[jedberg]

Being a good manager is all about setting context. Timeboxing is actually helpful for senior engineers too, but for a different reason.

When I ask for something that I have no idea how long it should take, I'll say something like, "don't spend more than half a day trying to get this to work. If we can do it that amount of time then it's worth it to the business, otherwise it's not worth the effort".

If they can't get it done, no problem. I just ask them to document what they tried so that if someone tries it again later they have a starting point.

Setting the context let's them know how much effort to put in regardless of junior or senior, it's just for a junior employee the context is less "value to the business" and more "here are my expectations".