(2018-02-19) Moonlighting Managers Ain't Got No Time For Bullshit

DHH: Moonlighting managers ain’t got no time for bullshit

Smart, capable workers need some direction and follow-up, sure, but they also thrive on autonomy.

One way to deal with this is simply not to have any full-time managers. That’s the road we’ve chosen at Basecamp. With fifty people and just a handful of teams, we’ve so far not needed any true full-time managers. Instead, we have people doing the actual work moonlight as managers to varying degrees. (Management)

The payoff that makes all these caveats worth navigating is that the reluctant, moonlighting manager has better things to do than come up with, propagate, and tolerate bullshit procedures, policies, and busy-work.

So rather than dream up elaborate plans and complex policies, the moonlighting manager tends to pick the simpler, easier road that doesn’t require them to constantly steer the buggy. That’s a path that invites delegation of responsibility and autonomy.