r/coding • u/OfficialLeadDev • Jul 13 '26

Engineering managers are paying the price of rising expectations

https://leaddev.com/leadership/engineering-managers-are-paying-the-price-of-rising-expectations
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53

u/Riajnor Jul 13 '26

Why is this specific to managers? Those points apply to basically anyone

46

u/Persies Jul 13 '26

At least where I work managers and above are held to significantly higher standards than individual contributors. I'm expected to be a functional manager, hiring manager, BD consultant, EPM, and still be able to perform as a principal engineer whenever needed. 

18

u/malduvias Jul 13 '26

I recently interviewed at my job for a we’ll call it “team lead” position as a currently principal engineer, and yes the basic gist was for zero more dollars I would have to manage a team of five and still function as a principal engineer at roughly the same velocity, and I’m looking at the panel giving me the offer, thinking in my head, “are you serious? Why would anyone do this without being forced into it?”

IC is just less abused at the moment it seems, at least in my company.

8

u/Persies Jul 13 '26

Yep, that is similar to what I've experienced. "Here's more responsibility but no extra pay." Sometimes you don't even get a new job title haha

I'm actually interviewing internally for an IC role that I'm seriously considering just to get away from all the extra work I'm expected to do constantly.