My manager has ~14 reports. We're all on different projects every quarter and my manager knows nearly nothing about any individual project.
I see arguments for essentially the same problems from the article:
- Managers aren't reliant on the feedback or success of individual reports. >80% of people will always give positive feedback.
- Managers don't give feedback or help resolve problems. It's effort on their part with no upside.
- We're all still isolated because there is no consistent team.
- No one has context. Managers can't understand 10+ projects.
There is a sweet spot of amount of reports, where a manager is able to handle the projects and the performance of the individuals -- once you hit the 8 people mark, you should be looking in to splitting the team up - the manager could delegate and mentor a jr manager to take on a part of the team, etc. But 14 is too much.
I work in the cloud consulting department at BigTech. We have the same structure. But we don’t have that problem. It’s up to us to be able to describe a project, create documentation and artifacts, seek customer feedback, etc and prepare a “promo document”. I approach each 1 on 1 like a miniature interview where I describe my projects in STAR format.
I solve problems by working with my project managers. But mostly, I can deal with the customer myself when it comes to tactical issues.
I see arguments for essentially the same problems from the article:
- Managers aren't reliant on the feedback or success of individual reports. >80% of people will always give positive feedback. - Managers don't give feedback or help resolve problems. It's effort on their part with no upside. - We're all still isolated because there is no consistent team. - No one has context. Managers can't understand 10+ projects.