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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)

#51

Post by pjc50 »

Tor3 wrote: post #41
pjc50 wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why?

Indeed, why? I've seen exactly that. Stupid rules coming up, extremely performing employees leaving or making it clear that unless that's revoked they'll leave.

My favourite example of this was when one company tried to issue all the devs with new contracts with the "standard" IP clauses claiming ownership of everything we did. Since there were a number of Free Software devs on the team, this was unacceptable ... so, while asking for clarification and a change, we simply didn't sign the new contracts. There was no way the company could have taken action against us without completely wrecking their ability to ship, so it stalemated until they backed down.

Re: Dumb Rules That Make Your Best People Want to Quit (2017)

#52

Post by kertis »

pjc50 wrote: post #19

> (Don't do) Performance reviews > Trust them to produce, and if they are not producing, let them go. If you are firing someone for performance, you have done a performance review . It's just that it might be entirely in your head or based on office gossip about who appears most productive. You wouldn't optimise a program without a profiler, so you shouldn't make hire/fire decisions on productivity without some means…

Usually each worker have management, I mean those guys to whole everybody is reported. In IT I am talking about TLs, PMs and so on. Maybe it's easier just to ask them or even better to have a a personal meeting. Nobody experienced believes in performance reviews, it's a fiction.

Re: Dumb Rules That Make Your Best People Want to Quit (2017)

#53

Post by dingaling »

sonnyblarney wrote: post #26
ryanbrunner wrote: post #5

A 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 experien…

For most people I think this makes sense. Personally, blunt candor can work as well. I do not let anything slip, if I think someone needs some direction or coaching it basically happens in realtime. There's really no need for a formal review if feedback is constant. Sometimes the feedback can be more general, I feel someone needs some hints I just give it to them. I don't make it personal and don't expect people to t…

Blunt candor seems great until my response is "I have too much work"

Performance appraisal / coaching is pointless when workload means someone can never give 100% to any task.

Re: Dumb Rules That Make Your Best People Want to Quit (2017)

#54

Post by k__ »

"If you have mediocre people doing mediocre work, you are going to have a mediocre company."

Aren't most people mediocre per definition?

I really hate all this talk about "We want the best of the best!"

Sure you want them, but there aren't enough for all and chances are, if you aren't a really big company, you won't get the few that exist.

You need to shape you company so that you can deliver value to your customers without the need of a few geniuses. Your company should be more than the sum of its (mediocre) employees.

Re: Dumb Rules That Make Your Best People Want to Quit (2017)

#55

Post by dagw »

geomark wrote: post #39

Indeed some of these rules and policies are ridiculous. I particularly enjoyed my time as a mid-level manager at a large aerospace company where we did stack ranking each year. We had to stack rank an organization that consisted of five departments with over 300 engineers. I was one of the department managers. Each department manager's goal was to get as many of his members ranked as highly as possible. The game theo…

"If you don’t trust the people you hired, why did you hire them?" How about because they interviewed well and you thought you could trust them

Or just as likely, "you" didn't hire them. Someone else in the company did based on criteria that are different than yours.

Re: Dumb Rules That Make Your Best People Want to Quit (2017)

#56

Post by dagw »

sonnyblarney wrote: post #26
ryanbrunner wrote: post #5

A 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 experien…

For most people I think this makes sense. Personally, blunt candor can work as well. I do not let anything slip, if I think someone needs some direction or coaching it basically happens in realtime. There's really no need for a formal review if feedback is constant. Sometimes the feedback can be more general, I feel someone needs some hints I just give it to them. I don't make it personal and don't expect people to t…

Personally, blunt candor can work as well.

Only if it goes both ways. If I can't respond to my managers blunt candor with "the reason we're so far behind is because you suck at time management and promised the customer two features we hadn't even begun to plan for" without fear of being reprimanded or punished then blunt candor isn't very effective.

Re: Dumb Rules That Make Your Best People Want to Quit (2017)

#57

Post by sonnyblarney »

dagw wrote: post #56
sonnyblarney wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For most people I think this makes sense. Personally, blunt candor can work as well. I do not let anything slip, if I think someone needs some direction or coaching it basically happens in realtime. There's really no need for a formal review if feedback is constant. Sometimes the feedback can be more general, I feel someone needs some hints I just give it to them. I don't make it personal and don't expect people to t…

Personally, blunt candor can work as well. Only if it goes both ways. If I can't respond to my managers blunt candor with "the reason we're so far behind is because you suck at time management and promised the customer two features we hadn't even begun to plan for" without fear of being reprimanded or punished then blunt candor isn't very effective.

""the reason we're so far behind is because you suck at time management and promised the customer two features we hadn't even begun to plan for" "

First, if you ever said that to your boss you should definitely be fired.

Second, that's operational information, not performance feedback.

Third, it's not your prerogative to tell your boss what he's good or bad at. They give you the review, not the other way around.

Re: Dumb Rules That Make Your Best People Want to Quit (2017)

#58

Post by EliRivers »

bartread wrote: post #24
sornaensis wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Crass T-shirts are certainly one thing, but what is wrong with leather..?

I was wondering that as well. Exactly what sort of leather garments are we talking about here?

They were leather trousers, as I recall. Laced up at the sides; not sure if they were permanently joined at the top, or if they were just a front and a back that one had to completely tie together.

Nobody had a problem with the leather (although a peekaboo stripe of visible leg down the outside of each, covered in a criss cross of something that looked like shoelace was sometimes a surprise). That was just flavour detail.

Re: Dumb Rules That Make Your Best People Want to Quit (2017)

#59

Post by EliRivers »

gsich wrote: post #23
EliRivers wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

A religion user should be able to handle that.

I'm not at all religious, but when I found myself reading "Jesus is a cunt" every time I happened to look at him, it did irk me. I think it would have not mattered what specific name was there, emblazoned in four inch high letters on his clothes.

Re: Dumb Rules That Make Your Best People Want to Quit (2017)

#60

Post by EliRivers »

bartread wrote: post #22
EliRivers wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I think it's possible to deal with offensive (or otherwise inappropriate) clothing on a case by case basis without the need to bring in a smart dress code. Sometimes people implement policies as a way of avoiding awkward conversations but, to me at any rate, part of being a good manager and leader is measured by your ability and willingness to treat your staff like human beings and have those awkward conversations wh…

The dress code that came in was effectively "Do not have the word 'Cunt' written in four inch high letters on your clothing".
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