Stack ranking keeps the 'valuable employees' in focus, Bell Curve forces managers to be realistic in rating performance. These are good tools but are too hard to use, and their use ends up creating more harm than good. So how do you deal with them?
Workplace Reality #4: Promotions and Bonuses reflect market conditions, not capabilities, mostly
Compensation Planning in most organizations are dependent on market and business conditions, and so it is important to understand those dynamics and not confuse it as a measure of your capabilities or performance.
Workplace Reality #3: Most performance review systems are broken and useless
Performance appraisal systems were designed using assumptions that don't hold true in modern workplaces. No wonder appraisals yield upsetting results!
Workplace Reality #2: “Organization deliberately sets up conflicting goals for people”
This post is part of the series on 9 Realities of Modern Workplace.
In this post, we talk about Reality #2: "Organization deliberately sets up goals for people and departments that conflict with each other".
There are 2 reasons why organizations end up creating conflicting goals:
- Organizations need a healthy checks-and-balances system. They need one set of people to keep a tab on what another set is doing and hold them accountable. For example, finance team is there to make sure money is not being spent unwisely by other groups (of course, they have other goals too!).
Workplace Reality #1: Organizations care for value, not you
This post is part of the series on 9 Realities of Modern Workplace.
In this post, we talk about Reality #1: "Organization doesn't care about you, it only cares about the value you create".
A job is a financial arrangement: you offer to provide value, and the organization pays you for it. Like any other business transaction, the organization expects to make more money off of the value you create.
9 Realities of Modern Workplace
While talking to a project manager in a services company recently, I was reminded of how little people (even those with 8-10 years of experience) understand modern workplace. We were talking about promotions and bonuses and she was lamenting the fact that promotions very rarely happen in the mid-year review. When I asked her why … Continue reading 9 Realities of Modern Workplace
My Independence – Growing up
Summarizing my entrepreneurial experience of last 7-8 months, part 3 of the series I have been writing since I came to India.
Learning Product Management from City Administrators
Two real stories, one long and one short, and an observation on how you can learn product management from city administration. Story 1: Caring about unmet need I live in Greater Noida, which very clearly has been designed by people who thought a lot about city planning and had lots of creativity. Roads are very … Continue reading Learning Product Management from City Administrators
B.Tech Degree Shops (aka engineering colleges) – Who will clean the mess?
My recent talk with a 3rd yr student in a Greater Noida engineering college left me very disturbed about lack of quality and responsibility of such private colleges. My thoughts on what needs fixing, and what we can do about it.
IIT Mania – Can kids be kids?
By making the kids start preparing for IIT-JEE so early in their life (Class VI in some cases!), we are robbing them of their childhood, and setting them on a path to cramming, rather than developing joy of learning. It's time we change this!
Career Bloom 