5 ms·

The ideal employee is both brilliant and easy to get along with. Practically no employees are ideal. Sometimes the least productive people are the peace-makers

by beloch 13y ago

The ideal employee is both brilliant and easy to get along with. Practically no employees are ideal. Sometimes the least productive people are the peace-makers that let the rest of the team tolerate the brilliant assholes. Cogs are great, but it's idiotic to treat oil as though it were mere deadweight. Both are needed in any company.

keithpeter 13y ago
Belbin team roles as a way of recognising the oil? http://www.belbin.com/ http://www.belbin.com/
ak39 13y ago
I agree. Well said. There may be a positive correlation between brilliance and assholism (I'm not advocating that we tolerate this, btw), but I'd definitely not superimpose the magnitude of that relationship for the other side/pole of the spectrum: viz. lack of productivity to peace-making personalities. My experience in the last two massive enterprisey projects shows that trouble-makers, obfuscators and team members who show little regard for either the creative (innovative) aspects of the project or, aspects relating to structure (admin) are the ones not pulling their weights. They often create social issues to divert from their own lack of productivity. What a waste. These folks I'd definitely not team up with given a second chance. They are cancer, and the spread can be malignant. (I am not saying let's be unsympathetic to the problems of the unproductive folks, but when lack of productivity or competence is deliberately masked by other fake reasons, it becomes difficult to engage with such folks honestly. The whole team then starts playing game theory and office gerrymandering becomes a career skill.)
codeonfire 13y ago
that's fine as long as the oil is paid 10x less. oh, they want to be paid six figures to just sort of hang out a few hours a day, be everybody's friend, and leave by 3? The economics doesn't work because the productive people who are pulling 10-14 hour days will see that productivity is not necessary or valued and leave.
- skore 13y ago
  If the oil makes the other six figure people deliver six figure work and if without them, they'd only deliver 5 figure work, then no. That money is invested reasonably. People aren't idiots, they realize when somebody else enables a group of people to excel. If they don't realize that, it's managements job to make sure this is understood. And besides, if employees who are "productive" are pulling 10-14 hours a day, then there is again something going terribly wrong in management to begin with. The real problem of the Microsoft system is setting a fixed value on the number of "cog" and "oil" employees. Different jobs need different people and different people again need different people. If a manager says: "I have 10 units of cog and 5 units of oil people" and is allowed to give out money accordingly, that's great. But if the company says: "Sorry, but you can only have 14 cog and 1 oil" - Suddenly you are forced tell 4 employees who are great workers that they're just lubrication.
- Joeri 13y ago
  People pulling 14 hour days with regularity are not that productive.
  - robin2 13y ago
    There's a limit to the amount of serious, concentrated thinking that you can do in day, so it should be fairly obvious that pressurizing coders in to working long hours is counter-productive. With other jobs it might be less of an issue. Although I've never done 14 hour days, I did once have a warehouse job assembling cardboard boxes for 12 hours a day, and I don't think the hours harmed my productivity. (My recollection is that I worked as hard as I could, just to make the day pass more quickly.)
    - walshemj 13y ago
      Depends where you on piece work or not :-)
    - codeonfire 13y ago
      In my opinion, this idea about no one can work more than 8 hours a day productively was created to discredit anyone who tries to get ahead through extra effort. It's similar to the idea that says we only need 30 minutes of exercise a day. In reality, pro athletes train for 4-6 hours a day. Yes, a person is a fool if they do more than 8 hours in a workplace environment, but many people work longer days if it furthers their own personal goals. Pressuring coders who don't have an interest in working longer is pointless.
netcan 13y ago
I don't see what that has to do with this system. It doesn't say how employees are ranked, just that are ranked.
- marcosdumay 13y ago
  They are ranked in an objective and monodimensional way, and the 5% lower ranked are fired, without considerations about why they got that rank. If you don't get at least three problems with the situation above, well, I'm glad I'm not on a tam managed by you.
dctoedt 13y ago
> Cogs are great, but it's idiotic to treat oil as though it were mere deadweight. Both are needed in any company. For an example from the sports world, see the NBA's Shane Battier, described in a NY Times article [1] by Michael Lewis (of Liar's Poker and Moneyball fame) as "The No-Stats All-Star." [1] http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/15/magazine/15Battier-t.html?pagewanted=all http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/15/magazine/15Battier-t.html?...

