131–140 of 198 posts
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I believe it was Andy Grove who suggest no more than 6-8 direct reports for this reason.
Tell that to Gartner Group: according to my management they recommend an average of 10 direct reports. They also recommend you don't have "technical managers" just pure managers without technical delivery goals; all that is strictly delegated to individual contributors.
Everyone "needs improvement" Yes, even if you're the top performer or you think you're the smartest person on your team.
Not necessarily.
Jay-Z once said, having grown up in the projects, dealing dope as well as getting shot at, etc. none of that had been the most difficult thing in his life. The most difficult thing in his life was dealing with personal turmoil in his marriage.
People need to drop that thought that if you have money you are "privileged" and therefore any issue that affects them mentally are really non-issues in comparison.
>"it is difficult to see how these “personal improvement programs” for a disappointing employee can ever be a constructive force. At best they seem misguided. At worst they appear to be a cynical HR ploy to save face before terminating an employee."
That is for sure. If your boss were to ever lose faith in your ability, seek reassignment. There is little chance of recovery --and the cost of recovery, where possible is too great. There will be eternal doubt in their mind. It's the nature of the mind.
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If a boat veers off course and you don't touch the tiller, you're a bad sailor. If an employee veers off course and you wait until you're ready to terminate them before you say anything, you're a bad manager. And it's not always them, it's sometimes you. Have you never thrived under one manager, been reshuffled and then suffered under another?
Mediocrity cannot be remedied, unless you are a big company where you have dedicated departments to cater for these sort of people ( and by the way, they aim to accomplish the same outcome, just a little bit slower and more paperwork). All I am saying is, an employee has no business performing a job he/she cannot do unless he is a trainee with a good attitude. I leave this comment section with one last nugget of wisd…
Nobody said anything about mediocrity, and nowhere in the story does it say that quality of work was the reason for the PIP.
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Distributed teams across multiple timezones is a bit of a different situation though; you're naturally going to be more asynchronous there, and the team structure will be different. All of my experience with remote coworkers has been on collocated teams with the occasional remote worker in the same timezone. I don't have any interest in being on a fully distributed team; I like being physically present with my cowork…
> I tend to get depressed ("cabin fever") if I'm alone all day every day I think we found your problem
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Distributed teams across multiple timezones is a bit of a different situation though; you're naturally going to be more asynchronous there, and the team structure will be different. All of my experience with remote coworkers has been on collocated teams with the occasional remote worker in the same timezone. I don't have any interest in being on a fully distributed team; I like being physically present with my cowork…
We run an entirely remote company, and the cabin fever is definitely a real concern. If you ever have to be a remote worker in the future, I'd highly recommend getting a co-working space as it really helps fulfill a ton of those social needs. Your employer might even pay for some (or all) of the costs associated.
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I strongly disagree with this advice. If it gets to the point of a PIP, you're in very hot water at most places. But that does not necessarily mean you are going out the door. If you care about keeping your job, step one is to ascertain whether your management is truly willing to invest in working it out, or simply going through the motions. It's time to level with them and have some very probing conversations on wha…
>Most managers do not want to fire their reports, if they can help it. But a PIP is often the last breakpoint before they have to do the deed. As someone said, it varies from company to company. Many managers treat it as a step to firing. And if you listen to employees who've been through it, many will have stories about how unfair it was - unfair in that others who had worse "infractions" were given a pass. To them,…
"Maria, what you're doing today is X, Y, Z. We wanted that before, but going forward, we need A, B, C. My impression is that you like doing X, Y, Z. So, we've got two choices, and both of them are difficult, but we need to be upfront about this. We can part ways, and I can try to help you get to a place where you can do X, Y, Z. Or we can commit to work together to transition you to A, B, C. I believe you can do it. The question is what do you want. It's tough, but you have to choose."
And my advice to Maria would be:
- Make sure you know what your bosses actually want.
- Decide whether that's something you're into.
- Be sure of their commitment to actually develop you.
If she could answer all three of these things affirmatively, it could be worth a try. My only point is that it's wrong to say definitely that a PIP is a death sentence. It's more like a cry for help.
I think people that fall into this mindset should realize that most of the kumbaya things companies say are pleasantries. Employment is a business situation and its healthier to not get confused about that.
I agree that PIPs are mostly just HR covering themselves in firing an employee, but this just reads like a long list of excuses for a person not performing their job. Its at-will employment for both sides, the company isn't obligated to care about your personal issues. If your work output isn't good, it kinda doesn't matter if you have kids and your manager is younger -- theyre giving you money for your work not beca…
I'm not sure I really had a point here, because this isn't about a company's false kumbayas. However, even at a big megacorp people will sometimes take care of one another when the going gets rough.