What does my engineering manager do all day?

Re:What does my engineering manager do all day? by zzt123 on Tuesday September 28, 2021 @12:50AM (#28679475)

I prefer typing over slack because it’s easier to be rigorous and concise in exposition in writing than it is when speaking (you can’t erase what you already said without breaking a train of thought). Writing can be consumed at the consumer’s pace rather than the producer’s. Additionally, writing can be searched later, so there’s no fog of memory.

But, typing can be a bottleneck for people I suppose, both in speed and pain as you say. I wonder if there’s a WPM inflection point for chat vs call preference.

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Re:What does my engineering manager do all day? by jld89 on Tuesday September 28, 2021 @04:27AM (#28680483)

I mean you can always have the best of both worlds. Do the zoom meeting by all means but never forget to send a meeting summary to all parties with an agreed statement about the objectives and assignments.

This way there are no ambiguities and no one can evade responsibility. This avoids a he-said vs she-said situation as well.

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Re:What does my engineering manager do all day? by zzt123 on Tuesday September 28, 2021 @04:59AM (#28680648)

Until you have disagreement on the summary because it turns out not everyone came to the same understanding verbally - they erroneously thought they did. I’ve come to prefer having as much as possible of the common, written reference come before, not after the meeting - with time to consume and digest prior.

A meeting has value beyond just the words themselves, which is where writing meets its limit.

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Re:What does my engineering manager do all day? by jld89 on Tuesday September 28, 2021 @06:03AM (#28681017)

> Until you have disagreement on the summary because it turns out not everyone came to the same understanding verbally

This itself is a victory. This means the subject needs more discussion or is too complex for a 5 minute meeting.

I prefer to spend 2 hours to make a subject clear to all parties rather than developing under a false interpretation and having to fix the issue through a grueling 5 day back and forth.

I think writing before and after the meeting is both desirable. Before to specify the object of the meeting and to limit its scope, afterwards to conclude and archive the decisions made.

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Re:What does my engineering manager do all day? by OJFord on Tuesday September 28, 2021 @06:11AM (#28681060)

Or that if you wrote it in the first place you wouldn't have agreed?

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Re:What does my engineering manager do all day? by jld89 on Tuesday September 28, 2021 @09:40AM (#28682652)

Sure, it really depends on the subject. I have a slight preference for the quick meeting (5 minutes) -with a followup email- rather than a long come and go in slack.

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Re:What does my engineering manager do all day? by jstimpfle on Tuesday September 28, 2021 @04:26AM (#28680479)

I value zoom for 1 to 1 or small group interactions. It's very suited for work on something specific where you need live interaction and where a shared screen tells more than a 1000 words.

For general coordination, a written medium is better, especially since one can take the time to be precise, and the content is searchable later as you say.

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