3 ms·

In my experience annual reviews are more or less a standardized way to fire poor performers. If you run a company you know this, but for the uninitiated: there

In my experience annual reviews are more or less a standardized way to fire poor performers. If you run a company you know this, but for the uninitiated: there’s a lot of work to fire someone in the US. Technically most employees are at-will, however companies need to have non-sueable reasons for terminating employment. If they fire you because of race, sex, or some other protected class, that’s illegal. The employee can file for unemployment and that makes your company’s rates go up. So before terminating someone, companies get a lot of written paperwork in order. This is typically called a performance improvement plan (PIP). That usually starts at the Annual performance review - they’ll say you have poor performance in specific areas and write it down in traceable documents. The employee tries to “improve” sometimes, but if the company is adamant on terminating someone it’s really just a matter of time. Their goal is to have a strong case (aka paperwork) demonstrating poor job performance so that when you sue (or file for unemployment) they can push back with a 6 month history of documented issues.

urbandw311er 4y ago
This isn't always done cynically. I don't know if I'm an outlier, but I can recall cases where I have put an employee on an improvement plan and it successfully led to their retention. In one case, the team member was really quite shocked to realise they were underperforming and actually quite grateful for the honest feedback. Rather than giving up they redoubled their efforts and we were all amazed at the transformation. In turn, we provided additional coaching, encouragement at the performance gains, and everybody ended up back on-track. The person in question was recently promoted. I don't particularly like managing people, and it's easy to slip into a lazy management style where you avoid confrontation, but the truth is that I've found people respect honesty and a chance to course correct.
- ARandomerDude 4y ago
  > the team member was really quite shocked to realise they were underperforming That's a management fail, to be honest. The first time someone hears they aren't keeping up should not be because you started paperwork on them.
  - justin66 4y ago
    > The first time someone hears they aren't keeping up should not be because you started paperwork on them. Seriously. That's alarmingly bad management.
- mschild 4y ago
  If an employee is shocked to be put on a PIP, then something's going wrong during communication. Feedback should be a continuous process so people, managers and employee both, can make small adjustments to ensure they're in the right spot. This obviously needs trust and goodwill from both sides. For example, my annual reviews aren't so much about setting and discussing goals as it is about how the year actually went, both from a professional and personal standpoint. We talk about projects we finished or didn't, how the company and team is doing overall, and big strategic decisions made by execs that we don't really have control over but impact us in one way or another. Goals are generally set pretty frequently and are achievable. I have 1on1 with my leads every 2 weeks and we exchange pretty blunt but constructive feedback on how we are doing.
  - 93po 4y ago
    10000%. If I hear a single new thing at my annual review there's a failure in communication somewhere. If it's feedback from my manager it's unacceptable. If it's feedback from a peer that's collected annually that's more understandable, but also we're all adults. If I'm making your job or life difficult, just tell me instead of narcing to my manager anonymously (this hasn't ever happened to me, but in theory).
  - urbandw311er 4y ago
    Indeed: there were learnings on both sides. And more to it than I could fit into a short post.
justin66 4y ago
Your comments about filing for unemployment don't make a lot of sense. Someone who is terminated for underperformance can still file for unemployment. Failing to meet goals set in a PIP is not "misconduct" such that the employee can be said to have been fired for cause, which would make them ineligible for unemployment. Even in clear cases of misconduct it's common enough to simply terminate.

urbandw311er 4y ago

This isn't always done cynically. I don't know if I'm an outlier, but I can recall cases where I have put an employee on an improvement plan and it successfully led to their retention. In one case, the team member was really quite shocked to realise they were underperforming and actually quite grateful for the honest feedback. Rather than giving up they redoubled their efforts and we were all amazed at the transformation. In turn, we provided additional coaching, encouragement at the performance gains, and everybody ended up back on-track. The person in question was recently promoted. I don't particularly like managing people, and it's easy to slip into a lazy management style where you avoid confrontation, but the truth is that I've found people respect honesty and a chance to course correct.

ARandomerDude 4y ago
> the team member was really quite shocked to realise they were underperforming That's a management fail, to be honest. The first time someone hears they aren't keeping up should not be because you started paperwork on them.
- justin66 4y ago
  > The first time someone hears they aren't keeping up should not be because you started paperwork on them. Seriously. That's alarmingly bad management.
mschild 4y ago
If an employee is shocked to be put on a PIP, then something's going wrong during communication. Feedback should be a continuous process so people, managers and employee both, can make small adjustments to ensure they're in the right spot. This obviously needs trust and goodwill from both sides. For example, my annual reviews aren't so much about setting and discussing goals as it is about how the year actually went, both from a professional and personal standpoint. We talk about projects we finished or didn't, how the company and team is doing overall, and big strategic decisions made by execs that we don't really have control over but impact us in one way or another. Goals are generally set pretty frequently and are achievable. I have 1on1 with my leads every 2 weeks and we exchange pretty blunt but constructive feedback on how we are doing.
- 93po 4y ago
  10000%. If I hear a single new thing at my annual review there's a failure in communication somewhere. If it's feedback from my manager it's unacceptable. If it's feedback from a peer that's collected annually that's more understandable, but also we're all adults. If I'm making your job or life difficult, just tell me instead of narcing to my manager anonymously (this hasn't ever happened to me, but in theory).
- urbandw311er 4y ago
  Indeed: there were learnings on both sides. And more to it than I could fit into a short post.

justin66 4y ago

Your comments about filing for unemployment don't make a lot of sense. Someone who is terminated for underperformance can still file for unemployment. Failing to meet goals set in a PIP is not "misconduct" such that the employee can be said to have been fired for cause, which would make them ineligible for unemployment. Even in clear cases of misconduct it's common enough to simply terminate.