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I have a nagging feeling the rules are different in fields like sales, trading, sports, or others where performance is more precisely quantified. The reality,

I have a nagging feeling the rules are different in fields like sales, trading, sports, or others where performance is more precisely quantified. The reality, somewhat sad in my view, is that in most places, software shops, architecture firms, academia, pretty much anywhere where individual measurement isn't possible and most work is done in teams, most performance reviews are a thin veneer over a high school popularity contest. You get ahead by being liked, something that's at best loosely correlated to how much work you get done, or at what quality. Of note, the best manager I worked for (in software) ran a great team by making work about the work, not being liked, or delivering great powerpoints, or other secondary things.

throwawaygh 5y ago
> sales Most types of sales labor is a complete commodity. For every one high-powered b2b software sales person there are hundreds of folks selling commodity laptops to rural schools, pushing trim upgrades in car dealerships, cold-calling convenience store owners, etc. The high school politics in those sorts of sales shops are next-level. > trading Trading desks are often whole orgs, often with diffuse and difficult to measure contributions. Not so dissimilar from software shops, really. In fact, often literally are software shops! > sports I don't have first-hand experience with anything other than climbing and skiing, where "hussle" and getting along with everyone from sponsors to gym/resort owners to random community members is way more important than raw talent. At the end of the day you're basically an influencer. Instead of HR imposing rules to help with reputation management work, you're doing the HR reputation management job yourself.