The Unreachable Engineering Managers - by Anton Zaides

The most dangerous engineering managers aren't the ones who don't contribute - it's the ones everyone needs but can't reach. These are the technically strong EMs with tons of context in their heads, the ones whose opinions actually matter. They accumulate unanswered messages like badges of honor, creating a culture where being unreachable signals importance. Engineers give up, make suboptimal decisions, or wait days for answers that should take minutes. The organization adapts around them instead of fixing the problem.

The real issue isn't busyness - it's an addiction to being involved in everything. These managers love the control and power that comes with being the bottleneck, often without fully realizing it. When confronted, they apologize and promise to improve, then nothing changes. The pattern persists because everyone treats it as normal rather than organizational dysfunction.

The answer isn't just responding faster, though that's step one - aim for one-hour SLA on direct messages and check channels at least twice daily. Step two is ruthlessly pruning communication channels, muting what doesn't need your attention, and organizing critical discussions into dedicated groups. Step three is the hard part: systematically eliminating reasons people need you in the first place. Every message should trigger the question - who else could have answered this? What pattern of questions points to an ownership gap? Where's the opportunity to give an engineer a kingdom? Your job as an EM is to unblock others first, not to be indispensable.