, my manager has been bad mouthing me in nonofficial "around the water cooler" type conversations. I have overheard this many times and my colleagues ...
- 1,046
6
votes
4
answers
972
views
Should I have been more open about my disagreement with my boss in this scenario?
We recently had a bad software release for a particular customer. I think the problem is that Bob, the QA engineer, isn't doing testing. I think he is shirking at work. I have privately shared my ...
- 4,814
11
votes
4
answers
1k
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How can I help a team member who's a recent immigrant adapt to a new work culture?
After a recent meeting, one of my team members asked me for feedback and advice on fitting in to work culture in our country (Canada). The team member is a recent immigrant and this is their first job ...
-1
votes
3
answers
480
views
New employee received an offer from a different company [closed]
I need help.
I'm a newly promoted Team leader and currently having a hard time handling an attrition. This person has a Team lead experience but was hired as an individual contributor in our company a ...
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votes
2
answers
993
views
About the "Never Accept an Ultimatum rule"
I've seen this mantra being spelled out around TheWorkplace:
As a manager, never accept an ultimatum
[The easy question] : Why is this a rule?
[The hard question]: Are there known, ...
anon
-1
votes
3
answers
2k
views
How do I deal with a slow co-worker whose attitude is affecting my team?
So, I have this colleague (call him Mark). Both of us are software developers with more than a year’s experience (his being two months longer than mine). Since we were hired, he has been working on ...
- 2,252
3
votes
1
answer
500
views
How can I bridge the gap between my employees’ productivity and my boss’s expectation?
I am a new manager in charge of a very small team of engineers. My bosses do not have an engineering background but they have expectations about the productivity of my engineers. I believe my bosses ...
- 1,579
5
votes
1
answer
426
views
Dealing with unfairness in the workplace
The compensation in my job is highly dependent on new income streams that I produce for my team. However in my team there are several existing income streams that need to be maintained.
My issue ...
- 185
1
vote
4
answers
199
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Is it commonplace that the project manager and the line manager are the same person? [closed]
In my division (of a very large company) it seems common that someone's line manager is also one's project manager. Not always but often. This seems counterintuitive to me as if I have an issue with ...
- 121
3
votes
2
answers
412
views
Make your boss look good — how to do it in a startup?
I'll try to write the question in a way that is as general as possible.
How do I help my company and my manager look good, highly competent, etc., especially when the manager is unaware that most ...
- 89
60
votes
12
answers
20k
views
Trouble with boss shooting me down and telling me to just accept things the way they are
TLDR: I have been having problems with my boss wasting my time with meaningless assignments that don't have all the details necessary to complete. I also have problems with my boss telling me (every ...
user89097
4
votes
2
answers
453
views
Defining expectations for a software development manager/architect
How can I define performance expectations for a new software development manager/architect (new in that this is a new set of responsibilities for him, specifically in the architecture area)? Then, how ...
- 141