ABSTRACT
Engineering departments are the foundation of technology companies. Engineering managers and their subordinates must interact on a daily basis with people in other departments and with upper management. Engineering managers must train subordinates how to deal with ill-timed interruptions, such as a sales executive who constantly pesters the engineering manager’s subordinates about a pet project. If such interruptions become excessive, especially by an upper manager, subordinates should report the situation to their managers, who can deal with the situation by offering to provide daily updates themselves. Upper managers can be politely asked not to interfere with the work of the engineering manager’s subordinates. It is the engineering manager’s responsibility to protect subordinates from upper management pressure. In some cases, it might become necessary for engineers to work from home or in a library so that they can work undisturbed and complete their tasks on time. Colleagues and people from other departments can also be a source of disruptions. Ideally, upper managers and people from other departments should first approach the engineering manager for task requests or to get updates on the status of tasks.
