We’ve got a saying at work, “Manglement’s gotta mangle.”
It’s how we refer to management’s (who we refer to as manglement) decisions when they can’t leave a functioning system alone without getting in there and breaking it.
There’s an old story about a website designer finishing a site. But they knew the approval for the site would need to come from one specific manager. This particular manager was notorious for changing things just to be able to say they contributed. Nothing could ever pass over this manager’s desk without at least one revision, because the manager wanted to be able to say that they had a hand in the project. They weren’t ever content with just sitting back and going “yeah, looks good. Ship it as-is.”
So the designer got the site looking exactly how they wanted it. It was perfect… And then right before they sent it off to be approved, they added a banner of spinning rubber duck gifs at the very top of the page:
The manager sent back “yeah, just get rid of the damned ducks before the site goes live.” By giving the manager a big bright “this needs to be fixed” thing to change, the designer was able to get the site they actually wanted. So if you’re ever dealing with a manager like this, be sure to give them a figurative rubber duck to “fix”.
I agree. Microsoft employees are not guilty of any microsoft issues. Anyone who used windows11 for any amount of time has very clear understanding that the devs have no idea what is going on.
Why do people blame devs for enterprise software functionality? Those requirements are all driven by marketing / product management.
We’ve got a saying at work, “Manglement’s gotta mangle.”
It’s how we refer to management’s (who we refer to as manglement) decisions when they can’t leave a functioning system alone without getting in there and breaking it.
I call them Rubber Duck Managers.
There’s an old story about a website designer finishing a site. But they knew the approval for the site would need to come from one specific manager. This particular manager was notorious for changing things just to be able to say they contributed. Nothing could ever pass over this manager’s desk without at least one revision, because the manager wanted to be able to say that they had a hand in the project. They weren’t ever content with just sitting back and going “yeah, looks good. Ship it as-is.”
So the designer got the site looking exactly how they wanted it. It was perfect… And then right before they sent it off to be approved, they added a banner of spinning rubber duck gifs at the very top of the page:
The manager sent back “yeah, just get rid of the damned ducks before the site goes live.” By giving the manager a big bright “this needs to be fixed” thing to change, the designer was able to get the site they actually wanted. So if you’re ever dealing with a manager like this, be sure to give them a figurative rubber duck to “fix”.
Ha. Reminds me of those spinny things you put above an infants crib.
I agree. Microsoft employees are not guilty of any microsoft issues. Anyone who used windows11 for any amount of time has very clear understanding that the devs have no idea what is going on.
I’m not sure whether TV Tropes warnings are expected here but, in case they are, you know, fair warning.
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ExecutiveMeddling