HACKER Q&A
📣 anon4455662211

How much time does the manager of my manager work?


Or how much time do Principal Engineers work? I’m asking because unless they do all their work in secret (secret meetings no one is aware of, secret slack channels, secret projects, etc.), it seems to me they work very little (I’m not talking about outcome, but about actual hours worked). I’m not complaining (to each their own), I’m just really curious. I’m not gonna lie, I’m an employee and my contract says 40h/week… but I rather work around 30h/week or so, and it’s quite enough to get things done. So perhaps other people work even less than I do and get things done?


  👤 nullindividual Accepted Answer ✓
Some jobs are just about being available when required. In theory, a Principal Engineer shouldn't be pushing buttons on the console all day, unlike the <= Sr Engineer.

It can get super boring.


👤 kjs3
> secret meetings no one is aware of, secret slack channels, secret projects, etc.

Secrets you aren't aware of, not secrets no one is aware of.

My job title isn't PE, but it's structurally the same thing. I spend a couple of hours a week dealing with HR and other bureaucratic issues, either bubbling up or coming down. I spend most of my hours a week in meetings that none of my employees would want to have to sit through. I deal with dozens of emails and IMs a day that I wouldn't want to distract my folks with. More time is spent dealing with vendor issues. And we're a regulated industry, so I get to make sure I'm supporting keeping our GRC folks happy. And of course budgets. I spent about half today convincing a line of business exec not to initiate a project that 1) would require far more resources than he thought it would, 2) carried more risk than I was comfortable with, and 3) would make life miserable for the people who report to me. Something like this happens to some extent at least once a week, usually more than once. I have had bad weeks where I have spent 90+ hours dealing with some disaster. And then I try to find time to do the training and other skills update work so I don't sound like an idiot when I talk about our teams work.

Basically, my job is to shield them from all the bullshit they shouldn't have to and don't want to deal with. I don't typically bore my folks with the details of how I spend each hour, even (especially?) my direct reports much less their directs. I trust they're working, they should trust I am.

> but I rather work around 30h/week or so

Oh...you're just projecting your work ethic on other people. Classy.


👤 wmf
People at higher levels usually work more. It's mostly meetings and hundreds of emails/slacks per day.