21st Century Management Changes

[John Picard]

These two articles caught my attention recently and struck a chord.
10 Management Practices to Axe

8. 360-Degree Feedback Programs
I have a second-grader, and if my second-grader has something to say to his little friend Dylan, I encourage him to say it directly. I don't tell him, "Fill out this form, and we'll have the other kids fill out forms, too, and then we'll tell Dylan what all the kids think of him, anonymously." Apart from the fact that my kid doesn't know what "anonymously" means, this is very bad coaching for a budding communicator. The 360-degree feedback system is a crutch for poor managers. We need more forthright discussion among our teams, not sneaky group feedback mechanisms masquerading as career development tools. What to do instead: Ditch the 360 system and teach your employees how to give one another constructive criticism. (Teach your managers how to do it, too.)

Yes, Everyone Really Does Hate Performance Reviews

It's time to finally put the performance review out of its misery.This corporate sham is one of the most insidious, most damaging, and yet most ubiquitous of corporate activities. Everybody does it, and almost everyone who's evaluated hates it. It's a pretentious, bogus practice that produces absolutely nothing that any thinking executive should call a corporate plus.
And yet few people do anything to kill it. Well, it's time they did.

Don't get me wrong: Reviewing performance is good; it should happen every day. But employees need evaluations they can believe, not the fraudulent ones they receive. They need evaluations that are dictated by need, not a date on the calendar. They need evaluations that make them strive to improve, not pretend they are perfect.

The *ahem* person who writes my performance evals has a screw loose as well as a reputation for being difficult. I've rarely had problems with evaluations until I had to start reporting to him, and was warned by others when I transferred. After dealing with his pissy attitude, I decided one day "Fuck it" as he's sabotaged my ability to transfer within the company and blatantly stated that he starts everyone in the middle of the rating range and that we "have to work really hard to impress him". He's definitely still in the late-19th Century.

 

[propita]

Yeah, I went from over 10yrs of "exceeds" and "substantially exceeds" (essentially As and Bs) to "meets" and even a "does not meet" expectations. Why? Because the engineer reviewing the later ones evidently thought me a threat.

I didn't want her job. She had a BS degree, I didn't. How many times did I have to say, when asked "Where do you want to be in 5 years?" answer "Still working in my job."

The supervisor prior to this difficult woman asked if I wanted a supervisor job. Listen, I worked in an aerospace lab. There were 20 people in my section, I was one of the few without a BS in engineering. I told him that I figured I was last on the list to supervise anyone from that alone and that I didn't like the idea--all responsibility, no authority. I basically told him that I thought his job sucked and all I wanted to do was come in, do my work, and go home. Oh, and I was the most productive person in his group, year after year, no matter where they put me with crosstraining.

 

[SmoothieX]

Every one of my review has been by an engineer with a degree or two and a PE. I'm not sure what another kind of review would be like!

 

[John Picard]

I love this excerpt from the Performance Review article:

Sadly, most managers are oblivious to the havoc they wreak with performance reviews. To some extent, they don't know any better: This is how performance reviews have been done, and this is how they will be done. Period.
Here's a simple experiment you can try. Ask yourself: How often have you heard a manager say, "Here is what I believe," followed by, "Now tell me, what do you think?" and actually mean it? Rarely, I bet.


The performance review is the primary tool for reinforcing this sorry state. Performance reviews instill feelings of being dominated. They send employees the message that the boss's opinion of their performance is the key determinant of pay, assignment, and career progress. And while that opinion pretends to be objective, it is no such thing. Think about it: If performance reviews are so objective, why is it that so many people get totally different ratings simply by switching bosses?
No, instead, the overriding message is that the boss's assessment is really about whether the boss "likes" you, whether he or she feels "comfortable" with you. None of this is good for the company unless the boss is some kind of savant genius who can read an employee's talents with laser accuracy -- and then understands what motivates the employee so perfectly that he or she can push just the right psychological buttons to get the employee to use those talents.
Unlikely and even more unlikely.

 

[Robert Maxwell]

At my last job, performance reviews were done every year, based on your hiring date anniversary. It was a 5-point scale, and for the first few years, I scored all 4s or higher.

Then, one year, upper management decided everybody was getting scores that were too high, and dictated that essentially all employees would see their scores decline by 1-1.5 points on average. So, I went from "exceeds expectations" to "barely meets" even though I had not changed my work style or had any fluctuations in quality. It was a joke.

Some of the stuff brought up was legitimate, but a lot of it was just and totally out of left field. I learned to just go along with whatever they said, promise to improve for the next year, and go back to whatever I was doing before. Hardly anyone ever got fired for a bad review, so it wasn't even much to worry about. They only used it to determine raises and promotions. What a shock, eh?

I've been at my new job over a year and have not had a review yet. My boss resigned so I currently answer to the CFO, who has no idea what I am doing from day to day. I imagine any review I get will be of virtually no use.

