How do I deal with non-technical managers and constant interruptions?
Non-technical managers push bad architectural decisions and enforce metrics built by people who do not understand IT, forcing engineers to waste time explaining basic concepts like DNS instead of building. At the same time, constant pings, meetings, and emergency calls make it impossible to get any deep work done.
What the numbers show
Counted from the threads quoted below. How we count
- The most recent one is from September 2026.
- This comes up 190.2× more often in r/ITManagers than across the site as a whole.
What people tried
Every workaround mentioned in the threads below. We haven’t tested any of them — and nobody here is claiming they worked.
Found another way around this?
Share your steps and trade-offs so fellow engineers don't have to reinvent the wheel. No account required.
- 1Focusing strictly on pay and benefits instead of caring about the craft since compensation has stagnatedDid this help you?
- 2Relying on quick reboots and updates rather than digging through logs due to lack of time and high support ratiosDid this help you?
- 3Jumping ship to higher-level roles to escape lower-tier conditionsDid this help you?
- 4Tell them the current status and proactively provide a specific time when you will share the next update.Did this help you?
- 5Repeat the previously agreed-upon time for an update if they follow up too early, unless they provide a valid reason.Did this help you?
In their words
Unedited, grouped by where they were said, most upvoted first within each place, each linked to the thread it came from.
“The non-technical manager problem is a harsh truth and kills more than just morale for teams. When the person approving your architectural decisions has never had to maintain what they're approving, you get infrastructure that looks clean but falls apart at 2 AM.”source ↗
“Everything has changed - now you have managers in charge who want to maximize keyboard time to satisfy KPIs created by idiots who don’t have the first clue about IT, or you have pushovers as managers who just do what upper management tells them to.”source ↗
“Now try and "tinker around" while getting pinged every 5 minutes, having to hop on a quick call, respond to emails and attend as many meetings per day as can fit in an 8-hour working day window.”source ↗
“I have bosses that have no clues what a DNS is and I spend more time explaining them and simplifying the IT terms.”source ↗
“I swear some of these fucks can't go 2 nanoseconds without a status update to the point where I'm on edge whenever I hop in and actually do my work with them, since I'm scared they're going to destroy all my drive by asking for a status update.”source ↗
Where this came up
People with this problem also raised
- 15How to deal with a manager who is confidently wrong
- 12Why do coworkers always bypass their supervisors to come straight to me?
- 3How to advance a technical career without going into management
- 8How to survive a completely mismanaged project with terrible leadership
- 5Why does IT make work harder instead of helping?
- 2How do I keep my technical skills sharp while in management?