10 ms·
In some companies it feels like they are firing the people that they could not easily get rid of otherwise - cutting of the bottom 25% of staff (based on low pe
by lukax 6y ago
In some companies it feels like they are firing the people that they could not easily get rid of otherwise - cutting of the bottom 25% of staff (based on low performance reviews or personal grudges).
- bsanr2 6y agoStatistically-speaking, this will disproportionately effect women and minorities (low performance reviews !necessarily= low performance when implicit bias is present, which again, statistically-speaking, it is). Certainly these times suck for everyone, but there go the careers of black, brown, and female millennials with yet another black mark on their CVs before they've hit their 40s.
- botwriter 6y agoerrrgh stop racebaiting.
- me_me_me 6y agoHaving not worked in USA, I always wonder how valid such comments are. Never really felt such thing being anything but odd ball case in Europe.
- rusticpenn 6y agoDepends on where you work in Europe. There is definetly a glass cieling for minorities in companies like VW.
- me_me_me 6y agoI am not sure if it glass ceiling exists for minorities or simply for people who are not 'playing the game' or not fully participate in it.
- fooker 6y agoWhen you claim to be speaking statistically, shouldn't you also cite some statistics?
- bsanr2 6y agoIt's generally a well-known phenomenon, but here: https://www.cnn.com/2019/02/26/success/layoffs-women-minorities/index.html https://www.cnn.com/2019/02/26/success/layoffs-women-minorit... https://hbr.org/2019/01/why-most-performance-evaluations-are-biased-and-how-to-fix-them https://hbr.org/2019/01/why-most-performance-evaluations-are... Links to the research cited are in the articles, which provide a basic overview.
- mnw21cam 6y agoI seriously doubt whether this will disproportionately effect women and minorities. Certainly not women, as it is pretty hard to change the male/female birth ratio. It might affect them though.
- tomhoward 6y agoPlease respond to the strongest plausible interpretation of what someone says, not a weaker one that's easier to criticize. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
- mardifoufs 6y agoI'm sorry but I (as a minority myself) genuinely feel a little bit insulted by your assumption that minorities score worst in performance test. There's no basis for that belief, a part from your personal biases and they are shockingly regressive even if well intentioned. Are you yourself a minority?
- corneliusphi2 6y agoI think they didn't mean tests but reviews, as in subconscious racism and sexism on the part of the reviewer
- dougmwne 6y agoI think they meant manager and peer evaluation, not standardized aptitude testing. Though on that note, I know someone who creates those standardized employment apptitude tests and checking the test for minority group biases is part of their validation, I believe so the company has something to point to if they need to defend the test later. It's apparently easy to start measuing things other than apptitude and veer into cultural or economic influences.
- bsanr2 6y agoI included the parenthetical to make it clear that what you're asserting was not my intended meaning. I am a gay black man.
- mardifoufs 6y agoOkay thanks for the clarification, but still if anything I find the tech sector to be one of the industry with the least amount of racial prejudice even in promotions. I totally understand that personal experiences can be different and are still valid, but I think the data tells us that there isn't any widespread systemic racism in tech. The proportion of people of color in C level exec/higher management levels is huge and the efforts made to increase diversity have been intense. I just don't see how that could happen if lower performance reviews were generally biased against us.
- 6y ago
- raghava 6y agoThis is also the time that th underprivileged would get exploited more. Work permit/visa holders will see an increase in workload (with a "work-more-or-eff-off" note, along with possibly a paycut too) Even pay negotiations on open offers, making it seem generous tha offer doesn't get cancelled. Personally know a couple of friends who are in the US (with H1Bs awaitng transfer/extensions) facing this particular situation now. Hiring is fucked. Tech hiring and ex\mployment more so. Seems every employer treats employees as though the wage slaves are just so, or just above hamsters on wheels doing tricks. Depressing, to say the least! :(
- gofreddygo 6y agothrowaway account for obvious reasons. Work permit workers (H1, OPT and L1-B in increasing order) are the worst exploited and least privileged sub group of the entire tech workforce. Be it an upcoming economy with a flood of opportunities like we saw for the past 7 years or a downturn, like the one we are witnessing now, visa workers will be exploited no matter what. They are not cheaper than non visa-dependent hires, but they are abundant, easy to hire, easy to fire, easy to replace, incredibly easy to bully, pressurize and basically exploit. The only barrier to total exploitation is the manager's own conscience and values. And we all know, values are easily compromised when it can help the bottom line. Working on a visa in USA is fucked.
- borisyankov 6y agoStatistically speaking this sounds like BS.
- nunez 6y agoyikes.
- 9nGQluzmnq3M 6y agoMakes a lot more sense than firing the high performers, no?
- MagnumPIG 6y agoWould seem so on the face of it, but measuring performance is not trivial, and some people can be essential for reasons unrelated to performance (or their real performance isn't accurately measured, however you want to see it).
- Aeolun 6y agoSometimes, but often I think it’s fairly clear that someone is underperforming.