[bstar77]

This article is pretty on point with my experience. I'm a "senior technical" manager (of about 60 engineers) and with that comes a ton of responsibility that pulls me away from coding at every turn. I have to be in every call, I have to know everything that's going on and I have to be able to be able to communicate all of this in ways that advocate for the team but also navigate the politics of the organization.

All that said, I often get criticism that I should not be picking up coding tasks every sprint. There seems to be some unwritten rule that remaining a coder is a net negative when you start tickling the upper management ranks. On the one hand I'm told that I need to train the other managers to be more like me and then on the other hand I'm told that I code too much, I'm going to burn out and need to find ways have others do the work.

I personally think being able to do all kinds of coding tasks (prototyping, bug fixes, major time sensitive features, etc) does a lot for me as a manager... the team respects me, I stay close to the code so I can speak about it as well as anyone can and I can contribute to just about anything if the need arises. If I ever get promoted to Director level then I probably will have to step away from coding as an official duty, but I'll happily keep enjoying that part of my job for now.

[pnut]

What is the source of work for these 60 people? Who is keeping them fed?

That is beyond a full time job, and if your cup isn't full today, staying aligned with the product requirements and architectural implications, you need to let go and focus on that.

[bstar77]

I'm the senior manager, I have about 5 managers under me so I don't have 60 reportees.

[matrix87]

> There seems to be some unwritten rule that remaining a coder is a net negative when you start tickling the upper management ranks.

sometimes I wonder if this is a thing because managers just don't want to code, and having other managers doing it makes them look bad

[WesleyJohnson]

60!? I struggle with ~10. Teach me, Yoda.

On a more serious note, 100% agree. I'm asked to delegate more, but I don't want my skills to atrophy and, I'm happy when I'm coding. If I had to JUST manage, I wouldn't survive, figuratively speaking.

[bstar77]

I have 5 manager under me, so the 60 are not direct reportees. I do interact directly with most of the devs, but the other managers do a good deal of the lifting too.

[flashgordon]

Wait 60? Surely not direct reports? I'm guessing you have about 4-5 managers? Impressive that you have the luxury of picking up some coding tasks with 4-5 managers!

[bstar77]

Yeah, I should have made that more clear. You are 100% correct, I manage 5 other managers and they have about 10 devs each under them. I do work directly with virtually all of the devs and handle the majority of PRs so we are all one big team.