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I've heard from people who worked there at the time that as part of the stack ranking system, it contributed to a culture of mediocrity and stagnation. The high
by dvirsky 6y ago
I've heard from people who worked there at the time that as part of the stack ranking system, it contributed to a culture of mediocrity and stagnation. The high performers did not want to excel in fear of retaliation from teammates that this was putting at risk, and no one wanted to be at the bottom. So the result was that everyone tried to be mediocre, do exactly as told, not more and not less. I would never want to work in such a culture.
- AdrianB1 6y agoOur company (not Microsoft, but a bit larger) used this model for over 15 years; it worked better than the replacement model, where people only get fired when they are really bad, so really weak people accumulate and re-baseline the competency in the company. On top of that, the new model based on diversity removed almost completely competency from promotions, so it is very easy to stay at the top of the peer group due to lack of competitors.
- dvirsky 6y agoThere could be a model where you just define what "bad" is in concrete terms and fire people who are not up to a relatively high standard; yet you aren't required to fire the the "bottom people" if they are good enough. I believe this is what FAANGs are doing.