Earlier quoted context omitted.
How do you measure time online?
We use Slack
Write a bot to send a random /giphy to #general every 1-2 hours, you'll fit right in.
Ask HN: How does your company do performance reviews?
71–80 of 100 posts
Re: Ask HN: How does your company do performance reviews?
#72Currently they don't exist - I've asked for a yearly one, but I suppose they haven't found time to give me a review.
I've been at my current position (C# Dev) for almost a year and a half full time and I worked part time for almost a half a year.
This seems to be far from normal, but since this is my first job out of school I really just want to see:
- If I'm performing to standard (Adding value) - which I think I am. - If raises are a thing at this company or in general with reviews.
We seem to be shifting towards a more I guess you could call it an "agile" approach (due to our PM). Daily standup meetings talking about what we will focus on for that day, allocate time for it, and report back the next day.
Re: Ask HN: How does your company do performance reviews?
#73Earlier quoted context omitted.
Do you get yearly merit raises? Cost of living?
Can't really tell as I have only been on the team for about a year now, but I have been told that you get raises if you ask for them and have enough arguments to justify a raise. What about costs of living? We're based in Zurich, CH.
Normally (maybe it isn't the norm) employers give a percentage raise annually or bi-annually for to accommodate for the "cost of living going up"
Re: Ask HN: How does your company do performance reviews?
#74Large company, performance is based almost entirely on feedback from peers and those you report to with check-ins every 6 months. Overall score from 1-5 with a 3 being "meets expectations" and the most common rating by far. The problem is that the feedback from superiors seems to be weighted much higher so the peer feedback is almost useless so don't bother mentoring or helping someone get back in front of their task…
If there was a more balanced weighting between superiors, peers and subortinates ratings, do you think these negatives outcomes would be avoided? I just started at a company that kind of use this system. My first impression is that it is a good system and the weighting seems fair. But I would like to be aware of any potential pitfalls with it (not just for me, but for the company also).
>If there was a more balanced weighting between superiors, peers and subordinates ratings, do you think these negatives outcomes would be avoided?
Not really because the stack ranking would still turn everything into a knife fight. It might even be worse because people would blame their coworkers for getting another 3 rating instead of everyone being unified in our hatred for upper management and the performance system as a whole.
We recently had a big Pres/VP management shakeup and the new crew is supposedly looking into changing the performance reviews but who knows how far that'll go. But they did sort out our crazy hiring requirements almost immediately so fingers crossed that they'll set some more fires before things stabilize.
>But I would like to be aware of any potential pitfalls with it (not just for me, but for the company also).
My only tip is to find a project lead/manager who didn't drink the kool aid.
Re: Ask HN: How does your company do performance reviews?
#75Earlier quoted context omitted.
How do you measure time online?
We use Slack
The flip-side seems to be that if you close Slack for a few hours of focussed work on something tricky, that's counted the same as spending the afternoon at the beach.
Sure, communication is important, but there are relatively few things that can't wait half a day (and for those, there are alternative channels if you're not on Slack)
Re: Ask HN: How does your company do performance reviews?
#76Currently they don't exist - I've asked for a yearly one, but I suppose they haven't found time to give me a review. I've been at my current position (C# Dev) for almost a year and a half full time and I worked part time for almost a half a year. This seems to be far from normal, but since this is my first job out of school I really just want to see: - If I'm performing to standard (Adding value) - which I think I am…
You should really insist on a review. If you don't get feedback on how you're doing in your career, it's at your expense. My company has no formal process, I still force a review every year.
Also, I believe you should ask for a raise every year. Even if you've completely stagnated professionally, your salary is decreasing continuously with inflation.
Companies seem to take advantage of introverted people who are too afraid to speak up about perfectly reasonable requests, like clarifying your performance and goals. It definitely sounds like you're in that boat.
Re: Ask HN: How does your company do performance reviews?
#77Currently they don't exist - I've asked for a yearly one, but I suppose they haven't found time to give me a review. I've been at my current position (C# Dev) for almost a year and a half full time and I worked part time for almost a half a year. This seems to be far from normal, but since this is my first job out of school I really just want to see: - If I'm performing to standard (Adding value) - which I think I am…
You should really insist on a review. If you don't get feedback on how you're doing in your career, it's at your expense. My company has no formal process, I still force a review every year. Also, I believe you should ask for a raise every year. Even if you've completely stagnated professionally, your salary is decreasing continuously with inflation. Companies seem to take advantage of introverted people who are too…
I've reached out via email 2-3 times and twice in person. At a _very_ informal meeting (about a project) I had mentioned it as well on 6/29, but nothing has been said to me since.
I'm not terribly sure how to go about forcing the issue when managers are unable to fit time into their schedule for me.
I wouldn't consider myself completely introverted, but I don't want to seem needy (ie: cutting into other people's busy days/schedules)
Hopefully I hear something back soon, but I'm not holding my breath.
Re: Ask HN: How does your company do performance reviews?
#78My company uses quarterly reviews. Here are the metrics my company uses to review each developer: 1. We have an in-house developed tool that tracks git and mercurial commits and calculates the test coverage and code quality for each individual developer. 2. We use jira to track the number of points each developer burns (points are shared between developer, reviewer and QA). We also track the number of bugs each devel…
"This being said" sounds like otherwise the metric works. I wonder how. The first two points do not seem right (measuring code commits! Punishing bugs, tracking the burn rate as the person's measure of progress!) The last two points are subjective, but the objectivity of the first two points is likely misleading. At the same time, because they are perceived as objective, they are likely to lead the overall measurement of progress. So the example you gave in the last paragraph (of people avoiding blame) does not sounds as an exception, more as a consequence of the choice of progress measurement tools and criteria.
Re: Ask HN: How does your company do performance reviews?
#79Earlier quoted context omitted.
"one of my colleagues and friend was "forced" to quit the company because he scored really low on the jira burn rate metric" This sounds totally insane. I Cannot believe this happens in real world.
It sounds like justification for a decision made for less quantitative reasons. Managers don't say, "So let's see who's the worst performer... it's Tom! Weird, he seems to be one of my best developers. Oh, well! The metrics say he's the worst. Off to fire Tom!"
It sounds like justification for a decision made for less quantitative reasons.
Re: Ask HN: How does your company do performance reviews?
#80My company uses quarterly reviews. Here are the metrics my company uses to review each developer: 1. We have an in-house developed tool that tracks git and mercurial commits and calculates the test coverage and code quality for each individual developer. 2. We use jira to track the number of points each developer burns (points are shared between developer, reviewer and QA). We also track the number of bugs each devel…
"one of my colleagues and friend was "forced" to quit the company because he scored really low on the jira burn rate metric" This sounds totally insane. I Cannot believe this happens in real world.
It does. I've worked at two places that implemented the first two items in one degree or another. One place my manager assigned me a project to automate the commit counter for each developer and wanted to implement a standard template for the commit message developers would be required to use and that could be used to identify the particular feature or project so that commits / dev / project could be measured.
Software development in the Bay Area and other tech hubs with similar (or aspiring to be similar) company profiles can be depressing.