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60 Comments
- dexaroni, on 04/08/2009, -1/+49Meetings: Because none of us are as stupid as all of us.
- inactive, on 04/07/2009, -0/+27great article, ironically im reading this and surfing digg while at work, i guess that falls under #5....
- BlackJackJester, on 04/08/2009, -1/+25Basically, the list can be boiled down to "1. Bad managers are bad at managing"
A good manager makes sure their team is doing as much work as it can without running them into the ground, or having them have too much free time.
A good manager promotes employees based on merit, and social skills - but not exclusively either one. A brilliant employee may not be a good manager.
A good manager takes much more into consideration when rating performance. If an employee is struggling to do their job (and not just a complete idiot), there's a good chance it's your fault as a manager for not motivating, or providing the correct support and tools for them to do their job effectively.
A good manager knows there is a learning curve, and makes it a priority to teach new employees everything they need to know, or at least provide ample resources so they can do it themselves.
A good manager rewards excellence, but doesn't necessarily punish mediocrity and failure. A failure on a team can often (but not always) be reflected as a failure as a manager. If your team is mediocre, you must first look at your own failures before you can point fingers at an employee. - poprocksandsoda, on 04/08/2009, -1/+25Don't forget hiring your buddy from ____________ that you used to go ____________ with. Most organizations I've worked for are flooded with these types of useless amoeba.
- inactive, on 04/08/2009, -1/+18Promoting a know-nothing who in turn favors suck-ups and sycophants who in turn are hostile to capable people who the deem as a threat. I've seen this again and again in my company.
- avataros, on 04/07/2009, -0/+17Most of these problems can be prevented long before drones enter the workforce.
1. Using numbers as the only device to measure performance.
2. Spreading workers too thin.
3. Expecting too much, too soon.
4. Putting a bigger premium on politics than performance.
5. Rewarding mediocrity.
Dang, it's rather self-explanatory ain't it? I could think of so many teachable moments from Kindergarten to University to get the kids thinking right to make rewarding incompetence outright difficult in a corporate environment. - k3rfuffl3, on 04/08/2009, -0/+14Another one is having retarded HR people do the interviewing for technical positions.
- liquisoft, on 04/08/2009, -0/+13Some of these problems can be solved by hiring people passionate about what the company does. When a company doesn't do anything particularly exciting or interesting, it's hard to expect its employees to be excited or interested in what they do. The expectations of the higher-ups should be realistic and account for the level of enthusiasm a given employee can have for the company's mission.
- MWeather, on 04/08/2009, -1/+14Companies breed incompetence because they promote people who are competent at their jobs. Once they are no longer competent, they stop getting promoted. This ensures that everyone is incompetent at whatever job they end up with.
- muzzy, on 04/08/2009, -0/+7Initech, to Chotchkie's
- dustout, on 04/08/2009, -1/+7jail, on murderous rampages
- cubicledrone, on 04/08/2009, -1/+7"if you need a union, you probably not otherwise employable."
Doctors, lawyers, electricians, professional athletes, airline pilots, teachers.
Try again. - kristov, on 04/08/2009, -0/+6Great article - #1 on there should be "BE A COMPETENT MANAGER" - too bad thats where the failboat starts its journey
- tech10171968, on 04/08/2009, -0/+5"1. Using numbers as the only device to measure performance. They start off by talking about how they were judged per sale, which would be the numbers. Then they start talking about some weird auditing system they had in place that was based on numbers. The solution was to keep using the goofball auditing system but just weekly. This is retarded. Why not just base it on sales and stop wasting everyone's time with the stupid system that doesn't work. Which would be using numbers as the device to measure performance. So her point is ABSOLUTELY wrong."
Actually, that isn't always the case. For a great example, one of the biggest headaches about most professions in the IT field is that there is almost no known way of quantifying what they do. We all know what a sysadmin does, but which yardstick does one use to measure his productivity?
