"That is her picture, to the left"? Uh... awkward?
How Adobe Got Rid of Traditional Performance Reviews
31–40 of 45 posts
Re: How Adobe Got Rid of Traditional Performance Reviews
#32Annual Performance Reviews is one of the reasons why I chose to be a consultant. Really. I always have a smile on my face when my boss announces the dreaded annual review time in a meeting and then looks at me and goes "Not you of course". Love the feeling that I don't have to worry about that crap. You may not like Adobe for many reasons but this move is definitely worth a welcome. It is high time companies stop thi…
I agree 100%. Annual performance review is stupid. Not only that, at my old work, we had mid year review.
It may be just me but feel like performance review has stuck around as long as it has because 'HR' says so...
Re: How Adobe Got Rid of Traditional Performance Reviews
#33Performance reviews are terrible, because there will always be error, and people who are overrated get complacent and those who are underrated get pissed.
If the manager's any good, people know how they're doing. Okay, so what if the manager's not good? Then the employee's performance, if low, isn't really his fault.
There's not much upside to reviews, because companies will either (a) find ways to give bonuses and advancement to top performers regardless of what they formally score, or (b) won't, but reviews won't help them.
They exist for two reasons. One is to intimidate people. But that just doesn't work. Intimidating people into working hard leads to a useless product. The second is to generate a paper trail before firing people. But I think PIPs and performance reviews are a really bad solution. Better is to fire as soon as the problem is evident and irremediable, but to give severance instead of the 2-month "walking dead" phase in which he shits all over morale.
The worst thing about formalized reviews is that they inhibit internal mobility. Top performers don't want to leave, for fear of risking a bad review. But in most companies, no one wants to take on the 80% of people who are "just average", even if they might become A players on a better-fit project. That makes departmental residency permanent and causes the "warring departments" phenomenon for which Microsoft is known.
Re: How Adobe Got Rid of Traditional Performance Reviews
#34This certainly is good improvement. However ,for this method to work you really have to have good manager who understands issues, have vision and puts Org. interest and employees interest before self interest. Since I started my career I had couple of selfish , egocentric and narcissistic managers ( mostly Indians, sorry but truth) who literally tried to block my career path. So I would suggest not just have everythi…
Why is it relevant to say they were Indian? As if your anecdotal experience says anything about managers or Indians in general
My comment was in general what I think could be better way for evaluation and while citing that I phrased my personal past experience with Indian managers. It was no way on stereotypical side.
Re: How Adobe Got Rid of Traditional Performance Reviews
#35So, after actually reading the article: Adobe had a dysfunctional system were managers were not giving any feedback during the year, waiting for the annual performance review. So essentially no management at all.
That's pretty typical, in my experience, actually. This is true even when 1-1 meetings are scheduled more regularly. Management has a vested interest in making sure that their department budgets are large, but that their payroll budgets aren't, and protecting the company (for small-ish companies) or their managers (in larger corporations, where 'departments' are better thought of as companies-within-the-company, and…
"...an employee is going to do better for himself if he assumes the relationship with management is more adversarial than collegial"
It's sad, but I wish I knew this (or maybe convinced myself to believe it) sooner in my career. Young professional tech people are too naive/trusting to know better. Glad and happy I went independent, cause that kind of environment just doesn't align with my values :)
Re: How Adobe Got Rid of Traditional Performance Reviews
#36Hilarious - I was wondering where Microsoft copied this system from. This is exactly the new Microsoft system.
Re: How Adobe Got Rid of Traditional Performance Reviews
#37This is a good idea but requires a far better quality of manager. The question is whether a company can find and promote and train them to make good decisions all up the chain (assuming each manager level does the same thing all the way up to the President or CEO). If this doesn't work you wind up with cronyism.
It's striking to me that I've never seen or heard of a performance review process that allows for employees to provide feedback on how well their manager is doing. Sometimes a manager is just not a good fit for the group that they're managing, and like all people they too make mistakes, but all the efforts to "measure" things does not apply to them, which I can't imagine should exist in a universe that has the word "…
Really? I know at Microsoft (under the old system, at least) I was asked for feedback on my manager to give to his manager every year.
Re: How Adobe Got Rid of Traditional Performance Reviews
#38> Since the new system was implemented, involuntary departures have increased by 50%: this is because...the new system requires executives and managers to have regular “tough discussions” with employees...rather than putting them off until the next performance review cycle. Hrm. 50% increased firings seems kinda high to blame entirely on frequency of review. Were these guys bad and the managers just didn't realize it…
I know a few people at Adobe so this is anecdotal, but I was under the impression from them that turnover was pretty low, so I'm curious if the % looks a little inflated just based off the relative numbers.
Re: How Adobe Got Rid of Traditional Performance Reviews
#39Hi, my name is Ben and I just filled out my first 'traditional' performance review ever. I guess the company's trying to act mature or something. I feel like sharing.. The whole form was full of buzzwords, felt moronic and - useless. You were supposed to judge yourself in various ways, with arbitrary scales and that thing was full of vague descriptions that could've just as easily been part of a horoscope. Or .. a fo…
The thing to remember about performance reviews (especially for technical people who's responsibilities don't change that much) is that your first one takes forever to write, but then you can copy-paste from year-to-year.
And that it's impossible for the people who place stock in them to distinguish earnest buzzword-laden self promotion from mockery, so have fun with it.
Re: How Adobe Got Rid of Traditional Performance Reviews
#40So, nobody commented on this..
"Once a year, managers make adjustments in employee compensation".
Performance reviews are supposed to be a two way street. We talk about if the employee is adding value to the company, how both parties could improve to create more more value, then negotiate how much the company will pay to have the employee stay.
Sure give feedback early and often. You really should be talking every day with your manager in the daily standups.
But lets be honest, if you are still only doing annual pay reviews there is still just one meeting a year that matters.