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On being the employee who “needs improvement”

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Re: On being the employee who “needs improvement”

#171

Post by quantumhobbit »

CydeWeys wrote: post #93
MichaelRenor wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It does seem that was the case and then if you can simply say "please never disappear for the whole day without telling me" and that would be the end of it. I think there's more going on here.

"Please be reachable during normal business hours" is a very reasonable demand of remote coworkers. Most of the problems I've ever had with remote coworkers was with them not being reachable and consequently blocking team progress. These people inevitably got poor performance reviews and did not move up in the company, and some got fired. When you can turn to your coworker next to you and ask a simple one minute ques…

Did you communicate to them that their absence blocked work? If you didn't, they likely thought that there were no problems and continued in that behavior.

Part of what makes corporate America suck is the kind of passive aggressive resentments that never get expressed. Suddenly the remote worker finds that everyone hates him and has no clue why.

Re: On being the employee who “needs improvement”

#172

Post by CydeWeys »

dasmoth wrote: post #167
CydeWeys wrote: post #165

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> What we're looking for is flexibility, not one-size-fits-all. And yet people look at me like I have a third eye sometimes (including several posts up in this exact thread) just because I, like many people, don't like working from home.

I can certainly understand that preference, even though I don't share it. I will, however, say that, when phrases like "humans are social animals" get deployed, it's quite easy to read them as implied criticism of those of us who need substantial amounts of time alone.

I am one of those people who need substantial amounts of time alone too. That doesn't mean that I'm not a social animal though, and that there isn't some balance of social contact that is desired. There's only a very tiny percentage of people who truly desire no human contact at all (think hermits); merely being introverted still does not get you close to that level.

Re: On being the employee who “needs improvement”

#173

Post by munin »

krakensden wrote: post #91
munin wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This only works if your management remembers your status updates.

If you're worried about that, make them public. Middle managers are easier to get than programmers, so you may have leverage walking up the chain to your boss's boss.

If your manager is the kind that brow-beats when they can't find you, and, they forget things you tell them (in writing), then reminding them of the thing you have told them, in writing, to their bosses boss, will basically get you fired.

Re: On being the employee who “needs improvement”

#174

Post by rongenre »

biztos wrote: post #143
ncallaway wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We run an entirely remote company, and the cabin fever is definitely a real concern. If you ever have to be a remote worker in the future, I'd highly recommend getting a co-working space as it really helps fulfill a ton of those social needs. Your employer might even pay for some (or all) of the costs associated.

Do you have any other strategies against cabin-fever? I've tried co-working but once you add in your own chair and monitor (ergonomics) and eavesdropping-proof location (security) and taking the laptop home at night (security) and on top of all that having a commute again, it's kind of a pain. I will probably eventually rent my own office (at my own expense) near where some friends work, but that's a pretty expensive…

Invite local friends to work in your space?

Re: On being the employee who “needs improvement”

#175

Post by tome »

walshemj wrote: post #132
notadoc wrote: post #101

Everyone "needs improvement" Yes, even if you're the top performer or you think you're the smartest person on your team.

yep give me any employee and any company's performance management system and I could have them on a pip inside of 9 months

Ah, Cardinal Richelieu. Thanks for stopping by.

Re: On being the employee who “needs improvement”

#176

Post by tome »

walshemj wrote: post #131
technofiend wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Funny how all military's have much small span of control normally 3-5

Interesting. Any reference for this?

Re: On being the employee who “needs improvement”

#177

Post by walshemj »

CydeWeys wrote: post #155
walshemj wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Performance based pay and the whole hr infrastructure around it is designed to lower the pay quanta it has < 1% to do with rewarding performance.

Why do you say that? And what exactly do you mean by "pay quanta"? Rewarding and incentivizing high performance seems to obviously be in the business's best interest, so why do you say they don't focus on it, even for the companies that do it explicitly for that reason? Are you claiming they're lying as to their motivations?

quanta is hr speak for the increase in pay budget and yes in practice PRP is used to depress pay

Re: On being the employee who “needs improvement”

#178

Post by crusso »

Sir_Substance wrote: post #68
crusso wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are no circumstances in which it will turn around Note that you used the passive voice, as though the circumstances are completely out of the employee's control.

>Note that you used the passive voice, as though the circumstances are completely out of the employee's control. If you've been put on a PIP, it means your employer has decided if your work doesn't get better, they're going to fire you. Provided you haven't been phoning it in, this means you have to give an unsustainable amount in order to reach what they want from you. Seeing as how that's unsustainable, you're goin…

if your work doesn't get better, they're going to fire you

How is that completely out of the employee's control?

Provided you haven't been phoning it in

And maybe they have, which means they can do something about it.

Re: On being the employee who “needs improvement”

#179

Post by crusso »

empath75 wrote: post #60
crusso wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are no circumstances in which it will turn around Note that you used the passive voice, as though the circumstances are completely out of the employee's control.

They more or less are. They've already decided they want to get rid of you. If they actually wanted to keep you around they'd have had a bunch of more casual conversations about what you need to do.

Employers don't like letting people go. Hiring people is difficult and expensive.

Typically, employers would be much happier to see marked improvement in the employee's performance rather than to have to follow through on letting that employee go.

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