I’ve been a team lead for almost 10 years. And I’m sick and tired of hearing about shitty, weak managers who don’t take care of their teams.
If you manage people, EVERY DAY you should be finding ways to:
– advocate for fair, thriving wages
– proactively do salary reviews
– find ways to promote
– create psychological safety
– demand work/life balance for your team by rejecting unreasonable, arbitrary timelines
– create opportunities for growth
– help your team find new jobs if your company blows
– show empathy at every turn
– speak truth to power about retention and salary
In the employee/manager power dynamic, YOU have it all. Use it. Show them what a good manager looks like. Help them understand what they should not settle for. Protect them from people who don’t give a shit about them.
It doesn’t matter if you’re a middle manager, new manager, long-time C level Exec, etc. If you won’t do these things you should not be managing people. Period. There isn’t shame in that- it’s not easy to do these things. But you should not put your own financial goals and dreams of a title ahead of the people on your team. Either learn how to do these things, or find another path.
If you are a manager and part of this antiwork movement, know you are there for your employees. And anything less than this is hypocrisy and managerial malfeasance.