What happens when you go months without a manager?
Working for months without a boss leads to a growing sense of apathy and leaves you handling extra work without any increase in pay. While it has brief perks, the lack of support makes intense work periods significantly harder when there is no leadership or light at the end of the tunnel.
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.
- 1Playing video games during slow times at workDid this help you?
- 2Accepting the situation while feeling growing apathyDid 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.
“I still don’t have a boss. It’s been 4 months now. There’s no light at the end of the tunnel and I feel my apathy grow.”source ↗
“Not having a boss has its perks. It’s just when it gets nose to the grindstone time it gets HARD.”source ↗
“They'll continue to ask you to do their work for the same pay.”source ↗
Where this came up
People with this problem also raised
- 3How to advance a technical career without going into management
- 3How do you do month-end close with no authority over coworkers?
- 14Doing senior IT work alone on helpdesk pay
- 15How to deal with a manager who is confidently wrong
- 5Is it normal to have no work to do at a new job?
- 5How to delegate tasks without micromanaging