Managing Humans: Biting and Humorous Tales of a Software Engineering Manager, Second Edition

Information Starvation

There’s someone standing outside your office, and he’s not saying a thing.

It’s a freakout, but for now he’s just standing there. Or maybe he’s not. Maybe he’s employing the Hover—where he walks by every few minutes. It could be the Long Stare, where he stands outside and just glares. My favorite is the Avalanche, when you look up from your screen and have mere seconds to brace yourself before the tumbling heap of frustration piles into your office.

What you call these freakouts is unimportant. What’s essential is that you figure out how you, the manager, could have prevented them. It probably has to do with a lack of information. ...