It doesn't come across as creepy at all! I knew even at the time that what I was doing wasn't sustainable, wasn't good for me, and wasn't at all a good idea, but I felt like I had to do it or everything would go to hell (everything did go to hell every time I took time off) -- I'm sure that part of it is related to DW being much smaller, but the fact that I don't have to work crazy mad hours in order to feel like everything won't get away from me the minute I turn my attention away from my keyboard for five minutes is just so wonderful.
(I still feel like a horrible, no-good slacker, though. Heh.)
Meanwhile, I like to give fu as much "hands off" management as possible -- I'm of the opinion that nobody works best with their boss breathing down their necks! I check in with her (or she checks in with me) at least once a day, if our personal 'day' overlaps at all, and I'm always there for answering questions, etc. (We both stay logged into AIM all the time, so we leave answering-machine messages for each other.)
When we're planning a new feature, or trying to figure out how things are going to work, etc, we'll sit down and bounce ideas off each other for a few hours. On the whole, though, I like to give her as much leeway as she wants: if she's implementing something, I'll answer questions and give her ideas/direction whenever she asks, and when she first starts in on a major project, we'll plan things out together, but generally my attitude is, unless she asks for help or has a question, I'm going to trust her to plan her day on her own, make her own decisions about what's going to get done when, design features and functions on her own, etc.
I'll ask her to look at things in particular if I think something needs to get done quickly, or occasionally say things like, hey, the review queue is getting a bit long, can you schedule a review/commit day sometime in the next few days? or hey, the list of open bugs is getting a bit long, why not concentrate on just knocking out bugs for a few days? or hey, it's been a while since we've had any major frontend stuff or new features, why not look through the list for something we can implement quickly? But fu is amazing and wonderful and totally gets our vision for DW and what we want it to be, and has a really good sense of what needs to be done when, so generally I try to stay available for questions and/or problems and then stay the hell out of her way and let her get on with it! Nobody should have the boss pestering them every five minutes!
(A great deal of my boss-like interaction with Fu involves telling her to put the keyboard down and go take time to knit and watch TV! Or to take a blinking day off already!)
That's always been my management style, though -- I am a very, very, very hands off manager. I believe in hiring smart, passionate people (or in empowering smart, passionate volunteers), giving them the tools and authority to get their jobs done, letting them know what they can handle on their own and what I'd like them to run by me, and then getting the fuck out of their way. I'll always be available for questions and concerns, and always be there for brainstorming and the like -- although with the caliber of people who work on DW or volunteer for DW, nine times out of ten (ninety-nine times out of a hundred) mostly all people need is someone to sit there and listen while they talk it out and solve the problems themselves -- but my attitude is, we're all smart people here and we all care about making DW as best as it can be, and spending half an hour a day (or whatever) justifying yourself to me is time you could be using to make awesome things instead.
This doesn't work for everyone -- some people need more direction -- but I try to be upfront with everyone that this is how I roll, and if someone needs more structure, they have to tell me. I can do the structure and the assignments and the check-ins and the deadlines and the reviews and evaluations and yadda, I just don't, generally, unless someone tells me they work better that way. I'm not always perfect about getting that across, but I've been trying to get better!
no subject
(I still feel like a horrible, no-good slacker, though. Heh.)
Meanwhile, I like to give
When we're planning a new feature, or trying to figure out how things are going to work, etc, we'll sit down and bounce ideas off each other for a few hours. On the whole, though, I like to give her as much leeway as she wants: if she's implementing something, I'll answer questions and give her ideas/direction whenever she asks, and when she first starts in on a major project, we'll plan things out together, but generally my attitude is, unless she asks for help or has a question, I'm going to trust her to plan her day on her own, make her own decisions about what's going to get done when, design features and functions on her own, etc.
I'll ask her to look at things in particular if I think something needs to get done quickly, or occasionally say things like, hey, the review queue is getting a bit long, can you schedule a review/commit day sometime in the next few days? or hey, the list of open bugs is getting a bit long, why not concentrate on just knocking out bugs for a few days? or hey, it's been a while since we've had any major frontend stuff or new features, why not look through the list for something we can implement quickly? But
(A great deal of my boss-like interaction with Fu involves telling her to put the keyboard down and go take time to knit and watch TV! Or to take a blinking day off already!)
That's always been my management style, though -- I am a very, very, very hands off manager. I believe in hiring smart, passionate people (or in empowering smart, passionate volunteers), giving them the tools and authority to get their jobs done, letting them know what they can handle on their own and what I'd like them to run by me, and then getting the fuck out of their way. I'll always be available for questions and concerns, and always be there for brainstorming and the like -- although with the caliber of people who work on DW or volunteer for DW, nine times out of ten (ninety-nine times out of a hundred) mostly all people need is someone to sit there and listen while they talk it out and solve the problems themselves -- but my attitude is, we're all smart people here and we all care about making DW as best as it can be, and spending half an hour a day (or whatever) justifying yourself to me is time you could be using to make awesome things instead.
This doesn't work for everyone -- some people need more direction -- but I try to be upfront with everyone that this is how I roll, and if someone needs more structure, they have to tell me. I can do the structure and the assignments and the check-ins and the deadlines and the reviews and evaluations and yadda, I just don't, generally, unless someone tells me they work better that way. I'm not always perfect about getting that across, but I've been trying to get better!