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When your coworker does great work, tell their manager

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Re: When your coworker does great work, tell their manager

#41

Post by manacit »

AceyMan wrote: post #8

I worked for the airlines (first career) and for public-facing employees it was a big deal if you got a 'good letter' from a customer. (It was equally suck if you happened to get a bad one...). We also could file 'thank you / attaboy' paperwork for our colleagues, both in our own department or ones we interacted with. Those were just as valuable (if not more) than ones from the customers. Over the years (11) during m…

Delta (at least) gives their elite members "Job Well Done" certificates every year they qualify for this reason - in a service oriented company, having a default currency for recognizing people going above and beyond is a great tool.

I'm not sure what benefit one of the certificates (they have serial numbers!) actually confers, but I imagine it's more about the emotional uplift than it is monetary value.

I've long wanted a way to bring this to more workplaces. In previous companies, we had shout-outs at our company all-hands, which were low-effort to write and a fantastic way to recognize a coworker. It didn't involve any $$ compensation, which made it all the more meaningful to me.

Re: When your coworker does great work, tell their manager

#42

Post by JMTQp8lwXL »

ar_lan wrote: post #30
ping_pong wrote: post #17

This is the biggest problem with stack ranking software engineers, the practice I had to endure while at a well known software company. All it does is create a zero-sum game, so I have no incentive to compliment anyone else. I needed to make sure that my rank was as high as I could make it, which really sucked during performance time. It was very stressful, even though I was a high performer, because it didn't foster…

Humans have proven time and time again that we are very good at optimizing for specific metrics, and apparently generally very poor at choosing the right metrics to target. School is a prime example, in my opinion - there is so much I "learned" in school that I'll never remember, because I didn't take a proper approach to learning - I just optimized for grades. I had a 4.7 GPA and could hardly tell you a thing about…

If we don't have metrics, how are we to fairly and objectively compare one worker's performance to another?

Re: When your coworker does great work, tell their manager

#43

Post by btowngar »

JMTQp8lwXL wrote: post #42
ar_lan wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Humans have proven time and time again that we are very good at optimizing for specific metrics, and apparently generally very poor at choosing the right metrics to target. School is a prime example, in my opinion - there is so much I "learned" in school that I'll never remember, because I didn't take a proper approach to learning - I just optimized for grades. I had a 4.7 GPA and could hardly tell you a thing about…

If we don't have metrics, how are we to fairly and objectively compare one worker's performance to another?

It's not that metrics in general are bad, it's that bad metrics are bad.

Re: When your coworker does great work, tell their manager

#44

Post by amznthrowaway5 »

JMTQp8lwXL wrote: post #42
ar_lan wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Humans have proven time and time again that we are very good at optimizing for specific metrics, and apparently generally very poor at choosing the right metrics to target. School is a prime example, in my opinion - there is so much I "learned" in school that I'll never remember, because I didn't take a proper approach to learning - I just optimized for grades. I had a 4.7 GPA and could hardly tell you a thing about…

If we don't have metrics, how are we to fairly and objectively compare one worker's performance to another?

How is obsessive focus on metrics making anything more fair? Even if you have metrics, choosing which ones are important still ends up being subjective, and the metrics are usually incomparable between projects. So the metrics alone don't tell anything useful and can still be easily gamed to make the manager's preferred employees look good and disliked employees look bad.

Re: When your coworker does great work, tell their manager

#45

Post by shahbaby »

PopeDotNinja wrote: post #25
giantg2 wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm stupid. I give people the praise they deserve, even when it hurts me.

I'm stupid in this way, too.

I used to be this stupid too but then I learned that it's better to just play their game, win and then move on, no point in fighting it, just think of it as another part of the job.

Re: When your coworker does great work, tell their manager

#46

Post by natalyarostova »

giantg2 wrote: post #21
ping_pong wrote: post #17

This is the biggest problem with stack ranking software engineers, the practice I had to endure while at a well known software company. All it does is create a zero-sum game, so I have no incentive to compliment anyone else. I needed to make sure that my rank was as high as I could make it, which really sucked during performance time. It was very stressful, even though I was a high performer, because it didn't foster…

I'm stupid. I give people the praise they deserve, even when it hurts me.

You'll always have people across the industry who want you to go work with them :)

Re: When your coworker does great work, tell their manager

#47

Post by fblp »

I feel like the main point should be "if your coworker does great work, tell them". Be curious, see if they have feedback through you, see how they'd like to be recognized.

That step is often missed. People are often resistant to providing direct feedback - yet that is also how the strongest bonds are made.

The more a manager acts as an intermediary, the less direct emotional (and consequently professional) relationships are.

Re: When your coworker does great work, tell their manager

#48

Post by andreilys »

amznthrowaway5 wrote: post #44
JMTQp8lwXL wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If we don't have metrics, how are we to fairly and objectively compare one worker's performance to another?

How is obsessive focus on metrics making anything more fair? Even if you have metrics, choosing which ones are important still ends up being subjective, and the metrics are usually incomparable between projects. So the metrics alone don't tell anything useful and can still be easily gamed to make the manager's preferred employees look good and disliked employees look bad.

Metrics are CYA insurance for managers to promote or PIP employees without getting into trouble with HR

Re: When your coworker does great work, tell their manager

#49

Post by humanlion87 »

giantg2 wrote: post #21
ping_pong wrote: post #17

This is the biggest problem with stack ranking software engineers, the practice I had to endure while at a well known software company. All it does is create a zero-sum game, so I have no incentive to compliment anyone else. I needed to make sure that my rank was as high as I could make it, which really sucked during performance time. It was very stressful, even though I was a high performer, because it didn't foster…

I'm stupid. I give people the praise they deserve, even when it hurts me.

Same here. I am also stupid in another way - I can't boast of my "incredible" accomplishments by sending out huge and beautiful emails to prove my "impact". With that kind of combination, I am looking forward to stagnation at my current level.

Re: When your coworker does great work, tell their manager

#50

Post by cosmie »

booleandilemma wrote: post #29

I can relate. I've received many slack DMs from my peers telling me how great I'm doing on such-and-such project, and I'm grateful for their compliments, but at the end of the day, it does nothing for me, they're just empty words. My manager is left in the dark about what I'm doing.

> My manager is left in the dark about what I'm doing.

Then loop your manager in. I work for a marketing agency primarily doing consulting work, and operate semi-autonomously from my manager. For the clients and accounts I support, I am the face of my group. A client may not even know my manager's name, unless there's been cause for someone with a fancier title than mine to make an appearance. And account teams may have found their way to me directly rather than routing through my boss, so have no working relationship with him.

If I get a kudos via email, I either BCC him on my reply, or forward it to him as an fyi. If it's given verbally, I thank the person giving it, and let them know how much I'd appreciate if they could jot that down in writing and send it over. If it came through something like a Slack DM, I'd either screenshot it for something minor and pass that along or again express my appreciation and call out how much it'd mean if they could throw that into an email.

I've never had anyone balk at or refuse to do the above. If someone has taken the time to give you kudos for your work, they're usually appreciative enough with what you're doing that they are perfectly happy to put it in an email for you if prompted. And more often than not, the writeup that comes through talks you up far more than the informal shout out they originally made, as they're well aware of why you're asking for it.

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