The Unseen Work of Engineering Management
LeadDev, Wednesday, October 21st, 2026
A former developer reflects that the hardest parts of engineering management are the invisible people problems, not Jira and status updates.
Atila Ekimci describes arriving in engineering management thinking the job was mainly relaying updates, assigning tickets and running agile meetings.
He found the hardest work was what nobody else sees.
Poor communication creates rework, too much pressure lowers quality, and low psychological safety hides problems until they become incidents or resignations.
Using examples such as two senior engineers quietly avoiding each other and an over-relied-on dependable teammate, he urges managers to watch social signals as closely as delivery metrics.