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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

#371

Post by iamthemonster »

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…

Like at most large companies, I am "stack ranked" and a bell curve is applied, but in my company we do not really have any problem with gaming the system, or trying to shit on your colleagues.

The way this is achieved at my company is having no quantitative performance indicators and having your performance decided in a completely opaque process by leaders three levels above you in the organisation who you have never met.

As a consequence, we have all given up on engaging in the formal side of the performance review process because we know it is a waste of time. However, if you have a good line manager, you end up having a genuine conversation about what went well and what could be done better.

An odd situation, but infinitely preferable to counting up the number of fake "thank you" comments you receive (which just makes me vomit).

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

#372

Post by gdy »

pfortuny wrote: post #141
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?

You are conflating justice with “objectivity”. They are not the same thing.

How so?

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

#373

Post by burntoutfire »

jedberg wrote: post #203
normalnorm wrote: post #195

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> When you get let go I'm sorry for going a bit offtopic, but I have noticed this weird linguistic contortion "get let go" often. Why the euphemisms? You get fired. It doesn't hurt to speak plainly. This "let go" expression seems weirdly childish, like how people say that someone "passed on" to avoid confronting the hard reality of death. And I'm not picking on you, I know that almost everyone talks like this now.

Well at Netflix in particular, there is no real difference between being fired and being laid off, since both come with the same severance and benefits. So it makes sense to use a generic term. In most cases you use the generic term to avoid liability. Saying someone was fired could be libelous/slanderous.

The "let go" is total corporate newspeak. You can't "let" go someone who didn't ask to go nor doesn't want to. You can only force him to go (by firing him).

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

#374

Post by burntoutfire »

therealdrag0 wrote: post #312
jedberg wrote: post #148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the number of people that are let go is overexaggerated. But yes, it is easy to fire and hire . The two go hand in hand.

This works for high tier companies. But mid tier don’t have the same pull. It’s HaRD to hire good people. The funnel is full of chaff. My team has been interviewing for a Sr engineer for months.

You simply need to pay above the market. My company does that quite often when we need someone senior quickly to fill in a gap after some other senior left and you'd be surprised of the caliber of people that come out of the woodwork.

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

#375

Post by burntoutfire »

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?

Can you do that even with metrics? I really doubt that.

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

#376

Post by fbanon9876 »

azemetre wrote: post #309
fbanon9876 wrote: post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I work at FB. Can't speak for other teams, but this does not match the culture I've seen in 3+ years. There is a tool to send thanks, but there are no expectations -- it's just a nice thing to see coworkers appreciate you. I've done reviews and never heard anyone mention the number of "thanks" their report has received. The PSC cycle (bi-annual review) is stressful, which I think is where the "craziness" stems. OTOH,…

How does FB handle people that are strict 9-5'ers? I read a lot of conflicting things on teamblind or glassdoor about a poor WLB. It's hard to tell if this was someone in their early 20s out of school struggling to work with a large company or someone mid 30s that burned out. If you just do your obligations does it look bad? I mean not everyone can be a top performer, especially if there is a curve. Some companies wi…

I do 6-10 hours per day, depending on the day. My team has quite good WLB. I have heard of other teams that are more pressured, but haven't spoken directly to those teams.

Compared to my previous... 4 jobs (+1 company founded), this is the 2nd lowest stress. The one lower stress job had 1/3 the compensation, no career growth, and was just a "marking time" federal tech job. YMMV.

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

#377

Post by lensopra »

iamacyborg wrote: post #333
sobani wrote: post #332

Earlier quoted context omitted.

With stack ranking a manager must rank the entire team from worst to best and fire / warn the lowest ranked person in the team. Imagine a team with the 10 best people you ever worked with. Now fire the least great of them. You must, because didn't you just say he/she is the worst of the team? Instead the Netflix process sounds a lot more fair. If everyone is awesome, no one needs to be fired.

I mean, they both sound like dystopian nightmare scenarios tbh.

What part of Netflix's arrangement sounds like a "dystopian nightmare scenario"?

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

#378

Post by iamacyborg »

lensopra wrote: post #377
iamacyborg wrote: post #333

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mean, they both sound like dystopian nightmare scenarios tbh.

What part of Netflix's arrangement sounds like a "dystopian nightmare scenario"?

Get fired for no reason because your manager doesn't like you?

I guess a lot of that is helped by "at will" employment in the States. In the UK for example if an employee has worked for 2 years at a company you can't just fire them for no real reason.

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