 

[auntiehill]

What I hate is that I write all these reviews, in great detail, and the higher ups either don't read them or don't care.

I have very clearly informed management that certain people needed to be fired. These knuckleheads didn't meet the performance criteria, openly disregarded instructions, were constantly late, rude and some even repeatedly cussed-out supervisors for *daring* to offer some instruction.

Then the management comes to me and wants to know why worker X isn't up to par with the rest of the group. Um...DUH? Why put all that pressure on me to produce these reports if you don't even read them? If they had read them, they would already know why worker X sucks rocks, and why X should've been fired long ago.

 

[Warp Coil]

Performance reviews where I work are a joke because we have to write our own self-evaluations, essentially doing all of the managers' work for them, but lacking the power to give ourselves nice raises! LOL!

 

[AstroSmurf]

I loved this article and could not agree more with what it had to say. Actually I copied it to several friends who are in upper management just to spread the word.

And it reminded me of my last performance review, which proves the point very nicely. I work for myself full-time and then work a second job to cover the bills so I don't have reviews very often, unless I give myself one. ("You are awesome." See, I just gave myself one.) But that last one was ludicrous. Actually I would be a liar if I said it didn't contribute to my turning in my notice a month or two after. It really stands out out... and still sticks in my craw.

Here is the rundown: I had been given the work of two people. I was limited to a forty-hour week. I was required to maintain employee and financial records. In the year and half I worked there, my financial records were never more than $0.50 off, customer credit card disputes were almost nonexistent, had TWO payroll mistakes (which were the fault of the employees) and I never missed paying an invoice on time. I also saved the company several thousand dollars during an IRS audit because my records were so detailed they were able to conducted it by phone/email rather than flying someone out. Not to toot my own horn but I was damn good at my job, had excellent customer service skills and my fellow employees loved me. But my performance review was this: I kept a very clean desk and I needed to be a little more serious with the employees. My desk was clean? MY DESK WAS CLEAN? I save you fuckers boat loads of money, work like a dog to do twice the work in the same amount of time all while doing it accurately, didn't even complain when you gave me a 2% raise and all I get from you is a brief comment about how organized my desk is? And the reason why the other employees liked me was because I didn't take things seriously, unless it required my being serious. And trust me, when I went all serious on them, the employees knew that it was important and followed along. Needless to say it took everything in me not to punch my boss in the mouth. And I am so thankful I don't work for that ass-hat anymore. (But he had to hire two people to replace me. I couldn't have asked for a better revenge. I wonder if their desks are clean.)

 

[John Picard]

I loved this article and could not agree more with what it had to say. Actually I copied it to several friends who are in upper management just to spread the word.

And it reminded me of my last performance review, which proves the point very nicely. I work for myself full-time and then work a second job to cover the bills so I don't have reviews very often, unless I give myself one. ("You are awesome." See, I just gave myself one.) But that last one was ludicrous. Actually I would be a liar if I said it didn't contribute to my turning in my notice a month or two after. It really stands out out... and still sticks in my craw.

Here is the rundown: I had been given the work of two people. I was limited to a forty-hour week. I was required to maintain employee and financial records. In the year and half I worked there, my financial records were never more than $0.50 off, customer credit card disputes were almost nonexistent, had TWO payroll mistakes (which were the fault of the employees) and I never missed paying an invoice on time. I also saved the company several thousand dollars during an IRS audit because my records were so detailed they were able to conducted it by phone/email rather than flying someone out. Not to toot my own horn but I was damn good at my job, had excellent customer service skills and my fellow employees loved me. But my performance review was this: I kept a very clean desk and I needed to be a little more serious with the employees. My desk was clean? MY DESK WAS CLEAN? I save you fuckers boat loads of money, work like a dog to do twice the work in the same amount of time all while doing it accurately, didn't even complain when you gave me a 2% raise and all I get from you is a brief comment about how organized my desk is? And the reason why the other employees liked me was because I didn't take things seriously, unless it required my being serious. And trust me, when I went all serious on them, the employees knew that it was important and followed along. Needless to say it took everything in me not to punch my boss in the mouth. And I am so thankful I don't work for that ass-hat anymore. (But he had to hire two people to replace me. I couldn't have asked for a better revenge. I wonder if their desks are clean.)

And yet that's so typical of management

Yes, the reviews are a way to reduce raises. I'm a contractor and a few years back the trick was to allocate raises based on the number of issues people have with their timecard submissions. What really sucks is when you're a subcontractor and have to fill out a timecard for both your company and with the Prime. Anyway, the first year *BAM* the results were what was desired; however, after the second year, it backfired because timecard accuracy was above 97%. So, they dropped that as a criteria for evaluation

 

[Holdfast]

These two articles caught my attention recently and struck a chord.

Don't get me started on the pointlessness of annual appraisals. This sort of nonsense is precisely why I'm getting away of working for an employer. Large organisations especially are the worst for this kind of BS.