Good catch. Of course it does, as the easiest and most lazy trend in software engineering thinkpieces is to blame middle management.
Keep in mind that 90% of the article (itself “fake work” as another commenter pointed out) has nothing to do with managers. The only substantiated mention there is from a gaggle of “strategic” academics at overpriced universities, i.e. those part of what is currently the biggest scam industry of them all.
Nonetheless, the causes here are so glaringly obvious that the article somehow still calls out 1) overhiring endorsed from the very top and 2) infantile responses from engineers who take absolutely no responsibility for their circumstances or trying to make things better.
And yet, there’s absolutely no accountability for either of those groups. C-suite is rewarded by the market, fueled by culture that fetishes misguided views of developers.
Nowhere is this worse than HN, where engineers can do no wrong. Yet speaking of make work, completely pointless arguements and “Show HN”s building a CRUD API client app for the thousandth time predominate. These (lazy/pointless) projects are then evidence that these super talented minds deserve $200k+ jobs where, yet again, managers have to deal with their egos and it’s the manager’s fault when shockingly these “individual contributors” have no idea how to contribute value to a project or in many cases even act like an adult.
I somewhat agree, though, the core issue with "paying for business value" is how difficult it is to really define that across an org.
I've got some bad news for you about what 90% of FAANG work is like
The other problem is that often they have too many people already. That's why layoffs had basically no impact.
All this work that could be better directed by someone who has a bigger picture view & vision for how teams should work together -- good management.
Such projects could certainly lead to all sorts of career successes... if someone high above you recognizes the value of the project as measured my immediate marketability and profit. But in the other 99.99% of cases, it just looks bad.
"The rest of everyone is over here doing real work, but snide's over in the corner fucking around with someone no one told him to work on. Does he think he's better than everyone else?"
With rare exception, it's just not a good look.
To even begin to guess which projects might be that 0.01% that would get you noticed in a good way often requires having worked there years anyway, wheedling yourself into conversations your pay grade has no right to be in. And if you can do that, why work on the project at all? Wheedling itself is a far more certain path to career success than Thomas-Edison-ing some killer app.
Sure it sounds romantic to sit down with a cup of coffee and write some amazing code that makes things better. The reality is writing documents, hunting down code owners and stakeholders, organizing meetings and running into tons of adversity just so you can attempt something very risky as it is impossible to have full context on everything.
They don’t care what devs do as long as nobody else can hire them
So glad I got out of there before it got ugly.
They are often not environments promoting spontaneous contributions, especially not not at the L3/L4/L5 aka lower part of the promotion ladder.
That and corporate survival / promo at these places really depends on "demonstrating impact", which, well, at the lower levels... can come down to sticking with doing what someone more senior than you expected you to do, taking ownership of it, and etc etc.
The reality is that many of the people spinning their wheels like this should just leave and go find a new job. But that's awfully hard to do when you are making sometimes twice as much as what a more "meaningful" job in e.g. a startup or small company can offer. Or when you're on an H1B, or you need certain medical care, etc. etc. etc.
I think it's mostly the tone I don't like about this article. It speaks to a defeastism that feels infectious at the moment. It feels very contrary to the normal spirit of communities like HN, which overall I've witnessed being someone positive.
I recall reading at the time comments on HN saying things like, 20% projects don't really exist, or that it's impossible to launch things at Google because of all the approvals you need. And then I went back to launching a 20% project into production.
If you do really care about making a project fly then filling out forms, getting people on board and getting approvals won't stop you.
For the decade I was there, I couldn't honestly think of something I'd want to put that kind of effort into so that some human-dialtone like Sundar could cancel it later, or some pushier and better organized person could take credit for it.
But I have certainly thought of them after I left.
Nope, fish rots from the head. If everyone around you is useless, there are good reasons for it, and best you can do is find another place where these reasons won't apply.
I'm sorry that you've experienced this horrible treadmill of despair, as well. It doesn't get better.
If you're stuck in a situation where you're not getting great feedback on what to work on, that seems like a great time to just build things and experiment on your own. Do it within the rails of the corporate environment you're in, or hell do it outside and put that energy into something else. Just because someone doesn't provide a map, doesn't mean you can't escape the labyrinth and get creative.