Full-time Management is overkill

There's the idea that constraints on resources make humans creative in solving problems. When I know I got 1 hour to finish a presentation then I will set my limits on what I can do.

I won't spend 15 minutes on finding the right font face because spending a quarter on this task would just be stupid. I better get the core information—my message to the audience—onto the slides before anything. Then the most important tweaks here and there but that's it.

On the flipside, when I have 10 hours for the exact same presentation I will spend the full 10 hours on it, no matter what.

Will the content of the presentation be better? Hopefully.
Will it convey my message more effectively to the audience? Maybe.
Will it be more beautifully looking? Likely.
Will it be worth to spend 10 hours on the presentation? Not sure.

I won't say that you shouldn't ever spend 10 hours on a single presentation. I think that I have spent even more than that on one in my life.

What I'm heading towards is that humans are also extremely good in using what's at their feet even if the current situation doesn't justify the spending. Our brains are programmed to use all the resources available because who knows… tomorrow the resource might be gone.

The same happens in management with consequences for the company. Full-time managers will manage if needed or not. DHH brought up that full-time management roles are seldom required.

In my experience this statement holds true. Full-time managers will manage 40 hours per week regardless of if there's only 10 hours of management tasks to be done this week. They will fill their schedule to justify it to be a full-time role because that's what they were hired for.

The full-time managers will hover around, come up with topics not urgent or relevant now, schedule useless meetings and the list goes on. They will prevent other people from doing their work.

The question is with which type of work you leave them with when their management task list has been fully checked halfway through the week?

If the managers are engineers let them write code or work out system designs. If the managers are sales or marketing people then let them call prospects or conduct market studies. Short, let them create customer value.

For others I dunno.