this post was submitted on 06 Jul 2023
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Tech Lead means different things at different companies. You say you have direct reports, do you mean you do their performance evaluations or not? If so then I'd call that a manager. To me that's where the difference is. If you handle any of the "HR" parts of the process (for lack of a better term) then that's a manager.
I ask what you mean because the advice differs.
For example, I was a tech lead but not a manager. It was sort of funny, sometimes my team would ask me if it was okay if they took off or left early and I'd explain to them that "I'm not your boss" lol. Basically I'd tell them I have no problems with it but I'm not really the person who can grant that or whatever. The sort of role a tech lead has (at least in the context I was in) was maybe something like a team captain. If folks didn't have specific tasks in the sprint they wanted to work on I'd assign it to them. Most folks never really had a preference but I never wanted to seem like I was being bossy.
Same here. I'm a Tech Lead right now, but I still live in the code. I see myself as on-trajectory to Architect. I have no direct-reports or any of the responsibilities they go with direct-reports. That role is called a Team Lead at my company (which is on-trajectory for management). I stay at from that stuff like the plague ๐คฎ
I think it also depends on how you structure teams.
In the companies I worked at and experienced as contractor, product/project teams and HR-relevant teams were two almost separate org charts. That is, the guy who says to me what to do is not the guy who tells me how much money I'll get for that.
Lead devs in this sense are "leading" a project or product, so they do have to deal with the day to day bullshit of human interaction, product meetings, etc., but most people wouldn't call their fellow devs "reports".
Yeah, I'm approving PTO and doing performance reviews. I was told that 30-40% of my time will be spent on coding, the lesser the better if I can unlock my team.