Anyone in a people leadership role has to have a political mindset. You simply cannot be technically oriented and politically oriented at the same time. This is not a negative, the human brain, generally speaking, can't focus on two unrelated priorities at the same time.
I have had a highly negative experience over this. When resolving technical conflicts, you expect technical merit and reasoning to be used. But managers who also meddle in technical affairs use political leverage and tactics to see their desired technical outcome. This is a very unpleasant and toxic affair overall.
Imagine trying to solve a bug, but your manager wants a specific work around implemented which will result in bigger problems down the road. If you disagree with your manager, your performance review will suffer, you will be called disagreeable, hard to work with,etc.. You are only considering the best course of action from a technical perspective. Your technical peers can also review your code and reasoning and you can debate in a civilized manner over the technical merits of the issue. But as soon as a manger is involved, things will get toxic fast. It is nearly impossible to avoid micromanagement as well.
Especially if the manager really knows what they're talking about. Then they'll really be looking over everyone's shoulders and causing drama.
It is such a disorienting thing, having to fight political drama over simple and straightforward matters. This is how I learned what gaslighting is! I would be reaching out to people I consider a lot smarter than myself, asking their opinion on the subject (and they'd mostly agree with me), because I legitimately got disoriented and doubted everything I knew.
I really hope none of you experience this. At least when someone is being mean/toxic for other reasons you can explain it away, but when they use their technical expertise, that's a whole new level.
The whole concept of your management trusting you with the details and expecting you to show result goes out the window this way.
> If you disagree with your manager, your performance review will suffer, you will be called disagreeable, hard to work with,etc
I think your experiences sound like a case of a very bad coworker, whether manager or not.
I don't want a manager who knows nothing about the applications and the architecture. I have no desire to punch a clock and be coddled with public mentions and work parties. I want to work with people (including my manager) who want to solve problems together, and solve them the right way.
There may be problems that arise because my manager is busy trying to do technical work but I'll take that any day over a manager who can barely speak the same domain-specific language, constantly gets facts wrong, gets upset as a result of their misunderstandings, applies arbitrary deadlines and expectations, and calls for endless status requests in the midst of all this. No thanks.
Oh and forget any kind of technical direction! Because your manager is forced to accept what people tell them, it becomes a free-for-all where the programmer with the biggest ego wins.
And yes, I too am essentially just describing a hypothetical bad coworker. There are probably some great managers out there who are ignorant of the technology. (Ugh.) But I will put my money on 'technically proficient' or 'involved in the code' every single time.
Anyone in a people leadership role has to have a political mindset. You simply cannot be technically oriented and politically oriented at the same time. This is not a negative, the human brain, generally speaking, can't focus on two unrelated priorities at the same time.
I have had a highly negative experience over this. When resolving technical conflicts, you expect technical merit and reasoning to be used. But managers who also meddle in technical affairs use political leverage and tactics to see their desired technical outcome. This is a very unpleasant and toxic affair overall.
Imagine trying to solve a bug, but your manager wants a specific work around implemented which will result in bigger problems down the road. If you disagree with your manager, your performance review will suffer, you will be called disagreeable, hard to work with,etc.. You are only considering the best course of action from a technical perspective. Your technical peers can also review your code and reasoning and you can debate in a civilized manner over the technical merits of the issue. But as soon as a manger is involved, things will get toxic fast. It is nearly impossible to avoid micromanagement as well.
Especially if the manager really knows what they're talking about. Then they'll really be looking over everyone's shoulders and causing drama.
It is such a disorienting thing, having to fight political drama over simple and straightforward matters. This is how I learned what gaslighting is! I would be reaching out to people I consider a lot smarter than myself, asking their opinion on the subject (and they'd mostly agree with me), because I legitimately got disoriented and doubted everything I knew.
I really hope none of you experience this. At least when someone is being mean/toxic for other reasons you can explain it away, but when they use their technical expertise, that's a whole new level.
The whole concept of your management trusting you with the details and expecting you to show result goes out the window this way.