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Ways to Minimize Employee Retention

rustyrazorblade.com

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Re: Ways to Minimize Employee Retention

#11

Post by trhway »

dasil003 wrote: post #5

If you have to write this post to vent because you are stuck in a job you can't afford to leave and you are scared you'll be fired if you raise these issues to management, then so be it, write the bloody post and I hope you feel better. However in terms of practical changes, this post can neither benefit you nor anyone else. We all know about broken management cultures that this post describes, but none of those mana…

sounds like you're an extrovert and the poster is introvert.

>However in terms of practical changes, this post can neither benefit you nor anyone else.

Your post can't benefit introverts the same way his can't extroverts like you.

Anyway, i'd argue that it isn't actually bad retention policies. They are actually quite good at retention. It is just that it retains the specific kind of employees, the ones that "learned to stop worrying and love ... err... it is actually enough just to stop worrying" (speaking from my personal experience - had worked and is currently working at such a place where the "not worrying" is the fundamental skill and the most of the current employees in the department have been here for 10+ years)

Re: Ways to Minimize Employee Retention

#12

Post by civilian »

beloch wrote: post #8

22. Hire antisocial self-declared "rock star" employees who can't stand other human beings. 23. Encourage sociable, pleasant employees to read Machiavelli and Sun Tzu. 24. Peer reviews and stack ranking! 25. Stress that everything must be done in-house. If your employees want a wheel, they must reinvent it themselves. 26. Play video games in your office during crunch-time or, heck, just take the day off. You deserve…

Therefore a wise prince will seek means by which his subjects will always and in every possible condition of things have need of his government, and then they will always be faithful to him.

Niccolo Machiavelli "The Prince"

Re: Ways to Minimize Employee Retention

#13

Post by [deleted] »

dasil003 wrote: post #5

If you have to write this post to vent because you are stuck in a job you can't afford to leave and you are scared you'll be fired if you raise these issues to management, then so be it, write the bloody post and I hope you feel better. However in terms of practical changes, this post can neither benefit you nor anyone else. We all know about broken management cultures that this post describes, but none of those mana…

[deleted]

Re: Ways to Minimize Employee Retention

#14

Post by rustyrazorblade »

dasil003 wrote: post #5

If you have to write this post to vent because you are stuck in a job you can't afford to leave and you are scared you'll be fired if you raise these issues to management, then so be it, write the bloody post and I hope you feel better. However in terms of practical changes, this post can neither benefit you nor anyone else. We all know about broken management cultures that this post describes, but none of those mana…

On the contrary, I love what I do and the company I work for. This has nothing to do with my employer.

Re: Ways to Minimize Employee Retention

#16

Post by rustyrazorblade »

trhway wrote: post #11
dasil003 wrote: post #5

If you have to write this post to vent because you are stuck in a job you can't afford to leave and you are scared you'll be fired if you raise these issues to management, then so be it, write the bloody post and I hope you feel better. However in terms of practical changes, this post can neither benefit you nor anyone else. We all know about broken management cultures that this post describes, but none of those mana…

sounds like you're an extrovert and the poster is introvert. >However in terms of practical changes, this post can neither benefit you nor anyone else. Your post can't benefit introverts the same way his can't extroverts like you. Anyway, i'd argue that it isn't actually bad retention policies. They are actually quite good at retention. It is just that it retains the specific kind of employees, the ones that "learned…

Nope, quite the opposite (at least the part about me). I'm the guy that loves & thrives on talking to people.

Re: Ways to Minimize Employee Retention

#17

Post by fivedogit »

dasil003 wrote: post #5

If you have to write this post to vent because you are stuck in a job you can't afford to leave and you are scared you'll be fired if you raise these issues to management, then so be it, write the bloody post and I hope you feel better. However in terms of practical changes, this post can neither benefit you nor anyone else. We all know about broken management cultures that this post describes, but none of those mana…

>We all know about broken management cultures that this post describes...

As a software developer, I've always coded alone. As an employee, I've always been a sales engineer. So the original post was actually very informative for me as I'm not familiar with the inner workings of a code development team nor the frustrations of its members.

Re: Ways to Minimize Employee Retention

#18

Post by com2kid »

amputect wrote: post #10

> 14. Humiliate people in public. If you have to choose only one item from the list, this one is really, shockingly effective and easy to implement. My wife was in tears the other day because she made two trivial, easily-fixable errors on some paperwork she was doing as a stand-in for someone who was out sick. She fixed the errors and resubmitted it when they were brought to her attention, but her boss still sent the…

I am of two minds about this.

On one hand, a "you broke the build dunce cap" isn't the worst of ideas. (Although by far I prefer a check-in system that doesn't allow the build to be broken for everyone...)

I've been shamed, and semi-publically (within the team) shamed others, for not having written any unit tests before check-in.

I'm also a big fan of publically celebrating successes. When a tester writes up a good bug, I'll have it sent around to everyone as an example of what a good bug report looks like!

Re: Ways to Minimize Employee Retention

#19

Post by csallen »

dasil003 wrote: post #5

If you have to write this post to vent because you are stuck in a job you can't afford to leave and you are scared you'll be fired if you raise these issues to management, then so be it, write the bloody post and I hope you feel better. However in terms of practical changes, this post can neither benefit you nor anyone else. We all know about broken management cultures that this post describes, but none of those mana…

I beg to differ. I know more than a few technical people in management positions who read Hacker News religiously. If confronted with this list by an employee, sure, they may react defensively. But if they come across it themselves, they may find a few pieces of "advice" on the list that they've been following unknowingly and decide to change their ways.

Re: Ways to Minimize Employee Retention

#20

Post by thirsteh »

amputect wrote: post #10

> 14. Humiliate people in public. If you have to choose only one item from the list, this one is really, shockingly effective and easy to implement. My wife was in tears the other day because she made two trivial, easily-fixable errors on some paperwork she was doing as a stand-in for someone who was out sick. She fixed the errors and resubmitted it when they were brought to her attention, but her boss still sent the…

I hope your wife finds a job at a company with an adult management team. The stress level you get from an environment like you describe isn't worth the cost.
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