Ask HN: What is the thing you've did as a manager that you regret the most?
My biggest regret by far is managing a (formerly extremely productive) remote team that developed incredibly toxic indirect communication spirals which just got worse and worse and worse.<p>I also deeply regret ever being a middle manager when it is not my area of strength or interest and don’t plan on doing it again. Ever. If I can avoid it.<p>I learned that middle management is the worst place to be in any corporate environment. Especially in this environment of contraction.<p>You can “get it” from below (your direct reports rebel and try to undermine you). You can get it from sideways: Your peers trying to take you out. You can get it from above, your management changing to people who don’t get along with you or feeling threatened and trying to get you.<p>And you can get it from <i>combinations</i> of those things: Your direct reports and your managers teaming up on you. Your peers and your direct reports teaming up on you. Etc.<p>How did I find this out?<p>Because every combination of this happened to me. My management started fighting with each other and then it started trickling down to me directly.<p>I tried to ignore it but my manager wasn’t covering me so I tried to cover myself. That triggered more fighting and less trust and more politics.<p>And my direct reports were angry at me because they didn’t know what was going on and neither did I.<p>It just got worse and worse and worse and worse and worse. Like a fractal of awful.<p>To this day I do not know what I could have done better or how to fix it. I tried to stay out of it, but it was like this awful toxic stench that stuck to everything and everyone.<p>Everyone absolutely hated each other and it was so rotten and no one could get out and no one could leave.<p>There were multiple factions competing with each other and no one trusted each other and everyone was sneaking around trying to cover their tracks.<p>In retrospect I should have quit and joined a startup.<p>My advice?<p>Don’t be a middle manager.