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This is evil but I predict massive success for this product. I actually wonder if companies could start choosing other products they use (such as their CRM) bas

This is evil but I predict massive success for this product. I actually wonder if companies could start choosing other products they use (such as their CRM) based on how well they integrate with peak. I remember when I was CTO @ Zynga it was so hard to fire bad engineers. I wish I could have come up with cold hard data to get rid of them. Instead the best I could do was move them around. The company I worked for was broken but perhaps I could have made the good engineers lives slightly easier if I could have dropped the dead weight and filled their seats with other good programmers. I can see use cases that aren't evil. Of course it's a similar line of reasoning that I'd use against government wiretaps. Even though it can be done for good reasons the temptation to use it for evil is so high that it should not be done.

kevinconroy 13y ago
The danger with this hard data approach, though, is that you can end up with good engineers who hate to play the numbers game and bad engineers who realize they just need to hit average numbers to save their ass. And clueless HR departments won't know the difference.
- aelaguiz 13y ago
  Yeah, totally. Maybe there is no answer other than to fix the organization that made it so hard to get rid of bad engineers in the first place ;) Or quit (I chose quit).
mahyarm 13y ago
I've never been in a managing role, why is it hard to fire bad engineers?
- aelaguiz 13y ago
  It's only hard at bad companies. This was an extraordinarily bad company.
logn 13y ago
It's only evil depending on the context in which it's used. I spent a year contracting on odesk.com remotely. They take random screenshots while you work. I actually grew to appreciate it and found my work ethic to be improved. In the context of our company, we all worked remotely, kept in touch via IM/cam and email, and the monitoring apps were a way to keep everyone honest and committed while having a very long leash day-to-day. Managers (I was one of them) had access to screenshots but we rarely if ever reviewed them, except in cases prior to a firing (and often not even then). A dedicated, small team reviewed the screenshots and asked for refunds from their pay if they were on non-work related things. Often the managers were never notified unless the violations were extreme. A sidenote, we were all contractors and most of us were freelancers essentially, so we were all easy to fire on a moment's notice. It kept teams strong and kept people from resenting their co-workers who couldn't keep up. And re-organizing/growing teams was easy, because firing _and_ hiring were so easy. I could do both without any management or peer approval.

kevinconroy 13y ago

The danger with this hard data approach, though, is that you can end up with good engineers who hate to play the numbers game and bad engineers who realize they just need to hit average numbers to save their ass. And clueless HR departments won't know the difference.

aelaguiz 13y ago
Yeah, totally. Maybe there is no answer other than to fix the organization that made it so hard to get rid of bad engineers in the first place ;) Or quit (I chose quit).

mahyarm 13y ago

I've never been in a managing role, why is it hard to fire bad engineers?

aelaguiz 13y ago
It's only hard at bad companies. This was an extraordinarily bad company.

logn 13y ago

It's only evil depending on the context in which it's used. I spent a year contracting on odesk.com remotely. They take random screenshots while you work. I actually grew to appreciate it and found my work ethic to be improved. In the context of our company, we all worked remotely, kept in touch via IM/cam and email, and the monitoring apps were a way to keep everyone honest and committed while having a very long leash day-to-day. Managers (I was one of them) had access to screenshots but we rarely if ever reviewed them, except in cases prior to a firing (and often not even then). A dedicated, small team reviewed the screenshots and asked for refunds from their pay if they were on non-work related things. Often the managers were never notified unless the violations were extreme. A sidenote, we were all contractors and most of us were freelancers essentially, so we were all easy to fire on a moment's notice. It kept teams strong and kept people from resenting their co-workers who couldn't keep up. And re-organizing/growing teams was easy, because firing _and_ hiring were so easy. I could do both without any management or peer approval.