Notes from middle management
There are two things that I didn't realise about being in middle management, the fear and the isolation.
The fear comes from the fact that when I'm doing my job really well (everything is running smoothly, nobody's having any problems) it doesn't just look like I'm not doing anything - it can be the case that leaving capable people to just get the job done is the best thing I can do. That, and if you've managed to train your people to the point where they're doing their jobs properly, then when things go wrong, the blame can be laid pretty squarely on the pointy-haired idiot who didn't give the right person the right information at the right time. Not to mention the fact that it actually gets harder to stand up to senior management once you've been promoted, because you're supposed to be 'part of the team' now.
And the isolation comes from having principles - I do my best not to talk about stories that aren't mine to tell, and now that my job is significantly about other people, it's hard to talk about any of my stuff without talking about other people's stuff. My achievements center around getting people to trust me, and smoothing over communication problems. Sometimes this requires me to talk about someone to someone else, but if it doesn't, then I need to respect people's confidences.
Plus, I care about my work quite deeply - which means that I'm committed to an emotional rollercoaster. I learn faster, but I hurt more. Which kinda sucks, but there you have it.
The fear comes from the fact that when I'm doing my job really well (everything is running smoothly, nobody's having any problems) it doesn't just look like I'm not doing anything - it can be the case that leaving capable people to just get the job done is the best thing I can do. That, and if you've managed to train your people to the point where they're doing their jobs properly, then when things go wrong, the blame can be laid pretty squarely on the pointy-haired idiot who didn't give the right person the right information at the right time. Not to mention the fact that it actually gets harder to stand up to senior management once you've been promoted, because you're supposed to be 'part of the team' now.
And the isolation comes from having principles - I do my best not to talk about stories that aren't mine to tell, and now that my job is significantly about other people, it's hard to talk about any of my stuff without talking about other people's stuff. My achievements center around getting people to trust me, and smoothing over communication problems. Sometimes this requires me to talk about someone to someone else, but if it doesn't, then I need to respect people's confidences.
Plus, I care about my work quite deeply - which means that I'm committed to an emotional rollercoaster. I learn faster, but I hurt more. Which kinda sucks, but there you have it.