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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

#51

Post by castlecrasher2 »

giantg2 wrote: post #31
PopeDotNinja wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm stupid in this way, too.

How's your career? Did this have an impact? Mine is ruined and this might have contributed a little. I'll never be more than an intermediate developer and I'm worried about being fired/laid off.

>I'll never be more than an intermediate developer

Do you mean this at your specific company? I felt the same way in my last company because there was definitely nowhere to go up, but I've since moved on and am in a more senior role.

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

#52

Post by twiddlydo »

ravenstine wrote: post #20

While I really like the sentiment, I think there's a reason why people naturally don't provide much positive feedback about individuals at workplaces. What do you really get by pointing out the good work of a coworker? A warm fuzzy feeling, to be sure. Maybe greater comradeship. But wait, who's the next person to get a promotion? Maybe it'll be the person you keep praising to management. So you'll probably have to wo…

You have to be so good that they can't ignore you. Or, so good, it doesn't matter that that group of folks who remain silent are around. There will always be another group of folks who are genuine and will praise you for doing great work.

Now, the most difficult part, is when someone in position of power decides to keep silent — like your manager or another high profile individual. In that case, it's better to bounce, you don't want to work in an org that promotes those kind of people.

Peter Thiel said it best in Zero to One. I'm paraphrasing here, if a start up is not rewarding individuals based off of merit, but PR, then it's time to go.

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

#53

Post by oblio »

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…

> well known software company

named...? :-)

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

#55

Post by jorblumesea »

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…

It doesn't have to even be the stats game. Just the fact that employees know there's mandatory 10% cuts every year/quarter whatever produces a hostile work environment. Amazon is a fantastic example of this. The PIP culture has produced an environment where everyone is backstabbing each other for promotions and to keep their job. If solid product gets built, it's incidental. People are too concerned about their jobs and employment.

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

#56

Post by wittyreference »

In my medical training, I had precisely one patient reach out to hospital leadership to commend my care of them. It was really appreciated - I like to think that patients appreciate when they're treated kindly and well taken care of, but it seems that's taken for granted. I didn't so much care for the official recognition as just knowing that the patient was actually touched by the trouble and feeling I put into looking after them.

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

#57

Post by milesvp »

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?

Let me ask you another question. How do you identify the additive employees from the multiplicative employees? You probably don’t want all multiplicative employees on a team, but you surely want some of them. How do you create metrics that don’t encourage too much of one or the other? How much is too much of one or the other?

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

#59

Post by grecy »

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…

> All it does is create a zero-sum game

Which is exactly what the employer wants.

It's also why they don't want people talking to each other about their salaries, which is a practice that needs to die.

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

#60

Post by toast0 »

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?

The performance evaluations I've been through claim to be evaluating how an employee does vs expectations. That doesn't demand comparing workers to each other.

In theory, you have a list of things to check for each category of performance. If you tick enough boxes, you get a certain category. In reality, it seems managers stack rank, and then apply the required curve to the stack rank. If everybody on your team does their job as expected (or better), too bad, X% need to be flagged as poor performers as declared by the performance curve.

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