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"Makes people on the team uncomfortable by being argumentative", "is condescending during code reviews", "strongly supports team members via mentorship", and "d
by ewjordan 9y ago
"Makes people on the team uncomfortable by being argumentative", "is condescending during code reviews", "strongly supports team members via mentorship", and "defuses technical disagreements effectively and without bad feelings" are all highly positive and negative contributions to company success, but are inherently subjective since they require evaluations of soft interpersonal skills, not technical mastery. I can't imagine that you'd want to ignore such factors (employees will quit if you let toxic people stay around unchecked), but absent extreme situations where HR complaints are filed, they are also incredibly difficult to measure other than by listening to peer opinions.
Usually from the point of view of the problematic person, everyone else is the asshole. At some point the evaluation has to boil down to a judgement call, rather than an objective measurement. This process is always fraught, for instance when the bosses are the assholes themselves or support them (ahem, Travis), but I don't love the idea of just not considering interpersonal factors when evaluating performance. Bad behavior shouldn't have to rise to the level of an HR complaints before consequences are faced, and good behavior should be rewarded.