[brabel]

You're so deep in the BS yourself you can't even see it anymore? Office politics BS is commonplace and it's part of human nature in a place where humans interact socially, but that becomes a lot harder when you're working remotely (no references to give you about this statement, but I believe a lot of people have been saying this in the past few months). Can you really not believe that people can do work without a manager telling them to? I think that if that's all you know, yeah, can be difficult to adjust... but I am fairly certain most people would adjust just fine to a situation where they are their own manager: they have a job to do, a target to achieve, and they have to figure out how to get there. Some level of administration is always needed, but that doesn't require a manager as we normally have them. Just another worker whose focus is on metrics/people.

[anonfornoreason]

I manage a team of 20. A few people are good at and enjoy being independent and don’t need much management, but most people fall apart and actually end up with a lower job satisfaction. I’m not saying they all desire micromanagement (though I have one high needs but high output developer that enjoys work more with weekly meetings and daily checking, as a stress reliever), but they all appreciate good management as it reduces unnecessary work, wasted effort, and results in a higher quality product.

I started a company and was always a “leave me alone to do it my way” individual contributed, and it took a huge amount of effort on my part to remove that bias of how I like to work, so I could effectively manage people who don’t work best that way.

Culture by the way, is just a common ground tying people together to make everything a little less transactional. I have some transactional people and I tend to be that way myself, but most of our team enjoys shared memories, values, etc. they are the ice breaker between most people that otherwise wouldn’t have the desire or reason to hang out, but are forced to by work. Most people actually recognize this as a tool and happily play the game.

[mbrodersen]

You nailed it. A good manager will adapt his/her approach to the individuals he/she manages. A bad manager will try and force all individuals to become identical clones.

[kleinsch]

I think you’re fighting straw men here, but a worker whose focus is on metrics/people sounds like a good definition of a manager.