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Ask HN: Have you ever managed someone paid more than you?

by czep on 1/14/20, 12:18 AM with 15 comments

• by muzani on 1/14/20, 3:28 AM

  I wish I did. I think programmers deserve a little more than managers, because the work is harder.

  It's similar to sports team management - sure the manager is rare and more experienced, but they're not burning their mind off trying to meet irrational deadlines. The stress of management mostly comes from team issues, so I'd think paying them more would solve a lot of problems.

  But it's also sort of a hierarchy thing.

• by lucozade on 1/14/20, 5:31 PM

  I once took over a team that had number of members that were paid more than me and had higher titles.

  The money side didn't bother me because they were more experienced and in specialist roles that I definitely couldn't do (at least when I took over the team). If anything it worked out to my benefit as my boss felt a bit guilty about it so I received a promotion and a hefty pay rise at the next year end.

  It also helped that none of the team had wanted the role so there was no slight implied.

  There were some odd moments. At one point one of the team, with more than 10 years more experience than me, asked me for career advice. But mostly it wasn't much different from other team lead roles I've had.

• by gshdg on 1/14/20, 9:36 PM

  Management is a skill, but it's a fairly generic and transferable one.

  ICs can be specialists, and there are rare / valuable specialist skills that can command far higher comp than a generic manager or director.

  There's nothing about comp itself that would cause a report making higher comp to undermine a manager making less. And a good manager will defer to the report on the topics the report is an expert on.

  (Tho in a pathological organization or if the report is an asshole, it might be an indicator that the report is more valuable to the organization and could go over the manager's head to undermine the manager if they wanted to.)

• by downerending on 1/14/20, 7:12 PM

  I suspect that I was once in the complementary position of being paid a lot more than my manager (who was quite a bit younger). His take on the situation seemed to be that I should be that I should be doing everything twice as fast as him, etc., since I was being paid more, and it did somewhat poison the relationship.

  Life is short--I moved on.

• by antongribok on 1/14/20, 10:59 AM

  I have seen this at two Fortune 50 companies firsthand. This happens usually when there is a reorganization and people move around (at least in my two anecdotal cases).

  Essentially you have a very valuable individual contributor who is good at what he does, and he wouldn't be as valuable if he was forced to be a manager.

  The manager above him understands this.

• by amerkhalid on 1/14/20, 3:38 PM

  At my friend's company, a director wanted to higher someone but they were asking for more than what director was making. Director was okay with it but HR would not approve it. Eventually, they end up giving director a pay raise to let him hire the person they wanted.

• by Haxker on 1/14/20, 1:10 AM

  Your direct reports should never make more than you (in non-commission role). How can you be the boss of someone who is defacto more valuable then you (even as they lack the responsibility you bare). Yes, you would be underpaid in your current roll if the candidate was being offered market value and you should not search for validation on your position but a new job entirely