by beloch 13y ago

keithpeter 13y ago

Belbin team roles as a way of recognising the oil? http://www.belbin.com/ http://www.belbin.com/

ak39 13y ago

I agree. Well said. There may be a positive correlation between brilliance and assholism (I'm not advocating that we tolerate this, btw), but I'd definitely not superimpose the magnitude of that relationship for the other side/pole of the spectrum: viz. lack of productivity to peace-making personalities. My experience in the last two massive enterprisey projects shows that trouble-makers, obfuscators and team members who show little regard for either the creative (innovative) aspects of the project or, aspects relating to structure (admin) are the ones not pulling their weights. They often create social issues to divert from their own lack of productivity. What a waste. These folks I'd definitely not team up with given a second chance. They are cancer, and the spread can be malignant. (I am not saying let's be unsympathetic to the problems of the unproductive folks, but when lack of productivity or competence is deliberately masked by other fake reasons, it becomes difficult to engage with such folks honestly. The whole team then starts playing game theory and office gerrymandering becomes a career skill.)

codeonfire 13y ago

that's fine as long as the oil is paid 10x less. oh, they want to be paid six figures to just sort of hang out a few hours a day, be everybody's friend, and leave by 3? The economics doesn't work because the productive people who are pulling 10-14 hour days will see that productivity is not necessary or valued and leave.

skore 13y ago
If the oil makes the other six figure people deliver six figure work and if without them, they'd only deliver 5 figure work, then no. That money is invested reasonably. People aren't idiots, they realize when somebody else enables a group of people to excel. If they don't realize that, it's managements job to make sure this is understood. And besides, if employees who are "productive" are pulling 10-14 hours a day, then there is again something going terribly wrong in management to begin with. The real problem of the Microsoft system is setting a fixed value on the number of "cog" and "oil" employees. Different jobs need different people and different people again need different people. If a manager says: "I have 10 units of cog and 5 units of oil people" and is allowed to give out money accordingly, that's great. But if the company says: "Sorry, but you can only have 14 cog and 1 oil" - Suddenly you are forced tell 4 employees who are great workers that they're just lubrication.
Joeri 13y ago
People pulling 14 hour days with regularity are not that productive.
- robin2 13y ago
  There's a limit to the amount of serious, concentrated thinking that you can do in day, so it should be fairly obvious that pressurizing coders in to working long hours is counter-productive. With other jobs it might be less of an issue. Although I've never done 14 hour days, I did once have a warehouse job assembling cardboard boxes for 12 hours a day, and I don't think the hours harmed my productivity. (My recollection is that I worked as hard as I could, just to make the day pass more quickly.)
  - walshemj 13y ago
    Depends where you on piece work or not :-)
  - codeonfire 13y ago
    In my opinion, this idea about no one can work more than 8 hours a day productively was created to discredit anyone who tries to get ahead through extra effort. It's similar to the idea that says we only need 30 minutes of exercise a day. In reality, pro athletes train for 4-6 hours a day. Yes, a person is a fool if they do more than 8 hours in a workplace environment, but many people work longer days if it furthers their own personal goals. Pressuring coders who don't have an interest in working longer is pointless.

netcan 13y ago

I don't see what that has to do with this system. It doesn't say how employees are ranked, just that are ranked.

marcosdumay 13y ago
They are ranked in an objective and monodimensional way, and the 5% lower ranked are fired, without considerations about why they got that rank. If you don't get at least three problems with the situation above, well, I'm glad I'm not on a tam managed by you.

dctoedt 13y ago

> Cogs are great, but it's idiotic to treat oil as though it were mere deadweight. Both are needed in any company. For an example from the sports world, see the NBA's Shane Battier, described in a NY Times article [1] by Michael Lewis (of Liar's Poker and Moneyball fame) as "The No-Stats All-Star." [1] http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/15/magazine/15Battier-t.html?pagewanted=all http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/15/magazine/15Battier-t.html?...