Comments on: Incompetence, Part II (or, Slightly Less Cranky)

By: Brent

Brent — Mon, 01 Oct 2007 06:23:28 +0000

Come work in the Alberta Oil industry Sanya. Here the workers make far more than the managers. Workers make 80 to 200k a year, managers make 50 to 150k a year. The problem here is that good people never want to join management, as they will take a pay cut as a result, so the managers end up being those that have to stop working in the field as a result of personal issues.

By: Philip Ripper

Philip Ripper — Sun, 24 Jun 2007 05:03:07 +0000

“People rise to their level of incompetence.” I wonder what this says about me? I rose all the way to unemployed and hit my ceiling. Does anyone know where I can find recess?

(Six odd years so far on dissability for Agoraphobia. I’m a mmorpg specialist of the opposite sort! Trap someone in a room for a decade with a bunch of computer parts and a phone–later dsl line–and see what happens. Social experiment on government cheese.)

love & diatribe

By: Michael Chui

Michael Chui — Mon, 18 Jun 2007 22:36:41 +0000

Sanya asked, “why couldn’t there be a situation where the employee makes more than the manager? Especially in the more creative fields?”

I’d say that the reason is because managerial results are undefinable, much like a teacher’s salary. The similarity is actually pretty surprising: if you compare a student’s “pay” (negative tuition) with a teacher’s, I would guess that the proportion would be about the same as the worker to manager ratio.

Honestly, what should really happen is that teams should be paid together, and they should divide it amongst themselves, where the team includes the managers, too. It would seriously increase how aware people are of others’ contributions, I think.

By: No.6

No.6 — Fri, 15 Jun 2007 20:07:42 +0000

“and a fifth of rum in the same room. Take turns reading it out loud. Take a sip when you recognize someone you know, and do a shot when you recognize yourself.”

There isn’t enough rum in existence to handle that game played amongst people who design or code for state government projects…

By: jason

jason — Thu, 14 Jun 2007 22:11:27 +0000

Sanya, at the end of your post you talk about the industry being more open to asking for help, and more open to letting skilled people do their job well without taking offense at the fact that they might be better at something than you are. Can you comment on the age ranges of the people you’re thinking of when you say that? I’d guess that the gaming industry has a younger average age than, for instance, textbook publishing. Is that a generational thing in your opinion?

By: Apache

Apache — Sun, 10 Jun 2007 03:39:30 +0000

Paying highly skilled artisans, programmers and designers an equal to, or greater amount of money is also an alternative. Keeps the gene pools seperate.

By: Zubon

Zubon — Sat, 09 Jun 2007 11:21:05 +0000

In this context, I should probably have said “organization” rather than “planning.” Organizing people, business processes, etc.

By: Zubon

Zubon — Fri, 08 Jun 2007 20:27:00 +0000

Game design and planning are separate skill sets. Even if the wonder developer can code and make concept art and write stories and run efficient meetings and train and make delicious cheesecake s/he cannot do all of them at once. Get yourself some planning people, not just some coders or game designers who don't even want to be managers.

By: =j

=j — Fri, 08 Jun 2007 16:34:16 +0000

I have worked for companies that nominally had separate “Tecnical” and “Manager” promotion tracks. Neither really implemented them very well (imho) and neither had mechanisms for the managee to make less than the manager. If it were my toy train^W^W company, I would allow for this. And to any manager that complained, I would say, “Well, she is the best in her field. I want her compensation to reflect the value of her work. I’m sure as hell not going to promote her out of her job because HR thinks managers need to make more than technical people. Don’t get me wrong, you are a good manager. But are you really the best in your feild?”

By: Big Hal

Big Hal — Fri, 08 Jun 2007 15:46:28 +0000

The company I worked for actually did something like what you are suggesting Sanya. Sadly for me the people I worked for were all outside hires themselves and weren’t aware of it. In a fair number of the very technical groups there were manager titled positions that were actually senior tech positions. So in say SS7 translations they had an SS7 Translations Manager who worked for the Manager of SS7 translations. Both were in the same pay band and depending on seniority and other factors either could be paid more than the other but the SS7 Transalations Manager was not in management and didn’t have supervisory responsibilities but instead functioned as the highest technical escalation point, SME and mentor for the group. By the time I learned that there was a difference between manager and manager of it was too late.