[chi18]

> Far too often I've seen the manager put the company way ahead of the team

Hear! Hear! This completely, followed by managers being too lazy or being too ignorant and just never "getting it".

After many years, I've come to the conclusion that:

1. I sucked as an engineering manager.

2. Most people suck as engineering managers.

3. The only thing that works is a flatter structure with really exceptional managers as actual engineering managers that do what's right and stand up for the team, with a set of people under them that don't actually have management authority, but they can organize things, stay on top of efforts, and communicate status to those that can. This works because really exceptional managers are extremely hard to find and are paid well, so if you try to do anything but this, you will hire bad managers.