MANAGER.md

Hello there! If you’re reading this, then I might be your manager! I am currently cosplaying as a manager at the Wikimedia Foundation. Different people have different ways of wanting to know how to work (deal) with their manager. My preferred method is synchronous conversation, but many people’s preferred style is reading and async conversations. This document is to help facilitate that conversation and answer some questions you might have.

So, hey! My name is Stef Dunlap (she/they). I am plural. I was born Christmas of ‘88 in Colorado Springs, lived very briefly in England on an RAF base, and grew up in Indianapolis. I then moved to Cincinnati, then the San Francisco Bay Area (Oakland), and then Toronto. I’m poly, trans, queer, genderfluid, and neurodivergent. If you want to know my deal, feel free to read other posts on this blog.

The way I see it, my job is to support my reports to the best of my ability. This may look like frequent 1:1s, async check ins, or help as needed. I’m also here to be a guide when navigating the organization, including promotions, raises, conflicts, bureaucracy, and red tape.

Communication Style

One-on-ones

One-on-ones are regular meetings between a manager and her reports (also sometimes called “individual contributors” or “ICs”). This meeting is often informal (though agendas can be helpful), and revolves around the reports experience at the organization including: works-in-progress, blockers, feedback (given or received), project goals, career goals, organization changes, vacation and time-off, and work/life balance.

In my experience as a software engineer, I found one-on-ones to be often useful but sometimes distracting. We also know that the cost of context switching between meetings and “real work” includes increased stress an lower productivity, and this burden is even greater for neurodivergent folks.

On the other hand, one-on-ones are my best tool for learning from, staying connected with, and supporting my reports. Finding the balance of scheduled one-on-ones, adhoc meetings, and asynchronous communication is not a science but rather an iterative art.

Therefore as a starting point, I’d like to schedule to meet with you at least two hours a month. This can be either 30 minutes a week or one hour bi-weekly. Scheduling more time (either adhoc or reoccurring) is always an option. If your preferred method of communication is asynchronous, then we can attempt to get through all the items in chat, and if we’re both satisfied that we’ve already talked about everything we need to talk about, then we can skip the meeting or end it early.

Scheduling meetings and async communication

My working hours are 09:00 - 18:00 in Eastern Time (america/toronto).

You are always welcome to schedule a meeting with me. If it is outside of my working hours or conflicts with another meeting or personal obligation, I may ask to reschedule it.

Please feel free to message me on the chat app at any time, though I may not respond until the next business day if it’s not urgent.

Talking about non-work things

I can be very open, candid, and personal. I consider very little of my life private, and I might share details from my life or career with hopes that you find it useful. You are welcome to share however you feel comfortable (including not at all). You are also welcome to request that I refrain and keep everything strictly profesh.

Things we can work on together

I’m here to help and collaborate! Maybe you want to:

I would be thrilled to help! We can talk about these in our one-on-ones, schedule a special meeting, or collaborate asynchronously. I’m happy to give as little or much assistance as you need. Before everything else, my reports wellbeing is my top priority. I want to make sure you are content in and (hopefully) excited about your work.

On professionalism

I seriously do not care about formalities. I tend to be goofy, because I like to use humour to bring (remote) teams together. However, we can have serious conversations when we need to.

Paperwork

Unfortunately we do not live in a Marxist utopia but instead in a late-stage capitalism fever dream. Therefore we have to do paperwork to do about the work we do. The main one that comes to mind is vacation, time-off, and sick days. Please take your vacations. Make a weekend a long weekend, or take a week or more to do something awesome. What I ask is to have a few days notice for less than a week and more a week’s notice if it’s a week or more. If it’s more than a week, make sure that it’s OK with your team as well. If you’re sick, you’re sick. Do not come to work. Let me know when you can. If you can, send me a message, cancel your meetings, and update your status on the chat app.

I’ll also likely ask you to put a little status update in a document every week. This is not to prove that you did work, but rather to keep a pulse on what’s going on, and help where I can.

Off-the-record

If you need a conversation that’s off the record, you got it. I will stop taking notes. I will not talk about what we talk about with others outside of our meeting without your expressed permission. I will not use what you tell me against you. I will however, not be able to forget that we had the conversation, and I may want to follow up with you, even if it’s also off-the-record.

Wikimedia Foundation Specific

Wikimedia has a “silent Friday” which I respect. I will almost never schedule a meeting with you on Friday. You are still welcome to chat with me on the chat app and schedule a meeting with me if you need it. I take Wednesday as a deep work day. If you schedule something on that day, I may ask that we reschedule it to another day.

fin

I am open to feedback on this document, whether you’re my report or not. Please reach out on the chat app or by e-mail.

If you have an emergency, you can reach me by phone (I’m also on WhatsApp, Telegram, and Signal.)

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