On being the employee who “needs improvement”
virtuouscode.com
On being the employee who “needs improvement”
1–10 of 198 posts
Re: On being the employee who “needs improvement”
#2My takeaway from this is that frequent 1 to 1s are a good idea for every single employee, from the day you start to the day you leave the company.
You need to use them for positive feedback as well as negative, and general chats about progress and ideas.
Re: On being the employee who “needs improvement”
#3> and I had been taking advantage of the freedom to prioritize family needs when they came up. To the degree that sometimes my bosses were left hanging, waiting for a day or more on my work.
> From my biased perspective, it is difficult to see how these “personal improvement programs” for a disappointing employee can ever be a constructive force.
> By the end, they were quite happy with my work.
...sounds pretty constructive to me?
Re: On being the employee who “needs improvement”
#4It's important to know what parameters they use to determine who or what needs improvement. There have been times when a manager told me there was a problem and it turned out he had inaccurate information. The manager was looking at the wrong version, branch or had 3rd hand information. Managers have claimed to be unaware of what I was working on even with daily standups, task tracking and working a few desks away. Some managers are terrible.
Re: On being the employee who “needs improvement”
#5I don't know what the motivations for the bosses in this story were, but in corporate America personal improvement plans are fundamentally about gearing up to fire someone more than any actual improvement. When defending yourself against a wrongful termination lawsuit, it looks good to courts to say, "Look, we met every week, we had these conversations, and things didn't get better enough."
In the story linked, it seems like the author was prioritizing family or health over work at times (me: Good! We need more of that!). The employer can't just fire you for that as it looks a lot like wrongful termination. So they need to build up a paper trail.
Re: On being the employee who “needs improvement”
#6It's important to know what parameters they use to determine who or what needs improvement. There have been times when a manager told me there was a problem and it turned out he had inaccurate information. The manager was looking at the wrong version, branch or had 3rd hand information. Managers have claimed to be unaware of what I was working on even with daily standups, task tracking and working a few desks away. S…
In my work it's nearly impossible to meet requirements or deadlines, because requirements documents are non existing, and deadlines are pulled out of thin air by non technical management. Fortunately they haven't complained about our performance.
Re: On being the employee who “needs improvement”
#7I don't know what the motivations for the bosses in this story were, but in corporate America personal improvement plans are fundamentally about gearing up to fire someone more than any actual improvement. When defending yourself against a wrongful termination lawsuit, it looks good to courts to say, "Look, we met every week, we had these conversations, and things didn't get better enough." In the story linked, it se…
Honestly to me it seems that the author was extremely unprofessional.
He just disappeared for whole days without letting anyone know.
In all the companies that I worked it was explicitly mentioned in the contract that such behaviour was subject to disciplinary actions up to dismissal.
Re: On being the employee who “needs improvement”
#8My takeaway from this is that frequent 1 to 1s are a good idea for every single employee, from the day you start to the day you leave the company. You need to use them for positive feedback as well as negative, and general chats about progress and ideas.
They are utterly and completely useless.
You should speak with your boss continuously, regardless of the 1 on 1s.
Maybe it's a coincidence but with all the worst bosses that I had we had 1 on 1s.
It's just a way to hide their incompetence in my opinion.
Re: On being the employee who “needs improvement”
#9My takeaway from this is that frequent 1 to 1s are a good idea for every single employee, from the day you start to the day you leave the company. You need to use them for positive feedback as well as negative, and general chats about progress and ideas.
They are utterly and completely useless. You should speak with your boss continuously, regardless of the 1 on 1s. Maybe it's a coincidence but with all the worst bosses that I had we had 1 on 1s. It's just a way to hide their incompetence in my opinion.
What is the difference between a one on one and speaking with your boss? I use them as synonyms.
Re: On being the employee who “needs improvement”
#10I don't know what the motivations for the bosses in this story were, but in corporate America personal improvement plans are fundamentally about gearing up to fire someone more than any actual improvement. When defending yourself against a wrongful termination lawsuit, it looks good to courts to say, "Look, we met every week, we had these conversations, and things didn't get better enough." In the story linked, it se…
Honestly to me it seems that the author was extremely unprofessional. He just disappeared for whole days without letting anyone know. In all the companies that I worked it was explicitly mentioned in the contract that such behaviour was subject to disciplinary actions up to dismissal.
I'm not sure " To the degree that sometimes my bosses were left hanging, waiting for a day or more on my work." necessarily means what you're saying. There are absolutely ways to communicate that you need a personal day - or that something is delayed because [reasons] - that aren't 'just disappearing'.