Hell is other people: performance management at Big Tech • Hacker News Board

Re: Hell is other people: performance management at Big Tech

#131

Post by charles_f » Tue, Jan 30, 2024, 1:43 AM UTC

simonebrunozzi wrote: post #2

I'd guess a lot of people would have their own special stories to tell. However, do not underestimate the fact that some of these stories might not be easily disclosed. A "friend of mine", let's call it Bob, decided to leave one of the big tech companies (call it "A"), and join another big tech company (call it "B"), which offers him exactly double the salary. Due to a very unlucky combination, a former colleague at…

> Bob is never to disclose anything about this, publicly, ever

You got to appreciate here that not only A got their investigation done, paid for, and then on top of that didn't want the bad reputation of being a shit employer. Way for them to enjoy both their cake and the money for their cake!

Re: Hell is other people: performance management at Big Tech

#132

Post by SergeAx » Tue, Jan 30, 2024, 2:32 AM UTC

The thing is, performance management and performance review are ways to formalize promotion and firing decisions and protect the company from being dragged to court on those grounds.

The truth is, every good enough manager of a 5-10-person team knows exactly who the best and the worst single performers are. Taking them out of the picture and repeating the process, they likely sort their reports on a performance scale with quite precision.

(if you cannot do that, chances are that you are not a good enough manager)

The devil is in the detail: explaining that sorting algorithm to the reports. Most of the time, it is impossible. Moreover, it is sometimes hard to argue with the worst underperformer if they are actively pushing back. That's why corporations need a formal process.

Re: Hell is other people: performance management at Big Tech

#133

Post by josephg » Wed, Jan 31, 2024, 4:15 AM UTC

WalterBright wrote: post #119

josephg wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some things also, weirdly, turn out to be unimportant. If you start a company with great project estimates internally but a mediocre product, you’ll fail. And if you make a great product but struggle to estimate feature costs internally, you’ll do fine. It sure would be nice if we could all correctly estimate costs, but accurate estimates are clearly not essential for startups to crush it.

You can have a mediocre product and succeed by executing well.

If you succeed with a mediocre product, maybe it wasn’t a mediocre product.

But yes, I agree with your point.

Re: Hell is other people: performance management at Big Tech

#134

Post by kylebenzle » Wed, Jan 31, 2024, 6:22 AM UTC

ThrowawayR2 wrote: post #12

> " ...as well as a handful of unlucky folks who deliver solid results but lack social grace and self-promotion skills. " Ironic that what was once the character archetype for geeky programmers have now become pariahs in the industry they pioneered. Now we all toot our own horns as loudly as we can, hoping to drown out our fellows, in search of the next bonus or job hop and devil take the hindmost. Introverted, have…

This user has been shilling his ideas on HN for literally years. If you vouched for his comments you literally got suckered into helping out a spammer.

Re: Hell is other people: performance management at Big Tech

#135

Post by simonebrunozzi » Sat, Feb 03, 2024, 3:18 AM UTC

loevborg wrote: post #93

simonebrunozzi wrote: post #2

I'd guess a lot of people would have their own special stories to tell. However, do not underestimate the fact that some of these stories might not be easily disclosed. A "friend of mine", let's call it Bob, decided to leave one of the big tech companies (call it "A"), and join another big tech company (call it "B"), which offers him exactly double the salary. Due to a very unlucky combination, a former colleague at…

OMG a VC in Venice. Do you have an actual office there? I'm jealous. Venice was the original Silicon Valley. Aldus Manutius's print shop is an example of Venetian high tech. A good proportion of Europe's books were printed in Venice in the early 1500s.

Yes, I do. Love it here.

And yes, lots going in Venice 4-5 centuries ago.