Could your boss do you job?

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HavocXphere

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I've occasionally seen people in the programming section of this forum complain that they've got managers that don't understand dev work so I'm curious what the general opinion is of bosses.

Thoughts, opinions & sundry ramblings related to the above?
 
I'll go first.

Don't really have a fixed boss I report to (adhoc teams based work) but 99% of the time my immediate superior can do my job & well at that. One level above that things get shaky - they no longer have the knowledge necessary to do the actual work.
 
Different roles, your boss doesn't need to be able to do your job. It takes a whole different skill set to manage people than it does to for instance develop software.

Look at it this way, the CEO of Vodacom can't do low level network stuff, but neither can the network techie run a multi-national corporation.

I'm not saying you don't get useless managers, but a manager doesn't need to be able to do your job to be good at managing you doing your job.
 
I'll also add this, I think a lot of times people blame their managers because:
a) They don't communicate the constraints of their jobs properly
b) They don't want to take responsibility for their work so they pass the blame up the ladder

You do get really bad managers, but more often than not it is easier for someone to blame his "useless" boss than it is to take accountability for things going wrong.
 
All the small to medium sized businesses I've worked in therr are generally not enough people in the software dev line to have a competent manager. In these cases you usually report to a general manager or something to that affect where they have zero software dev experience which makes it super frustrating as this is when they tell you what they want and generally don't listen to experienced reason as they can't understand why you cant give them what they want right now. They also don't understand the intricacies or problems that current infrastructure has and how that can cause delays or make certain tasks impossible. These are generally the management types that say "I don't care, just get it done" and continuously change the spec every other day.

Only worked at one place where my boss could do my job and that was at a big international corporate type business.
 
^^vampire^^ said:
All the small to medium sized businesses I've worked in therr are generally not enough people in the software dev line to have a competent manager. In these cases you usually report to a general manager or something to that affect where they have zero software dev experience which makes it super frustrating as this is when they tell you what they want and generally don't listen to experienced reason as they can't understand why you cant give them what they want right now. They also don't understand the intricacies or problems that current infrastructure has and how that can cause delays or make certain tasks impossible. These are generally the management types that say "I don't care, just get it done" and continuously change the spec every other day.

Only worked at one place where my boss could do my job and that was at a big international corporate type business.
Click to expand...

Fair point. Do you think such a situation can be avoided by asking who you'll be reporting to during the interview, and more importantly, would you turn down a good offer because of it?
 
I agree with what Frikkenator says in that the different roles require different mindsets. I think programmers are generally not trusting of non-programmers, but then, sometimes it seems they have a reason to be, based on past experience with poor managers.

I have had one really poor manager, but I think the fact he was a poor manager had little to do with how non technical he was. He was just an a hole.

At my current job, there are 3 people that could be considered my boss, and none of them can do what I can do. Well, one of them used to be technical and crossed over to business. So perhaps he could do my job if he were trained in the modern technology we use.
 
Yes. Yes, she could.

Perhaps not as fast, and she doesn't have enough hours in the day; which is why I was hired.

Great to have a boss like this.
 
Probably not no, but the question I ask myself is can I do my bosses job? And right now the answer is no, probably not.
 
Yes, because I took over my boss' old position. He is a genius or damn close to one. He is wasting his skills in his current position...could be earning 5-10 times of what he earns now.

Not in IT though.
 
Yes. But not as good as I do it. I fixed a problem that had apparently been a plague for years last month which she couldn't fix. I keep discovering more problems and crappy plsql coding that should have been fixed years ago.
 
I could do her job, but probably not as well as she does it though. I do like my boss, which is funny because I always prayed never to end up working for a woman.
 
Frikkenator said:
Fair point. Do you think such a situation can be avoided by asking who you'll be reporting to during the interview, and more importantly, would you turn down a good offer because of it?
Click to expand...

Not sure I would turn down a good opportunity based on this. I've dealt with the problem before and will probably deal with it again. I would just work harder to manage expectation. I've also realised that I need to draw a line in the sand, try my best to communicate the issue in terms of what my boss can understand, and either take time to see if there's a way to work around the problem that I'm not currently aware of or inform my boss that what he is asking is not possible because of certain parameters.

People are more willing to co-operate and understand your point of view if you can demonstrate the willingness to firstly explain the situation and secondly try to find a possible solution. I did work in a company where they just told me to get things done after I told them it was not possible and when it never got done they slowly started realising that I wasn't just saying it for my own good. Not the way I would have liked it to pan out but when a spoiled child doesn't get what they want by demanding they soon (or not so soon) learn that they need to adopt a different attitude.
 
I do software dev, and general IT management, my boss is a pure manager, so no, she couldn't do my job.

Fortunately, she is good at hers.
 
The problem is when your boss cannot do your job yet wants to tell you how to do it.

You see that a lot in corporate where the managers are clueless.
 
I work for a large ASP.
My manager would definitely not be able to do my job - She just handles projects
The person she reports to would not be able to do my job - He manages the leaders of all departments (Customer center, change, operations, development, and sales)
The person he reports to (Majority share holder and chief technical officer) is pure genius!
Anyone from any department can use him as a last resort to solving a problem they are struggling with.
He has a huge amount of experience in almost every aspect of the IT industry and would definitely be able to do my job.
 
whatwhat said:
The problem is when your boss cannot do your job yet wants to tell you how to do it.

You see that a lot in corporate where the managers are clueless.
Click to expand...

Or you possibly could not be seeing the long term strategy of the work that you are completing
 
I think a more appropriate question is "does your boss understand your job". It's not a manager's job to be able to fulfil your role, but it is her job to understand (in a general sense) the tasks which you perform, the complexity of these tasks, and the problems which you face. Also, I think it is a manager's duty to admit where she lacks technical understanding, and to consult the appropriate team members to bridge this gap when necessary.

I am fortunate enough to be employed at a software/engineering company where my managers used to do more or less my job and could probably do most of what I do as well as, or better than, me (same background + more experience). I am only here because they don't have the time.

In the past, I had the misfortune of being employed at a company where my manager had absolutely no idea what my role was, nor did she have even the vaguest sense of the relative complexity of tasks, yet she refused to listen to anyone else's opinion regarding budgets. Very frustrating.
 
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