Expectations vs Reality at Work

How work happen is often different from how we think it happens.

I’m not making any value judgements here, only pointing out what I’ve observed:

Expectation: New hires should “hit the ground running”. Reality: It takes 6 months for an engineer to become fully productive.

Expectation: Work is done at a fixed place (the office). Reality: People sometimes do personal things when at the office and vice-versa.

Expectation: Work is done at a fixed time (business hours). Reality: Work is done at all times.

Expectation: Work is done using company resources, and personal things are done using personal resources. Reality: People do personal things using company resources, whether apply for another job, play a game or watch porn. And they sometimes use personal resources for work.

Expectation: There’s a right way to do things, and as you become senior, you’ll learn it. Reality: There are different ways to do things, and as you become senior, you’ll figure out one way that works for you.

Expectation: A startup is about getting to the destination as best as possible (quickly, with less risk, etc) Reality: There are different destinations we could be getting to.

Expectation: You should know how to do something before you start. Reality: you figure out as you do it.

Expectation: There’s a goal we’ll work towards. Reality: There may be an unclear goal, or conflicting goals.

Expectation: I have an advanced degree in CS from the best college in the country, so I’ll be really good in my first job on day 1. Reality: You’re a toddler on day 1. Formal education covers only a small part of what’s needed.

Project Management

Expectation: We launch high-quality products. Reality: We launch as buggy products as we can get away with.

Expectation: We know how long a project or milestone takes at the time of planning it. Reality: We don’t know till it’s done.

Expectation: If a project slips in its estimate, it’ll slip by 10–20%. Reality: Can be 3x.

Expectation: Once a project starts, it will succeed, even if takes more time than needed. Reality: Projects often fail, and closing your eyes to that possibility doesn’t make them succeed.

Expectation: We need this done in two weeks, so it will be done in two weeks. Reality: Just because you need it done in two weeks doesn’t make it automatically done in two weeks.

Expectation: We will launch these three features in two weeks with a good UX and no bugs. Reality: Scope, time, quality — choose two.

Expectation: We follow scrum or <insert your preferred process here>. Reality: There’s kanban, waterfall and many more.

Expectation: We pick a process like kanban and follow it. Reality: We come up with our own process, only using these as references at best.

Cross-Functional Collaboration

Expectation: Engineering and UX are orthogonal — the designers decide the design, and eng implements it. Reality: Tradding off a slightly worse UX can result in faster deliveries. For example, was it really worth spending three person-days implementing one custom animation?

Expectation: Engineering just implements what PMs and designers decide. Reality: We decide what we’re building only as we build it.

Expectation: If I as an engineer am given a spec, it has been thought through, so I should just implement it. Reality: It may not have been thought through, so you should ask for clarifications or point out problems.

Expectation: I as an engineer should implement exactly what I’m told to implement. Reality: You can and should make counter-offers like, “I can implement what you asked for, which will take two weeks. Or I can do this other thing, which will take a week. Which approach would you like me to take?”

Expectation: I’m an engineer (or designer or <insert function here>), so engineering is obviously the most important function, and the rest are useless. Okay, maybe not useless, but only support functions to me. Reality: A product will fail it if doesn’t work (eng), users can’t figure out how to use it (UX), they don’t hear about it in the first place (marketing), or the company can’t pay salaries (business).

Expectation: He’s an engineer, so he obviously knows nothing about UX. Reality: People have varying amount of skill in areas that are not their job title.

Expectation: People from different functions can sit down together and understand each other’s points of view. Reality: They often speak different languages, live in different worlds, and what’s critical to you someone else may not consider it his job to even care about, so you may not be able to even have a conversation with him.

Expectation: People from different functions respect each other. Reality: They often only tolerate each other.

Expectation: People express opinions on the area of their speciality like design for a designer. Reality: People express opinions on all areas, with varying degrees of usefulness.

Management

Expectation: My performance will be evaluated fairly. Reality: Your manager is human as well.

Expectation: All the work I do will be taken into account by my manager in evaluating my performance. Reality: You should tell him all the areas you worked in. Did you do UX design though you’re an engineer? Did you help your peer come up to speed?

Expectation: Managing me is my manager’s responsibility. Reality: It’s a two-way street.

Expectation: People will tell me what they expect from me, and as long as I deliver that, I’ll be doing good. Reality: People sometimes don’t tell you what they expect, and then blame you for it.

Expectation: Every decision or aspect of a product has one person under whose authority it falls. Reality: Multiple people can be responsible for something, or no one.

Expectation: There’s primarily one person whose opinions of you affect your career — your manager. Reality: Your peers’ opinions have a huge influence, sometimes more than what your manager by himself thinks of you.

Expectation: When a decision is announced, all relevant aspects have been thought though, so decisions don’t usually need to be overturned. Reality: We’re slopping at decision-making and sometimes have no clue what we’re doing.

Expectation: Decisions are clearly announced, so everyone knows they’ve been made. Reality: Sometimes they’re not announced, or announced equivocally, or disclosed to some but not others, or different people believe that the decision has been taken in conflicting ways.

Expectation: A manager can assign any engineer to any project and he’ll start churning out code. Reality: People have different skills, and there’s a learning curve involved.

Expectation: Employees come with the same attitude. Reality: Significantly different attitudes — some are loyal, some are mercenaries. Some are humble, some arrogant. And so on.

Expectation: Employees work towards the goals given by the company. Reality: They often have their own goals, like learning AI.

Expectation: Decisions are controlled only or mostly by the circumstances under which they’re made. Reality: There’s affected significantly by the person making them.

Dealing with People

Expectation: If two people can’t work together, something is wrong with one of them. Reality: Sometimes people are just incompatible.

Expectation: Two people whose job title says Senior iOS Engineer will be very similar in skills. After all, they’re both engineers, senior, and know iOS well. Reality: Huge difference in skills and competence.

Expectation: People come to a meeting to advocate a position. Reality: They often think about it during the meeting. Or afterward.

Expectation: People are clear what they want. Reality: Often not.

Expectation: The office is full of competent professionals who know what they’re doing. Reality: We’re all faking it, pretending we know what we’re doing, hoping no one notices.

Expectation: People wants to progress as per the job ladder defined by the company. Reality: Different people have different ideas of career growth.

Expectation: Everyone wants to progress in his career. Reality: Some don’t — they want to get paid while doing as little as they can to not get fired.

Expectation: Disagreements can be resolved by each side explaining where they’re coming from. Reality: Some people aren’t satisfied even if you discuss with them for hours on end.

Expectation: Disagreements are about the work. Reality: They’re often about feeling a person is not heard, or not respected, or other deep-seated emotional issues.

Expectation: Disagreements are about the topic people are arguing about.If you listen to the conversation, you’ll know what the disagreement is about. Reality: Disagreements are often about the underlying fundamental assumptions and world views that are so core to a person he can’t articulate them, any more than a fish can see water.

Expectation: Emotions in the office are bad. We should all be professional. Reality: We’re humans, not robots, and emotions are often a sign that something is wrong.

Expectation: If a person advocates a course of action, but can’t explain in a clear and convincing way, he doesn’t know what he’s talking about. Reality: He may have a vague idea, which may be killed by criticism. Or he may communicate in a different way from you.

from Hacker News https://ift.tt/32wFtqX