Why your boss is incompetent • Hacker News Board

Re: Why your boss is incompetent

#11

Post by pyre » Fri, Dec 18, 2009, 8:10 AM UTC

hugh_ wrote: post #7

pyre wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> requiring that moving into management always come with a pay cut to make people honest What about people that can't afford a pay cut financially?

If you can't find a way to deal with a pay cut, you're probably not cut out to be a manager. If you're spending 100% of your income then you're not good at planning ahead. If you can't find things to cut in your personal budget, you'll suck at managing the company's budget. And if you can't talk your wife into making do with less, you're not persuasive enough to handle employees.

You know... sometimes life throws you curveballs. If you believe that planning will prevent any and all financial problems from appearing then I have a bridge to sell you...

Re: Why your boss is incompetent

#12

Post by roundsquare » Fri, Dec 18, 2009, 8:58 AM UTC

luu wrote: post #2

They've shown that random selection is good when there's zero correlation between performance at level N and level N+1. Personally, I'm more interested in what happens if the correlation is non-zero, and performance at level N+1 has more impact than performance at level N? How does the best promotion strategy change as the level of correlation and impact of being higher up the ladder changes?

They didn't give the details of the model. But I don't think you need the model to make some reasonable statements.. Let r = correlation between level N and and N + 1

r = -1 ==> promote worst performers r = 0 ==> promote at random or based on completely independent criteria. r = 1 ==> promote best performers

And you can fill in everything in between. Putting it this way almost makes it seem obvious. In fact though, the hardest part is judging r.

impact of being higher up the ladder changes?

They did do this:

measured as a weighted average of employee competence, with higher-level positions counting for more

Edit: Missed a word.

Re: Why your boss is incompetent

#13

Post by ZeroGravitas » Fri, Dec 18, 2009, 9:23 PM UTC

btilly wrote: post #3

This reminds me of First, Break All The Rules (see http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0684852861?ie=UTF8&tag=... to get the book). They point out that many promotions require different skills, and that sometimes works badly. This is particularly true when people are promoted to manager. To avoid this problem they recommend giving people promotion possibilities within job roles AND requiring that moving into management…

The second paragraph is good, but doesn't go far enough. We're stuck in an aristocratic management culture, where moving up the pyramid makes you a better person. Not a better manager, better employee or more productive, but a better class of person. All the standard ills of e.g. good engineers needing to become substandard managers in order to progress flow directly from that one unspoken assumption.

Why does your manager get paid more than you? It's a simple question that people simply don't ask. The Coasian model of the firm suggest that employees need managers to prevent the other workers slacking off and free riding on your effort. I'd love to work for a business where the really scare talent treaded the managers as the interchangeable, and easily replaceable, support staff that they really are.