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The cost of interrupted work (2023)

(blog.oberien.de)
282 points _vaporwave_ | 1 comments | 23 Aug 25 21:45 UTC | HN request time: 0s | source
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Simon_O_Rourke ◴[24 Aug 25 04:51 UTC] No.45001503[source]▶
As a manager a lot of the annoying interruptions I put down to, and I chafe at using the word, a lack of hustle.

Okay, so I view my job as primarily giving devs some strategic direction and priority, but also unblocking them from getting work done.

On the later, the kind of interruptions I get are from folks who just don't want to do and figure some things out for themselves. Need access to a database... Go ask infra support. Don't know who wrote this API client, go look in git. There's folks who just don't bother to go search for these things themselves.

replies(3): >>45006038 #>>45006483 #>>45006906 #
1. awalsh128 ◴[24 Aug 25 18:29 UTC] No.45006483[source]▶
I find these moments to be teaching a person to learn to fish. Not only tell them how to get the answer, but then ask questions to see if they put in the work needed before coming to you. If it persists, maybe address it directly in a one on one meeting. If it's systemic across different people, maybe there is a documentation or organizational problem. Sometimes it's training the person to help themselves, other times it's seeing things that are broken that prevent them from helping themselves. I see this especially in highly complex systems where there are large and multiple teams, and the person needs to be able to work across these areas.