Why Not Stay a Do-er?
I have been working on a problem for the last few days at the Shop - a pricing data issue, and in the past I've worked closely with a good guy in another group to solve these issues. He's a great guy, in fact, always there to help me and we support each other's causes - when he needs to get something going for me, I tell him exactly what I need, and he scrapes it together... when I have a problem with his stuff, I don't scream and rant, I give him a good bug description and don't hassle him constantly for a fix - I know he's on the case, and he'll get it to me as soon as he can.
So yesterday I wanted to ask him if he got the trace data necessary for the problem we're looking at. He said he'd given it to the support team and that he'd check with them and if they haven't gotten it fixed, he'd step in.
He's become the manager.
Why?
I know it's The Corporate Ladder, and you're expected to climb it. It's not called the corporate couch or something, but still - why?
He was (is) a good guy, very talented at what he does, and still he wants to move to a position where he's not sure he's good at it, and not sure he's interested in getting away from the coding, but he still makes the move. And he's not alone... I know most people would be doing exactly the same thing in his position. But I still don't understand why?
I've managed - in fact, this is the first position where I'm not managing since getting out of college. I've owned my own company, I've done the corporate ladder... it's just a ladder that never ends. Never. You'll climb and climb, and then get on another company's ladder and climb there, and for what? Money, Power, Glory? OK, it's nice to have money, but after a point, isn't job satisfaction important as well? When you're coming home to your family, don't you want to say "Hey, I did this today!"?
I know it's not popular, but I like building, and doing, and would rather not talk about it to death. I'll be glad to talk about other people's achievements - great tools and projects I've seen and been a part of... but to do nothing more than be the classic Dilbert Pointy-Haired Boss.... No thanks. I want my life, and here I'm talking about my work life, to be more than that.