I’m an engineering manager, started from the bottom now I’m here. Really, went junior dev / qa - dev - senior - staff then software architect then technical manager. Management is as hard as coding, but in a different way. Just because someone is not smashing their mechanical keyboards 8 hours per day doesn’t mean they’re lazy.

Thanks for your perspective. My career has followed a similar trajectory to yours, albeit in a completely different industry.

I’m getting tired of the short sighted version of antiwork which says only the worker drones have merit.

Let’s put it this way then. All of management could take a month off, and very little would be affected. If all the workers go on strike for a month, not a single thing would get done.

Again, I disagree. Plenty would not happen if all of management disappeared, just like plenty would not happen if all of workers disappeared.

Look, I get it. We all hate managers and the C suite. But pretending like these roles are aren’t vital is detrimental.

The guys on the bottom do all of the work, even if there are a few people slacking off.

No, the guys on the bottom do much of the work. The guys on the top also do quite a bit of mission critical work, but in an entirely different venue.

Some on the bottom will slack off, just like some on the top will slack off.

To the guys at the top, it’s always the bottom folks who are lazy. To the guys on the bottom, it’s always the top folks who are lazy.