# Should managers still code? - by James Stanier

<https://theengineeringmanager.substack.com/p/should-managers-still-code>

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- Saved: March 6, 2025 (2025-03-07T02:54:22Z)
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## What Jamie wrote

This question goes around a decent amount and different leaders have different perspectives of course. The culture of your technology team gets driven in a big way from stuff like this. I did like the difference Stanier makes with "in the code" and "write code".

> Should managers be _in_ the code? Yes, absolutely.
> 
> Should managers _write_ code? Maybe, but it also depends on what you mean by writing code.

The article has a list of "in the code" statements that make a lot of sense to me. Critical in this is a scenario I think is very important — if a leader (at any level!) in a technology team praises the solution to a problem, they better have the means to know if it is praiseworthy as a solution. If a manager isn't "in the code" how could they possibly determine the quality of their team's work? 

I think they can be able to write code, but I always highlight that it stops at taking sprint points. A manager should not be pulling stories out of the backlog and executing. At that point they are not adding a multiplier to their team, and not doing what they need to be doing.

I will also comment that managers writing code can be a red flag, a reason for serious concern. For many managers writing code is fun, and dealing with a personnel matter is **not fun**. As an engineering manager make sure your not resorting to coding because it is comfortable, and you are leaving a much more impactful problem unresolved.

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