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 These days, I work on my wife's ranch. I am working harder now than when I was drawing a paycheck. Programming is now something I do in my almost non-existent spare time – although I write more lines of code now than I did while employed. 
__________________
Lord, grant me the serenity to accept that there are some things I just can’t keep up with, the determination to keep up with the things I must keep up with, and the wisdom to find a good RSS feed from someone who keeps up with what I’d like to, but just don’t have the damn bandwidth to handle right now.
© 2009, Rex Hammock
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My first boss was the stereotypical boss. "Faster Faster" never "Better" or even "Good". I became a better even more productive programmer when I decided to simply ignore him and aim for "Good". I hope he's rotting in heck somewhere. He was rather abusive to me but kissed the backside of the lead programmer who I hated and was who quite adept at office politics. An intelligent fellow but who wrote all the bugs in the final project but never suffered for it while my total absence of bugs was unrecognized.
At another company I reported to the lead programmer on one occasion. An intelligent fellow but when I walked into his office I immediately felt a swarm of bees buzzing inside my head which disappeared upon departure. Thankfully I only had to do so once.
I usually reported to my immediate supervisor another programmer on the team. I didn't think much of her skill. She seemed slightly resentful when I fixed her mistakes without her permission. Sit her down in front of a game and put a mouse in her hands and she was a wiz. We got along well enough. She even once made a pass at me which I ignored.
- Cheerio
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In the past I have reported to a Software Developer(at least 3 times), An Accountant, And a Program Manager at least in their past lives.
The former Programmers/Software devs have by and large been the worst of the bunch. Too many preconceived notions about what software to use and what technology to implement.
The Accountant, PM and Prez have all been like. I want a solution, I want it to work. You figure it out. They have been fairly decent to work with.
My .02
To err is human to really elephant it up you need a computer
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My boss has been building this VB.NET app for 21 years and nothing you do is ever correct. At least she knows every detail of how it works and wrote 80% of it herself. Our team is 4 including her.
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And he's an idiot when it comes to IT. 
Things are always worse than they seem.
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My fearless leader is director of the small group that actually develops software around here and is himeself a damn good DBA. Also a bit of a workaholic, but doesn't expect the same from the rest of us.
We operate simply enough: he leaves me alone until he needs something. Then I can make it happen for him in any manner (code-wise) I wish. On occasion I'll suggest an idea and if he finds it useful, even potentially, it is done.
Interestingly, since he actually pays attention to company operations and I don't, he often sees more potential in the ideas I have than I do (to be fair, it may be something he was planning and I didn't know about). He puts flesh on the abstract bones. Infrastructure (of code) vs application in production.
Working from home, one thing I miss is arguing in his office on how something should be done - as I've oft said: we may do it his way; we may do it my way; a mixture of both - or something different that came of our arguing - it never mattered to either of us so long as we thought it to be the best solution. As I've said, I've been very lucky in my work-experience.
| Ravings en masse^ |
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| "The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein | | "If you are searching for perfection in others, then you seek disappointment. If you seek perfection in yourself, then you will find failure." - Balboos HaGadol Mar 2010 |
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I guess I never climbed up the hierarchy high enough to have a non-technical boss.
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In the past I've had managers who had done software development as well.
Sometimes they had opinions on technology they no longer understood, sometimes they didn't, and sometimes they made useful contributions.
As a software consultant I've worked for a manager who said "you're a self managing team so you don't need me" and we never saw him, except when I wanted to work from home for two days which was absolutely impossible (because I was external). No one really knew what this guy did.
And I've worked for a company that had about five or six managers above me, who didn't even know my name or what I did, including a "release manager" while I was the one doing releases 
Yeah, that last gig was... Interesting
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they are all accomplished software engineers.
no complaints here.
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Lucky you
M.D.V. 
If something has a solution... Why do we have to worry about?. If it has no solution... For what reason do we have to worry about?
Help me to understand what I'm saying, and I'll explain it better to you
Rating helpful answers is nice, but saying thanks can be even nicer.
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Lucky now, yes. However, I have had terrible managers in the past; some without technical experience, some with.
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It is customary for our company to get managers from the consultants. Some of them though do very little consultancy or dance the consultant - customer - manager jig: work with the company, get hired from a customer, return to the company as manager.
Biggest problem of managers coming from the trenches is that they have the illusion of knowledge which is much more dangerous than lack of knowledge.
GCS d--(d+) s-/++ a C++++ U+++ P- L+@ E-- W++ N+ o+ K- w+++ O? M-- V? PS+ PE- Y+ PGP t+ 5? X R+++ tv-- b+(+++) DI+++ D++ G e++ h--- r+++ y+++* Weapons extension: ma- k++ F+2 X
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My boss' boss started in QA, earned an MBA, and is likely to go a lot further than me.
OTOH, I have much more fun.
Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows.
-- 6079 Smith W.
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I report direct to the CFO. A little bit weird but it is a relatively small company.
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Not that uncommon...
IT depending on finance directives... the source of a lot of problems
M.D.V.
If something has a solution... Why do we have to worry about?. If it has no solution... For what reason do we have to worry about?
Help me to understand what I'm saying, and I'll explain it better to you
Rating helpful answers is nice, but saying thanks can be even nicer.
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So do I, also small company. She trusts that I know what I am doing. 
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