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Performance evaluations are subjectivity masquerading as objectivity. > In each of these cases, I brought these issues to HR and senior executives and was assu
by heymijo 7y ago
Performance evaluations are subjectivity masquerading as objectivity.
> In each of these cases, I brought these issues to HR and senior executives and was assured the problems would be handled. Yet in each case, there was no follow up to address the concerns — until the day I was accidentally copied on an email from a senior HR director. In the email, the HR director told a colleague that I seemed to raise concerns like these a lot, and instructed her to “do some digging” on me instead.
Then, despite being rated and widely known as one of the best people managers at the company, despite 11 years of glowing performance reviews and near-perfect scores on Google’s 360-performance evaluations, and despite being a member of the elite Foundation Program reserved for Google’s “most critical talent” who are “key to Google’s current and future success,” I was told there was no longer a job for me as a result of a “reorganization,” despite 90 positions on the policy team being vacant at the time.
- whatshisface 7y agoThat sounds like how Damore says he was treated. If nothing else, these scandals have taught us about how Google's HR works at high levels.
- rolltiide 7y agoHow all HR works: protect the company, cut out the person that reported the problem. You are always taking a big EV- gamble if you actually believe that HR is there to help you. If you experience adversity at work there is no help for you, income is the EV+ bet.
- oumua_don17 7y agoIs EV = Enterprise Value? [1] [1] https://www.investopedia.com/terms/e/enterprisevalue.asp https://www.investopedia.com/terms/e/enterprisevalue.asp
- technofiend 7y agoNo, it's expected value. https://www.investopedia.com/terms/e/expected-value.asp https://www.investopedia.com/terms/e/expected-value.asp
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- shadowgovt 7y agoWhat does "income is the EV+ bet" mean in this context?
- rolltiide 7y agopositive expected value means it is more probable that you make money in the future, so staying employed and having income is EV+. negative expected value means it is more probable that you lose money in the future, so not having income is EV-.
- shadowgovt 7y agoGiven the way employment law in the US works, it is HR's responsibility, in general, to ensure the paperwork is in order if an employee needs to be fired. And yes, absolutely, even large publicly-traded companies still have bosses that will fire employees because "it isn't working out" (which is the aggregate signal in the neural net with inputs such as "I don't like this person," "I think my job is harder because the company employs this person," "I believe this person's presence at the company is bad for the company," etc.). The difference between large and small companies is that large companies have more to lose if a termed employee lawyers up (and more likelihood a termed employee will lawyer up, because more lawyers will be willing to take a case that has a big-name defendant in the case name). This is yet another scenario where the question "What are the incentives of the actors in this story" can be applied.
- JumpCrisscross 7y ago> it is HR's responsibility, in general, to ensure the paperwork is in order if an employee needs to be fired It is also HR's responsibility to step in when someone fills a room with employees of one race and asks others to repeat stereotypes to them. Or, to ensure the company follows whistleblower statute.
- amznthrowaway5 7y agoThey did step in, by determining firing the tattletale was less than the cost of trying to fix the problem. Reminds me of a classic fight club quote should we initiate a recall? Take the number of vehicles in the field, A, multiply by the probable rate of failure, B, multiply by the average out-of-court settlement, C. A times B times C equals X. If X is less than the cost of a recall, we don't do one.
- whitebread 7y agoReminds me of the Ford Pinto debacle https://www.engineering.com/Library/ArticlesPage/tabid/85/ArticleID/166/Ford-Pinto.aspx https://www.engineering.com/Library/ArticlesPage/tabid/85/Ar...
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- goatinaboat 7y agoIf you ever need to lawyer up against a company it would be very wise to have your lawyer do “discovery” on any email any manager has written about you. This should be standard advice to all employees.
- cutenewt 7y agoWhy?
- goatinaboat 7y agoIn the article it’s explained that he only found out accidentally but I’ll bet it’s pretty common.
- candiodari 7y agoWhy do you think companies in the US have instituted a "delete emails after 6 months/1 year" policy ?
- jdashg 7y agoIt's wild that this continual destruction of evidence is not only tolerated but SOP. It's just so convenient! Imagine if commit messages disappeared after 6mo!
- jonstewart 7y agoWell, the alternative is for every last written thing at a company--jokes, gripes, mistakes--to be scrutinized and taken out of context in court by an opposing side's legal team.
- jrockway 7y agoThere is probably a desire to make commit messages go away after 6 months. I am guessing that the lawyers aren't putting much pressure on engineering teams because nobody has thought to "discover" commit messages in a major case yet (whereas email is routine).
- itronitron 7y agoRegarding the "do some digging" task, I expect that obliges HR to go out and talk to people in order to solicit dirt (I mean ask for feedback outside the normal performance review channel) on the target.
- Psyladine 7y ago>In each of these cases, I brought these issues to HR Well there's your mistake. It's like going to the other guy's lawyer saying you're building a case against him. Better go for the jugular because they sure will.
- close04 7y agoI think most people tend to anthropomorphize the company and expect such issues would be solved "human to human". So they hesitate to escalate them into a war, which lawyering up first and asking questions later tends to do. In reality a company acts less like a human and more like a machine programmed to finish any fight in one blow and minimize exposure. Any "unfairness" is spread among too many people to burden their conscience, they do it for the company. P.S. Is it me or did this post stay on the first page less than a discussion with no comments and barely a handful of votes [The Bones of Marianna]? It has at least 2-3 times more votes and comments than any topic on the front page in some of the shortest time yet it's relegated already to the bottom of the second page.
- zepto 7y agoDoesn’t seem like that you - it is back on the front page but low given the number of votes and comments.
- ClumsyPilot 7y agoI think out propensity to anthropomorphise companies is pathological. Most of the time it's a bunch of people following instructions/policy, like gears in a combine harvester. If you are in the way, you get run over.
- radicaldreamer 7y agoPeople flag posts like this all the time, sometimes out of loyalty to their employer or a general distaste for hearing from ex-employees, especially of companies they have an emotional connection to.
- Psyladine 7y ago
- zby 7y agoThis is 4th blog post in a sequence and I have not yet read the whole thing - but it looks like it is spot on: https://thezvi.wordpress.com/2019/12/31/does-big-business-hate-your-family/ https://thezvi.wordpress.com/2019/12/31/does-big-business-ha...
- itronitron 7y agoThat's definitely worthy of submitting as it's own thread. Hearing about "Pournelle’s iron law of bureaucracy" was particularly chilling.
- ChrisCinelli 7y agoThis is HUGE smoking gun...