And what about those who write code for a living? There was once a time (not very long ago) when a lot of PHB's (Pointy-Haired Bosses) would measure a coder's productivity by the number of lines he generated. We all know why that's a load of crap: using that measurement, a programmer who writes bloated, inefficient code is going to look as if he's being more productive than someone who writes clean, elegant apps which perform the very same functions with a cosebase only half the size. Fortunately, it didn't take long for most successful software companies to discover the logical flaw in that argument. - deathandtaverns, on 04/08/2009, -0/+5I'd out "As a manager show that you are working hard as well." The worst boss I ever had owned the company I worked at. He would ask his employees to bust their ass to make him rich for relatively low pay and not show any initiative as a manager. He just appeared to his employees as lazy, so we worked hard enough to keep our jobs and that was that. There is a lot to be said for believing in a company and more so a manager. I have a feeling if he was committed to growing the company and we saw him working his ass off we would have wanted to grow the company too. I would love to be part of something that could someday be successful, and be in on the ground floor. Instead he saw us as a means in which to build a company that he could sell for a few million and told us this on a regular basis. Why would I bust my ass to make him rich?
- moothemagiccow, on 04/08/2009, -0/+4As if they could do it effectively for anything else? HR is a pointless department.
- yerdaddy, on 04/08/2009, -0/+4That's probably the biggest problem. It's rare to find a company that's going to let the people doing the work know exactly what the program is. Often you'd be lucky if your manager's manager knows for sure, and it'd be even more odd if they told you. In too many cases someone half decent in a position is acceptable so long as they don't get too concerned about anything, hardly an arrangement that leads to excellence on any level.
- b4cheung, on 04/08/2009, -0/+4It's from dilbert
- maz2331, on 04/08/2009, -0/+3On #1, especially, setting "numbers" that aren't rooted in any sort of reality is a huge problem in many places. For example, when the "top performer" category is only 2 percentage points above "failure" it's no wonder that most of the staff ends up in the "below acceptable performance" category.
Plus, many jobs can't be easily measured, as they may have a disproportionate impact on the organization. - dazparkour, on 04/08/2009, -1/+4As a manager I have nothing against organised worker rights. I've been to the bottom of the ladder - it sucks and as one person you can have zero influence.
I would rather fix this through good management though - I'd hate to think people I employed had to pay someone else to talk to me on their behalf.
My door is always open. - krische, on 04/08/2009, -0/+3I think google really came up with a good idea of giving employees "personal project time." It keeps employees motivated and occupied. Plus, you might get Adwords out of it and make billions taking over the entire internet advertising business in a few years!
- darwininmotion, on 04/08/2009, -0/+3And don't forget that most managers were good employees that were promoted up the chain from their great peformance, but most aren't necessarily good managers.
- ryanhayn, on 04/08/2009, -0/+3Have you ever managed people? It's a lot harder than writing down a few good ideas. People are idiots who want to do the minimum work for the maximum pay. Nothing new there.
- fword07, on 04/08/2009, -2/+5Brainerd, gangbangs.
- nepidae, on 04/08/2009, -0/+2"Making performance standards clear from the outset and having an employee report his results on a regular basis are two ways to emphasize accountability."
This turns into quarter hour breakdown of daily work generally, something that is not good. Instead the manager should budget his time to keep tabs on this. Then during weekly/monthly one on ones both employee and manager know the score. - theutopian, on 04/08/2009, -0/+2I know too well exactly what you're talking about....
- lukedinan, on 04/08/2009, -0/+2holy ***** are you right. out of 50 people you are trying to manage there is probably only 3 people you can apply these concepts to. the rest just dont give a *****
- Jade10145, on 04/08/2009, -0/+2Number 5 applies heavily at my company. When I first started working here I busted my ass getting work done, while every time I walked by someone else s desk anything but work was on their computer screen. The people across from my desk would play paper football. It was like a direct insult. It ended up getting really frustrating. At first I bitched about it to my co workers, but for obvious reasons they didn't give a damn. Eventually I fell into the same apathetic role as everyone else. Its like a cycle. When everyone one else around you does nothing, whats the incentive to work hard? Especially when there is no further reward for it.
- nepidae, on 04/08/2009, -0/+2I agree as well with the statement itself, however it doesn't go far enough imo. "regular" is completely arbitrary. I've seen managers ask people to keep timesheets of every thing they are working on in 15 minute intervals. Apart from being completely absurd for an engineer (are they also supposed to record the time when they are in the shower randomly thinking about a problem?) it is horrible for productivity and moral.
