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On being the employee who “needs improvement”

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Re: On being the employee who “needs improvement”

#41

Post by tdb7893 »

tigershark wrote: post #8
blowski wrote: post #2

My 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.

In my experience 1 on 1s are nice because it allows me and my boss to speak in private consistently. When we are both in cubicles it's hard for me to have candid conversations if I know everyone is listening. It probably depends on the person but I have always really liked one on one meetings.

Re: On being the employee who “needs improvement”

#42

Post by tdb7893 »

tigershark wrote: post #8
blowski wrote: post #2

My 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.

In my experience 1 on 1s are nice because it allows me and my boss to speak in private consistently. When we are both in cubicles it's hard for me to have candid conversations if I know everyone is listening. It probably depends on the person but I have always really liked one on one meetings.

Re: On being the employee who “needs improvement”

#43

Post by qaq »

OK I've being working remotely for close to 10 years, most places were very flexible about hours and taking time during the work day for family things etc. But one things none was ever flexible about is remote employees dropping off com. channels for days. I think that is clear abuse of trust and the main fear why so few jobs are remote in the first place.

Re: On being the employee who “needs improvement”

#44

Post by technofiend »

foodie_ wrote: post #24
danieltillett wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a boss the problem is employees take up so much time. Each employee really needs at least 30 minutes of your attention per day averaged over the month (mostly just chit chat, but also mentoring and feedback) [1]. Once you have more than a couple of people to manage there goes your whole day. 1. Yes some people are fine with less, but this is the average amount of time people need. Putting in less just results in a…

I believe it was Andy Grove who suggest no more than 6-8 direct reports for this reason.

Tell that to Gartner Group: according to my management they recommend an average of 10 direct reports. They also recommend you don't have "technical managers" just pure managers without technical delivery goals; all that is strictly delegated to individual contributors.

Re: On being the employee who “needs improvement”

#45

Post by jmull »

Shivetya wrote: post #35

I find that PIPs tend to compensate for bad management in general. By that I mean I know where everyone is on their projects and weekly checkups are a norm, if not more than once. I know a few people who have been on PIP at work, I have don't know how many don't complete it but it does tend to correct their manager as well since HR follows through with insuring that the program is followed. It is a program, HR has a…

If you're willing and have the list in convenient form, would you share it?

Re: On being the employee who “needs improvement”

#46

Post by lr4444lr »

The problem with posts like this is that we only get one side of the story. Bottom line, everyone - up to your top performer - "needs improvement", so the phrase is meaningless. The world isn't static, and if your employees don't demonstrate a reasonable interest in continual improvement, it's a bad sign. If am employee is operating unsatisfactorily now, objective benchmarks and timelines need to be set, not weekly meetings, unless the employee is asking for that level of feedback.

Re: On being the employee who “needs improvement”

#47

Post by pweissbrod »

The key to being a successful remote worker is a foundation of trust. Its unfortunately Human Nature to assume the worst when a remote contact is unreachable when you need them . Therefore it's crucial to establish a reputation where your co-workers trust you to do the right thing connected or not. The moral of the story is not about abusive bosses or misaligned corporate goals. It's just about maintaining that crucial level of trust in the team. And it's a two-way street . Both manager and employee play a an active part. Personally I would never hire a remote worker I could not confidently trust nor would I work for a place that didn't implicitly trust me

Edit - I've been a remote worker for over 10 years and will likely continue as long as I possibly can

Re: On being the employee who “needs improvement”

#48

Post by rev_null »

humanrebar wrote: post #5

I 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…

A less cynical viewpoint is that personal improvement plans give an employee time to job hunt.

Re: On being the employee who “needs improvement”

#49

Post by maxxxxx »

qaq wrote: post #43

OK I've being working remotely for close to 10 years, most places were very flexible about hours and taking time during the work day for family things etc. But one things none was ever flexible about is remote employees dropping off com. channels for days. I think that is clear abuse of trust and the main fear why so few jobs are remote in the first place.

Yes. Whenever I work remotely I make an effort to be very clear about when I'll be available and when not. I also make an effort to respond quickly to E-mails and other things just to signal that I am actually working during the times I am claiming to work.

When managing remote workers I hate it when somebody disappears and I don't know what's going on.

Remote work requires a high level of trust and responsibility from both sides so act accordingly.

Re: On being the employee who “needs improvement”

#50

Post by andreasgonewild »

qaq wrote: post #43

OK I've being working remotely for close to 10 years, most places were very flexible about hours and taking time during the work day for family things etc. But one things none was ever flexible about is remote employees dropping off com. channels for days. I think that is clear abuse of trust and the main fear why so few jobs are remote in the first place.

That would depend on the level of trust and whatever agreements you made. There are jobs like that, some people aren't into owning slaves but still need outside expertise. Which is nice, since some of us are more into living than being slaves.
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