> If there's no deliverable and no visibility, that's a failure of management, either to define the deliverable to a more granular extent where an update could cover the progress, even if async, which would also fix not having visibility. A developer piping up async and saying 'no updates, still working' is still an update and gives visibility.
That's really the bare minimum that a developer can say and still get away with when you have a lenient manager. HN tends to take the most adversarial take on managers possible, but it's not always necessary.
But, when you've worn both hats (manager and managed), sometimes employees simply don't want to do much work. Again, you can say "that's a management problem", but some people are bad actors and are very good at hiding it in "corporate speak". The internet is full of stories of coasting --- I can even attest to doing it many times and easily getting away with it. Getting someone in a room, or on camera, and actually running through their work can cut through a lot of bullshit and bullshitters. Some developers think "coding" takes precedence over the business -- but some of their "coding" time is completely useless to the business perspective. It seems crazy to insist that managers have no stake in trying to figure out if that's the case.
Sometimes you also need to have a meeting because in an async setting some people have no idea what they're doing. Even with clear goals and deliverables, stuff can easily fall through the cracks.
