Messages in this thread | | | From | "Jeff Merkey" <> | Subject | Re: NwFs 1.4.5 Source Code Available (FENRIS) | Date | Fri, 9 Jul 1999 08:28:28 -0600 |
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Chris,
I have to tell you, when you are running a company, if you try to preempt what folks under you are doing, then you run the risk of alienating them, and pissing them off. Most competent and talented technical folks take it as a direct affront if you try to "micro manage" what they are doing, or if you try to order them to do something that is contrary to what they recommend. This is management 101 of technical folks. managing engineers is not like managing people who work on an assembly line -- you have to cater to their needs and advice, or you run the risk of loosing them or damaging their morale and self-esteem.
I have managed engineers now for about 10 years, and I always empower them and get out of their way. Just becuase I'm the CEO doesn't mean that I'm the king and I can bop people with my royal scepter. In the real world it doesn't work this way, and I find that I am the one who works for my people and not the other way around. Not all managers are like this, and I agree there are some real tyrants out there, but these folks have a hard time keeping talented engineers around. If I were an engineer, I would not tolerate this. This was part of the reason I left Novell. Eric Schmidt struck me as quite a tyrant when I first met him because of his attitude and "I'm the CEO and you're a piece of dogsh_t" attitude towards engineers. I understand that his demeanor has changed and he's grown up a lot since taking over Novell, but because of his attitudes I and my entire team of 12 engineers left Novell to do our own thing. I think if Eric had it to do over again, he would have taken the high road instead of the low road. People are people, and we do learn from our mistakes.
Hope this helps you understand.
Jeff
----- Original Message ----- From: Chris Clark <cpclark@xmission.com> To: Jeff Merkey <jmerkey@timpanogas.com> Sent: Thursday, July 08, 1999 9:41 PM Subject: Re: NwFs 1.4.5 Source Code Available (FENRIS)
> > On Thu, 8 Jul 1999, Jeff Merkey wrote: > > I'll get you a copy of NWDISK which creates netware partitions. I have not > > uploaded it yet becuase our QA guy, Larry Angus won't let me send it out > > until he's finished testing it. He is very thorough. I will check with him > > tommorrow and see where he is at, and perhaps I can convince him to let me > > send it out early before he finishes all of his testing. > > Hi Jeff, > > Maybe it's not what you intended, but you make it sound like you have no > control over the situation: > > "Larry Angus won't let me send it out..." ? > > "Perhaps I can convince him..." ? > > I thought the CEO was supposed to tell the others what to do, not the > other way around! ;^) > > Chris > >
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