Intro to The Record Player Song by Daisy the Great by me, Trevor the OK. :) Here are the words so you can sing along:
I’ve got a record player that was made in 2014. Dyed my hair blue, it came out a seasick sort of green. I like vintage dresses when they fall just below my knees. I pretend I scraped them climbing in the trees.
Hey friends! Want to come work for me as a manager of an AWESOME team here at Hulu? Check out the req above!
I am looking for a passionate software engineering manager that cares deeply about human-centered engineering practices!
Come work for me!
Recently I was asked what drains my energy at work. This is what I wrote:
Toxic work environments, especially work environments that center around information hiding, fiefdom building, and silos. More often than not, I have found these types of environments do not get created out of intentional malice, but from a lack of communication and a fear of openness that is often trickled down from top leadership and mistranslated through middle management layers.
I have seen that these types of toxic environments tend to culminate in what I call “them-ification,” or “othering.” When we create information silos, it is human nature to separate those in the silo with us as “us” and those outside the silo as “them.” Without constant and overt attention to breaking down these silos, they will happen naturally.
It is our jobs as leaders, and especially as middle managers, to over-index on open and transparent communication and inclusiveness. This can be challenging in any environment. I believe those roadblocks can and must be overcome for us to work as a team and forge a path forward that benefits both us as employees and most importantly, our customers.
Recently I was asked what gives me energy in a job setting. Here is my answer:
I get energy from being involved in things. I like to be looped in, and able to take active roles in making our products better for our viewers, and our lives better for our employees. At the end of the day, I want to answer two questions:
How these two questions are answer to me is the source of my energy, and what drives me at work:
Positive effect on the customer, Positive effect on the workplace environment: This is the area where I find the most satisfaction at work. I am making life better for everyone, it feels good.
E.g.: Implementing a program that lifts up and highlights under-served populations in our apps.
Positive effect on the customer, No or negative effect on the workplace environment: This is an area where I know we have to push for the greater good. These times can be hard, but knowing it will benefit the customer is a driver here.
E.g.: Crunch time near the end of an important project.
No or negative effect on the customer, Positive effect on the workplace environment: This is an area where I can push through when needed. There are some projects that need to be done, regardless of customer impact, but are nonetheless important.
E.g.: Coming together as a team to implement a needed price increase to stay competitive in the market.
No or negative effect on the customer, No or negative effect on the workplace environment: This is the area where I experience the most cognitive dissonance. If I am working on a project that I know is wrong, and am making the workplace worse in the process, I have a hard time.
E.g.: Shutting down an office, or turning off useful, but profit-neutral features.
There have been a lot of emotionally traumatic events in the news lately, and at work, we need to acknowledge these events can and will have an effect on our fellow co-workers. Especially as managers, acknowledging these realities can help build trust and psychological safety in our teams.
One of my fellow managers mentioned it is hard for them to know what type of support is available, or what they could offer their folx. They suggested a Support Menu to help others! I love that idea! This is what I replied:
Often times, people just need space to process highly emotional events that are happening in their lives or in the news. This can come in many forms:
Just knowing your manager is there and recognizing that you might be going through something goes a long way to building trust and psychological safety within our teams. And that trust is an important foundation for creative and critical thinking (our bread and butter!).
Come work with me!!! I’m hiring at hulu.
We have an opening for a Senior Software Engineer on our Subscription and Payment Orchestration Platform (this is my world, so it is super cool! :P)
Know anyone who might be interested?
Check it out at https://jobs.disneycareers.com/job/santa-monica/senior-software-engineer/391/19025062!
I am the co-chair of my daughter’s school auction. This year it is going to be live on You Tube this Saturday at 6:00 pm PT. We have a lot of cool auction items to bid on at https://topsk82021.ggo.bid. Go check it out and support our school! See you Saturday night!
(Source: youtube.com)
Aaron David Goldman leading a discussion about Kademlia: A Peer-to-Peer Information System Based on the XOR Metric!
https://www.meetup.com/Papers-We-Love-Seattle/events/rbfqfryccfbgb/
PWL Mini: Krishnamoorthy Venkatraman leads a discussion about Here We Go Again: Why Is It Difficult for Developers to Learn Another Programming Language? (https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/uploads/prod/2020/05/herewegoagain_icse2020.pdf)
This is a great article for us leader types to read. In particular I love this list of things we need to ABSOLUTELY STOP DOING AS MANAGERS:
- Turning the screws on delivery dates (aggressive scheduling)
- Loading on extra work
- Encouraging overtime
- Getting angry when disappointed
- Noting one subordinate's extraordinary effort and praising it in the presence of others
- Being severe about anything other than superb performance
- Expecting great things of all your workers
- Railing against any apparent waste of time
- Setting an example yourself (with the boss laboring so mightily there is certainly no time for anyone else to goof off)
- Creating incentives to encourage desired behavior or results.
I know I am guilty of more than a few of these myself, the article is a good reminder that we can do better for our teams. Give it a read and let me know what you think!
Some of my fellow managers disagreed with a couple of these points, and I responded as follows:
In response to “Noting one subordinate's extraordinary effort and praising it in the presence of others”, there is nuance here. I’ve been on teams that only praise heroics: staying late, working weekends, etc. But never praise the day-to-day work of the team. By exclusively praising heroics, you get a team of heroes, which increases burnout and encourages demoralizing behavior. There has to be a balance. Yes, acknowledge heroics, but then ask, “how can we as a team ensure those heroics never have to happen again?”
As for ”Creating incentives to encourage desired behavior or results,” we do not want to encourage teams through extrinsic motivation (e.g.: giving extra screen time for eating vegetables is extrinsic. The reward is disconnected from the action.) What we want to encourage (and this is much harder) is intrinsic motivation (e.g.: you eat the vegetables, because you know they will ultimately make you feel better throughout the day. The reward is connected to the action.).
There was a natural experiment that was studied in the Netherlands showing the dangers of extrinsic motivation. There was a kindergarten and they were having trouble with parents picking up their children late, so the kindergarten staff decided to impose a late fee for picking up your kids. What happened, to the staff’s surprise, was that parents started picking up their kids later! Now that the reward (or punishment in this case) was not tied to the action, the parents found it easier to justify paying money, to pick up their kids late (extrinsic motivation). Whereas before, the parents were motivated by not troubling the staff and being a good member of the community (intrinsic motivation).
The most interesting thing about the study is that once the kindergarten staff realized their mistake, they took away the late fee. But the behavior of the parents did not change, they still picked up their kids later than before.
The dangerous thing about extrinsic motivation is that it fundamentally changes the pattern of responsibility, and it has diminishing returns. You have to increase and increase the reward for it to have it have any effect. The main example here is addictive drugs. You always need more than before to get the same high.
That being said, we are managing highly paid individuals, and as managers, we want to encourage intrinsic motivation (e.g.: pride in your work, excitement about how your work makes viewers lives more enjoyable, etc.) over extrinsic motivation (e.g.: gift cards and prizes, etc.). It is much harder to foster intrinsic motivation in our staff, but in the end it outweighs the downsides of diminishing returns and burnout associated with extrinsic motivation.