Or they were actually asking for time to officially work on it. Thinking their superior must have a good view of the big picture. Waiting confirmation that their idea made sense in the grand scheme of things.
In that case giving them permission does the trick and the improvements happen. Huzzah!
The other side is making sure to always plan for enough slack in the system so people have time for these things, if they choose to use it.
Re:How to Build Toxic Software Teams
by ianmcgowan on Wednesday July 26, 2023 @04:19PM
(#36884344)
AKA "The Wally Reflector" from Dilbert :_)
Looked that up thinking I'll disagree, but actually yes. As you grow in your role, you get to a point where the number of incoming "quick requests" outpaces your ability to keep up.
To most people they're just asking for a quick 10 minutes of your time, what's the big deal. But they don't see the other 20 people doing the same thing. If you devote 200min+ of every day to fulfilling others' requests, when will you have time to do your own work?
The problem grows only worse the higher in the org chart (formal or informal) you get.
Someone like a VPofEng may have 100 people asking "quick questions" all the time. Without the Wally Deflector, there's literally not enough time in the day to even have all these conversations, let alone do anything about 'em.
Then usually nothing happens. They didn’t think it was good or important enough to use their time, they just wanted others to Do Better. Oh well