What I mainly meant was yes its good to define standards, but also clearly define the review process. Weekly (when needed) 1 on 1 with your manager, yearly reviews, etc. I just think a lot of time this aspect is completely ignored. - tonyzahn, on 04/08/2009, -0/+2Actually, no.
It's called the Peter Principle: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_principle - inactive, on 04/08/2009, -0/+2A good manager has great people under them who can do both their own job and fill in for the manager in his/her absence
A good manager knows how to do his employees' tasks and can relate to issues that come up and can always produce realistic goals.
A good manager will publicly award good deeds/performance and privately admonish poor performance or mistakes
A good manager gives credit where credit is due and will never take his/her employee's credit from them....after all, when the employee looks good, management looks good
An employee can openly argue/discuss/disagree with his manager about how things should be done and that will usually result in a better resolution than the original - zomgflamer, on 04/08/2009, -2/+4politics is the prime reason for everything bad aint it.
- dazparkour, on 04/08/2009, -0/+2Never thought about it like that before - that is made of pure awesome.
Original or recycled though? - Logrusmage, on 04/08/2009, -0/+1Their punishment? Lowered profits while Google slowly eats at their souls.
- ryanhayn, on 04/08/2009, -0/+1It sucks managing people.
- emailowndme, on 04/08/2009, -0/+1I also have problems with the number's philosophy, because it relies on game theory, which while interesting, ignores the possibility that all people are different, instead, assuming that all people are identical for simplicity's sake.
Honestly, quota's were perhaps the worst system ever added to our work system, and have been even more grossly added to places like war (vietnam had a quota system), and law enforcement (cops have quota's for tickets to issue), and even in our current financial systems failure, the quota system drove the irresponsible loans made out to individuals who couldn't afford them, because the drones selling loans had to keep up with the top performer's etc. - tempysmurf, on 04/08/2009, -0/+1The example was wrong. I could argue that your examples could be solved by using numbers as a measure. It's about what you're measuring not that measuring numbers is wrong. Although, my point was that her point and her example was nonsensical.
- beachsouthpaw, on 04/08/2009, -0/+1I honestly didn't expect the article to be so spot on. I've seen variations of every one of these in organizations I've worked for.
- zmower, on 04/08/2009, -0/+1Damn. I swore I'd never read another "N ways to.." or "Top n widgets" post and yet here I am commenting on one. *shakes fist at internet in general*
- JulyZerg, on 04/08/2009, -2/+3the brothel, whoring
- tech10171968, on 04/08/2009, -0/+1I dunno , I think I agree wholeheartedly with the first part of that statement {making performance standards clear). It seems to be a workplace epidemic in my part of the country where an employee is hired to do one thing but the job quickly ends up turning into something else which was never even mentioned in the job description or qualifications (e.g. why did you hire a sysadmin when all you're having him do is bookkeeping duties?)
- zmower, on 04/08/2009, -0/+1http://uninews.unimelb.edu.au/news/5750/
- ryanhayn, on 04/08/2009, -2/+36 months ago, buy weed from forth
- inactive, on 04/08/2009, -0/+1You do realise a game doesn't need to be symmetric? Each of n players can have a different set of actions and outcomes? Maybe your simple course just didn't teach you enough, do moar maths!
- gall0wsp0le, on 04/08/2009, -0/+1Having worked for government I've not only seen these 5 in action, but working there is like some cosmic unreality where the intended purpose is to waste time and money and never accomplish anything.
Section supervisor: "Look! We cut this procedure's turn-around in half, saving us tons of money, yay!!!"
Commanding officer: "Sweet, now lets use the remainder or our budget to buy a bunch of flat-screen TVs, and use them solely to run a 2-slide powerpoint show on them!"
Joking aside, what I described actually happens very frequently. - rchargel, on 04/08/2009, -0/+1He's quoting the Despair.com poster.
- kd1s, on 04/08/2009, -0/+1The five ways, they are very prevalent in government. I know, I did 5 years in state government.
- dave122, on 04/08/2009, -0/+1@darwin - or bad employees that couldn't do their job anymore and were promoted to management positions to avoid firing them.
- paulieman, on 04/08/2009, -0/+1My company is a national breeder! If you need some incompetent boobs, let me know!
- Claverhouse, on 04/08/2009, -1/+1I thought it was Religion, or the Illegalization of Marihuana.
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