It is important whom you report to!

Machiavelli for software engineers #2

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This is the second in a series of articles I am calling "Machiavelli for software engineers". In these articles I cover topics that are related to power and influence in organizations. The full introduction to the series can be found here.

Until quite recently tech companies were hard at work at making everyone believe they were some entirely new sort of organizational organism. Not at all like the evil corporations of yore that sucked the life out of you by extracting the maximum value while paying the least amount of money possible. Modern tech companies were different; cuddlier, cuter. More like a family than a hard-nosed for-profit business; an organization that cared, that always tried to do the right thing, and that was creating an equitable, inclusive, and diverse working environment where everyone could bring their whole selves to flourish, realize themselves, and be fairly treated.

It always surprised me how many people fell for that myth; on more than one occasion I have had to explain to colleagues that we were in fact not working for an organic hippie farm but instead for a serious multi-billion dollar company that was run by very serious people.

Call me a cynic, but personally I have always subscribed to the theory that my labor contract is exactly that: A contract, from which springs forth obligations and rights for the parties involved. I am supposed to do a bunch of good work and the company will compensate me for that effort in a variety of ways (money, food, massages, health care). Like in any business relationship, employment works best if there is some measure of loyalty between the contracting partners: I don't immediately run off when I can make $25 more on the other side of the street and the company doesn't immediately fire me the moment there is a bit of headwind. However, in general I assume the loyalty is bought off at the end of the month.

Regardless of the nature of the company you are working for, your immediate experience of the company, including your opportunities for career progress, is mostly determined by your manager. In the majority of companies your manager is directly responsible for figuring out whether you get interesting work, what your pay increase will be, if you will get an equity refresher this year, and if you will get a nice desk with a view of the lake or be stuck in a closet next to the bathrooms. And when the bad times come your manager often has a say in whether you get to stay or get laid off. If your company is lovely but your manager is a suboptimal human being, you are not going to have a good time. It is for that reason that an old wisdom says that “people join companies, but leave managers”.

It therefore really matters whom you report to.

I have seen people really suffer from reporting to bad managers. A close friend of mine, with a stellar career, once found himself working on a fun project but for a bad manager. Over the next few years his performance rating started sliding and eventually they reached the point that indicated it was time for a performance improvement plan. To me this was clearly insane; not only does this friend have excellent technical knowledge but he also has a track record of getting difficult things done. He just couldn't get things done in this team while reporting to this manager. Fortunately we had an open headcount in my team and I managed to effectuate a transfer, after which his performance skyrocketed.

Fun fact: Headcount comes from the latin Capite Censi and the connotation is: People whose votes normally don't get counted 🙂.

Reporting to a bad manager might also mean that you are cut off from the sources of power. My number one strategy for success in any position is to figure out what my boss's boss's biggest problem is and then go fix that. This is of course a colloquial definition of the strategy, but it does capture its core: Figure out what the important people in your organization want done and make sure you do that. This means that you need to be connected to the sources of power in order to correctly assess what the big problems are that these people are worrying about.

This strategy is harder to execute in a remote-first environment and therefore it is even more important that you report to the right person; someone who is capable of channeling relevant information to you and who will tell you to work on important things.

Some time ago I made a huge mistake in that area and it cost me my job (or at least, it definitely didn't help keeping it).

I joined a company as a very senior engineer and I reported to the VP of engineering. Shortly after I joined they left and I ended up reporting to one of the directors. Then when a new VP of engineering got hired my reporting line to this new VP was not reestablished and I did not ask for it. Neither did I make any efforts to establish a good relationship with this new VP. Big mistake.

There were two other engineers in the company at my level; they reported directly to the VP and I didn't. Then when the time to do layoffs came I got laid off and they didn't. Guess why (multiple correct answers possible).

I am not saying that reporting lines were the only factor in that decision (hint: they weren’t), but being removed from the source of power didn’t help. Because I lacked direct information about what was important I ended up working on problems that were too small in scope and not strategic enough for the company, which made me an expensive asset; too expensive for the work I was doing. I am sure that if I had reported directly to the VP things could have worked out differently for me.

It matters who you report to. Are they good managers? Do they care about you? Do they give you access to the things that matter? And are they at right level in the company? Few people ever got promoted while reporting to managers that were more junior than them!

Getting to report to the right people means you have to be assertive and that is difficult. People often find it hard to ask for things because that often seems arrogant and might be interpreted as being entitled. Additionally there might be cultural barriers against asking for things.

Where I come from people say "children who ask will get passed over" ("kinderen die vragen worden overgeslagen").

This is terrible advice.

The standard response is: “And kids who stay silent will never get anything”. In Dutch this rhymes (“kinderen die zwijgen zullen nooit iets krijgen”) which makes it sound much better.

There is credible social science that says that asking for things is effective; it is after all one of the 7 rules of power.

I have said it before and I will say it again: If you do not actively go after the things you want or need, you are dependent on charity.

Looking after your career means being on the lookout to see if there are better opportunities elsewhere. It also means figuring out if you are in the right environment now, if you are connected to the right people, or if you could benefit from a change. Your manager is an important part of that environment. I don't care if you like them. I don't care if you like your current team or project. I don't care if you think the work is important.

The only thing I care about is whether your manager today is good for you and for your career. If not, change managers, because it is important whom you report to!