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This is definitely true. I recently made the transition from full time Engineer to Engineering Manager, and there's a lot more stress involved. It stems from a few different things: * In most cases, the Manager acts as the communication layer between different departments. They abstract all that stuff away so developers can write code without being interrupted by various people. They then have to communicate that information back down to their team when needed (and in the right way) * As a developer, you have a deadline, but missing it is often just a "Well, we didn't have the time" or "We tried, but just couldn't quite get there". As a Manager, it's your responsibility to explain why something was late, how it can be remedied in the future, and answering the inevitable "Well when will it be done then?". You're responsible for the overall project, including deadlines. * Meetings. Not only are there a lot more meetings, they're often made for the schedule of other departments who don't have "the zone" in the same way that developers do. I still write code in my day-to-day, but a 60% reduction in programming time ends up being an 80% reduction in output because you get interrupted, side tracked, and generally don't have time to "ramp up" for >2 hours at a time. There are many more reasons, but the stress level in the Management role, in my opinion, is a bit higher. |