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Fighting the Forced Ranking of Employees?
Allen asks: "The company I work for has a forced ranking system for performance reviews. Employees are ranked from 1 to 5, with 5 being the best, in a bell curve arrangement. Department managers are required to identify: 10% as 5s (excels), 20% as 4's (exceeds), 50% as 3s (fully meets), 15% as 2s (partially meets), and 5% as 1s (requires action). In an department of 100 employees, this means that 5 employees must be identified and labeled as ones, and at least 20 employees as below average. The net result is every employee in the department is competing against their peers to increase (or maintain) their ranking. We're supposed to work together as a team, and support each other to get the product out the door, but the forced ranking system encourages us to instead stomp on each other, and stab each other in the back, in order to secure a higher ranking. That and, after working our collective rears off to get a new product out the door, several of us were given below average rankings that we believe are undeserved. How would you fight a forced ranking system at your job? I enjoy the technology I work on, and I enjoy working with my peers, but this forced ranking system is very demoralizing."
Sounds like an academic department in a university. No where else is the competition so high for stakes that are so low. (source unknown) Heh.
-Sean
After all, 50% of the employees are below average at any given company. Might as well cut out the deadwood.
I've had enough abrasive sigs. Kittens are cute and fuzzy.
So you are saying that out of a department of 100 employees you cannot find 5 who in retrospect were a mismatch, have lost interest, are underperforming due to unbeknownst-to-you problems at home, have taken up a crack cocaine habit, or other such?
It seems that we have found the first 1 in your group: you!
at least you still get to keep your stapler, right?
How about:
1. Talk a co-worker into using the 4 step process.
2. Repeat with other co-workers until conditions change or you have no co-workers left.
Thanks for translating, because I couldn't figure out if he wanted us to form an organized crime cartel or lease earlier seasons of ourselves to national networks. :)
El riesgo vive siempre!
Let me guess... they fired you because you were in the bottom 5%.
year or two ago, I was talking to a friend (a manager in another area), and he told me that after telling his people what their numbers were, he was told by his management to lower them to fit the expected distribution.
I love this logic. As a supervisor, I go back to my employees and tell them to lower their performance so they don't ruin the distribution. That's managing to numbers --- yeehaw!
Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
Then the next "Ask Slashdot" question will be:
I'm the CEO of a company and the union here has a too easy performance review scheme: The lowest ranking is "Average" and at least 50% of workers have to fall into "Super-human". How can I fight this?"
The surprise isn't how often we make bad choices; the surprise is how seldom they defeat us.
That's not entirely true. IBM does use a numbering system (1-4 with 1 being roughly equivalent to "walks on water like Jesus"), but in my 7 years there, I never found, discovered, or believed that it was based on a bell curve-type assignment except for one year (2002) when the economy was crap, and our CIO at the time mandated that there would be no 1's given out that year without his express approval.
Coincidentally or not, I received a '1' that year and the two years previous to that. YMMV, so if you find yourself in the bottom of the pile, find another pile somewhere else. The only reason I was able to survive at IBM for 7 years was because I worked for an independently-operated subsidiary (Tivoli) for 5 of those years.
If I found myself in a company that rated people on a curve, guaranteeing that some percentage will receive low scoring each year, I wouldn't stay very long even if I was always at the top of that rating scale. It's a mentality problem that stretches all the way to the top.
Again, YMMV. If you're not happy, find some new cheese and move on.
Firings will continue until moral improves. Those with the lowest moral will be fired first, as to more significantly increase the average moral rating.
Slashdot's rate-of-post filter: Preventing you from posting too many great ideas at once.
I have to deal with a similar ranking.
I realize this is not for everyone, but I solve the problem through apathy. Regardless of my rating, I do the best job that I can on any task that I am assigned.
When I was actually in the middle of a business embroglio but remained steadfast in my particular conviction I was told "this will not look good on your performance review" I used a line that I'd been waiting for years to say in just this situation:
"The only way you can hurt me with a performance review is to roll it up and poke me in the eye"
I've been at this job 22 years, and fully expect to be here for many to come (by choice).
The cynic's guide to the earlier list.
Kiss butt. Be smarmy. Greed is good.
Work for your rating, not for your company. It's easier to look good than to be good.
Do your boss's job because heaven knows he won't. He's too busy screwing the office secretary and playing golf to do mere work. Meanwhile he gets a 6 figure salary and you're paid peanuts.
Spread yourself thin. This way you can gain glory for successful projects "I did that" and absolve any responsibility from failures "I was barely involved in that project".
Get involved in areas where you have no experience and no skills. That's how successful projects move forwards; by being weighed down with dozens of incompetent boobs.
Everybody loves a know-it-all. You'll quickly gain new friends after you tell them how they're doing their jobs all wrong, and how much better you could have done it.
Be a schmuck. You'll quickly be targetted by incompetent slackers who should have been fired years ago, but who have the uncanny knack of identifying gullible dolts like you. They'll sit back and relax while you make them look good.
Everybody loves the stickler for the rules.
Blame Tibor for everything.
PS: I'm only half joking.