Dumb Rules That Make Your Best People Want to Quit (2017)
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Re: Dumb Rules That Make Your Best People Want to Quit (2017)
#2Personally I hate performance reviews, but if a formal system doesn't exist people will demand something. In the absence of a system there can be appearances of favoritism and, if the managers aren't disciplined, things like raises and promotions can end up being ad-hoc and random.
That said a performance review system doesn't necessarily completely cure favoritism but it at least leaves a paper trail. It should also force management into thinking about how to structure raises and promotions in a way that they're more evenly and rationally applied.
Re: Dumb Rules That Make Your Best People Want to Quit (2017)
#3"Trust them to produce, and if they are not producing, let them go."
This sentence is contradicts :
"Let’s be honest: Performance reviews are a waste of time."
How are you going to know if the person is productive if you are not doing performance reviews?
Re: Dumb Rules That Make Your Best People Want to Quit (2017)
#4I would add dress code to this list.
"We have smart casual dress code in this software department. So you can't wear shorts event if its 40 degrees celsius. Oh and shirt is mandatory"
Re: Dumb Rules That Make Your Best People Want to Quit (2017)
#5A lot of articles recommend against formal performance reviews, and in some sense I agree, but it is important to be thoughtful about how you're going to give feedback and work with your employees to help them perform more effectively.
Oftentimes formal performance reviews are replaced with some sort of continual feedback system (whether through an actual formal system or just an informal process), but in my experience a lot of continual feedback systems just turn into a back-patting machine and lose a lot of the constructive criticism that a formal review process can bring out.
Stack-ranking is obviously dumb, and yes, assigning things to a 5 point scale probably is too. But those were never the actually valuable parts of good reviews. You should always find a way to spend time and be thoughtful about where team members are excelling and where they're falling short.
I've worked a few jobs that decided that performance reviews were a pointless exercise and I honestly couldn't have told you what everyone thought of my performance prior to me leaving.
Re: Dumb Rules That Make Your Best People Want to Quit (2017)
#6Trust them to produce, and if they are not producing, let them go
This is incredibly wasteful and an easy to way to lose good people. Take a few minutes to conduct a 'performance review' and see why they aren't producing. Sometimes it's an easy fix. I've seen companies fire people who where world class at Y simply because they weren't performing at X, despite the fact that the company also had a different department that did Y.
Re: Dumb Rules That Make Your Best People Want to Quit (2017)
#7I would add dress code to this list. "We have smart casual dress code in this software department. So you can't wear shorts event if its 40 degrees celsius. Oh and shirt is mandatory"
We had a chap who wore leather, except sometimes a T-Shirt expressing quite harshly an opinion about a globally recognised major religious figure from antiquity.
I was glad to see a dress code come in.
Re: Dumb Rules That Make Your Best People Want to Quit (2017)
#8"Trust them to produce, and if they are not producing, let them go." This sentence is contradicts : "Let’s be honest: Performance reviews are a waste of time." How are you going to know if the person is productive if you are not doing performance reviews?
People know when you're not productive. Co-workers in particular but managers, too. When this is detected, I would rather tell a non-productive person this right away and not wait for any review. Perhaps then, after a few of these, an adjustment in salary or employment can be made.
Re: Dumb Rules That Make Your Best People Want to Quit (2017)
#9I would add dress code to this list. "We have smart casual dress code in this software department. So you can't wear shorts event if its 40 degrees celsius. Oh and shirt is mandatory"
We had a chap who wore leather, except sometimes a T-Shirt expressing quite harshly an opinion about a globally recognised major religious figure from antiquity. I was glad to see a dress code come in.
When I worked in the medical field, doctors would occasionally visit unannounced. We were required to wear a shirt and tie, with an available jacket, at all times.
Re: Dumb Rules That Make Your Best People Want to Quit (2017)
#10I would add dress code to this list. "We have smart casual dress code in this software department. So you can't wear shorts event if its 40 degrees celsius. Oh and shirt is mandatory"
We had a chap who wore leather, except sometimes a T-Shirt expressing quite harshly an opinion about a globally recognised major religious figure from antiquity. I was glad to see a dress code come in.
Crass T-shirts are certainly one thing, but what is wrong with leather..?