The Invisible Work of a Manager

Primarily Invisible

In a recent 1:1 with my manager, he brought up the notion that much of the work of a manager is invisible. I hadn’t really thought about it much before, but it rang very true the more I considered the idea.

A lot of my time is spent doing project management work. Creating tickets for the backlog, refining the descriptions or acceptance criteria in tickets ahead of grooming sesions, re-prioritizing tasks, and so on. This work is not completely invisible, but it is primarily visible only to my team.

I also spend a good chunk of my time pair programming with devs both on my team and outside of it who need support with TypeScript errors, build issues, package upgrades, or getting up and running with our design system. This work is primarily only visible to the devs I’m pairing with.

A good 10 - 15% of my time is spent prototyping ideas that might help my team be more productive or help me get a better sense of the work my team is doing. This also includes constant efforts to refine processes to ensure things are always operating as smoothly as they can. This is completely solitary, invisible work, at least until I have something to show for it.

Then there’s the meetings. So many meetings. Being “on” and engaged and speaking through a good portion of the work day can be really exhausting, especially during 1:1s when you’re trying to provide positive and critical feedback while also considering the needs and ideas that your reports are relaying to you. Again, not completely invisible, but primarily only visible to my team and my peers.

Those are just a handful of examples. There are many more.

The Importance of a Weekly Work Journal

I’ve written about this before, but I’ll reiterate it here. Keeping a regular work journal is crucial to making the work of a manager visible to yourself and to your manager. Just a few bullet points at the end of each day can help you and those you share it with understand the work you’re doing and the impact you’re having.

It’s Exhausting

A lot of this work can really be exhausting. My wife will check in with me about my day and my two-word response is often, “I’m fried.” It’s kind of incredible how taxing “thought work” can be.

We need to recognize this and be intentional about taking the time to take breaks throughout the day and also between getting off of work and being home with our families and loved ones. Take a 15 minute walk between meetings. It’s the new smoke break. Take a 30 minute walk after work to decompress. It’s the new commute.

If you can, use half of your lunch break for a some kind of physical activity that gets your heart rate up. A run, a bike ride, a kettlbell workout, whatever. It’s crucial to reset your brain and get your body moving.