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The review process is a complete sham. If you honestly believe it’s a measure of your productivity and not a post-hoc rationalization based on a restricted prom

The review process is a complete sham. If you honestly believe it’s a measure of your productivity and not a post-hoc rationalization based on a restricted promo and bonus pool I have a bridge to sell you. Most managers will think an employee who spends 10 hours working and 30 hours schmoozing/promoting their work is more productive than someone who spends 60 hours grinding the tasks given to them.

WalterBright 6y ago
It's smart for an employee to let the manager know what he's been doing. It's just like a business has to do some promotion or the business will fail - even great products don't sell themselves.
bsder 6y ago
> The review process is a complete sham. It's a complete sham--up until the moment it's about to fire you. Yeah, I've been in the "Look, that deadline is HARD. If you don't figure out how to do something useful by it, the whole GROUP, including me and you, are fired. So, are you gonna figure something out or should I fire you now and get someone else?" That can wake you up, reeeaaaal quick. > Most managers will think an employee who spends 10 hours working and 30 hours schmoozing/promoting their work is more productive than someone who spends 60 hours grinding the tasks given to them. And you know what? The "schmoozer" might actually be more productive. One of the articles on HN recently was about how senior people tend to avoid work that might get thrown away. "Grinders" are useful, but they can also go grinding in the wrong direction or keep grinding on something that no longer needs to be done because conditions changed and they aren't paying attention. This is especially true if they get too irascible so nobody wants to talk to them. The "schmoozer" might see that the assignment given doesn't quite match up with what the end customer (either internal or external) actually needs and adjust things appropriately. Or, perhaps, just delivers something "close enough" but takes a lot less time and makes the recipient happier. As I became increasingly senior I spent far more time "schmoozing" than getting concrete engineering done.
- GeoAtreides 6y ago
  >"Look, that deadline is HARD. If you don't figure out how to do something useful by it, the whole GROUP, including me and you, are fired. So, are you gonna figure something out or should I fire you now and get someone else?" The only sane reply is: "You can't fire me, I quit". First of all, this working env is toxic. I don't need this kind of stress and I can freely quit because I have life savings, like any other sane person. Second, now that deadline becomes impossible without me, not merely hard, good luck to the rest of the team. Third, I might not quit if you apologise right now. But then again, I'm in Europe, where we have more rights than the Americans. YMMV.
  - Nimitz14 6y ago
    Your narcissism is showing.

WalterBright 6y ago

It's smart for an employee to let the manager know what he's been doing. It's just like a business has to do some promotion or the business will fail - even great products don't sell themselves.

bsder 6y ago

> The review process is a complete sham. It's a complete sham--up until the moment it's about to fire you. Yeah, I've been in the "Look, that deadline is HARD. If you don't figure out how to do something useful by it, the whole GROUP, including me and you, are fired. So, are you gonna figure something out or should I fire you now and get someone else?" That can wake you up, reeeaaaal quick. > Most managers will think an employee who spends 10 hours working and 30 hours schmoozing/promoting their work is more productive than someone who spends 60 hours grinding the tasks given to them. And you know what? The "schmoozer" might actually be more productive. One of the articles on HN recently was about how senior people tend to avoid work that might get thrown away. "Grinders" are useful, but they can also go grinding in the wrong direction or keep grinding on something that no longer needs to be done because conditions changed and they aren't paying attention. This is especially true if they get too irascible so nobody wants to talk to them. The "schmoozer" might see that the assignment given doesn't quite match up with what the end customer (either internal or external) actually needs and adjust things appropriately. Or, perhaps, just delivers something "close enough" but takes a lot less time and makes the recipient happier. As I became increasingly senior I spent far more time "schmoozing" than getting concrete engineering done.

GeoAtreides 6y ago
>"Look, that deadline is HARD. If you don't figure out how to do something useful by it, the whole GROUP, including me and you, are fired. So, are you gonna figure something out or should I fire you now and get someone else?" The only sane reply is: "You can't fire me, I quit". First of all, this working env is toxic. I don't need this kind of stress and I can freely quit because I have life savings, like any other sane person. Second, now that deadline becomes impossible without me, not merely hard, good luck to the rest of the team. Third, I might not quit if you apologise right now. But then again, I'm in Europe, where we have more rights than the Americans. YMMV.
- Nimitz14 6y ago
  Your narcissism is showing.