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submitted 11 months ago by vga@sopuli.xyz to c/technology@lemmy.world
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[-] ReallyActuallyFrankenstein@lemmynsfw.com 79 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

This is the typical Jack Welch stack-ranking nonsense. The theory is that there will always be a bell curve or similar distribution that requires a certain percent (Welch said 10%, but it's all over the map) be cut while new hires are constantly brought on.

It kills morale and forces employees into short-term impact patterns to avoid the constant churn of cuts. It also means that performative work rather than actual substantive work is encouraged, since the appearance of productivity in whatever metric is stack-ranked is all that matters.

Finally, it encourages people to do the minimum, because the alternative is to compete for bonuses that are only going to the people who meet the highest appearance of productivity metrics, which doesn't correlate strongly with actual productivity, just as actual productivity (in terms of "producing" output) is also not strongly correlated with value (such as by knowing enough to efficiently complete tasks such that you are not appearing to "produce," due to being extremely efficient).

[-] Hegar@fedia.io 33 points 11 months ago

This kind of system is how you get the consistency and excellence that microsoft are known for.

[-] yamper@lemmy.world 21 points 11 months ago

i worked at fb a long time ago, it was already exactly like how you describe. everyone was optimizing for their performance review—juicing metrics and prioritizing for the short term. accountability only existed in a 6-month cycle.

[-] UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world 7 points 11 months ago

Great for creating a lot of churn and quick-fix make-work. Rather than deploying a single comprehensive solution to a persistent problem, just take credit for fixing the symptoms over and over and over again.

[-] partial_accumen@lemmy.world 3 points 11 months ago

just take credit for fixing the symptoms over and over and over again.

If the goal of the individual is a measurable delta of positive change, then it would be beneficial to the individual to cultivate problems now to solve and get recognized for future accomplishments? It would be much easier to solve a problem that you know intimately, because you were the original cause.

[-] Squizzy@lemmy.world 4 points 11 months ago

Just did a review and we successfully removed KPIs from our project by pointing out that we could hit the targets and cost the company money or we could operate as required instead of trying to please metrics that, while relevant at a surface level, are impacted by external forces.

[-] jmcs@discuss.tchncs.de 57 points 11 months ago

Oh no, poor Zuckerberg, what is going to do after he's fired? He has no marketable skills at all.

[-] meco03211@lemmy.world 27 points 11 months ago

Nothing a little reprogramming can't fix.

[-] partial_accumen@lemmy.world 4 points 11 months ago

Also with the abandonment of DEI initiatives, there are no longer any protections for Lizard-Amercians.

[-] spidermanchild@sh.itjust.works 4 points 11 months ago

Didn't he die just today trying to suck on his own penis? Hard to keep up with the news these days.

[-] werefreeatlast@lemmy.world 1 points 11 months ago

I heard that he did get to suck his own cock but when he came he choked on the other Guy's golden finger. I don't know if this is an appropriate topic though. He had a big fat cock...he paid the guy a few thousand a day. Why would he suck his own is beyond me.

[-] 0x0@programming.dev 37 points 11 months ago

Somehow i doubt this'll affect anyone with "manager", "head", "chief" or "officer" in the name...

[-] TheHobbyist@lemmy.zip 39 points 11 months ago

They may inadvertently focus on people who spoke against the new "pro free speech" of Facebook...

[-] UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world 15 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

Its most aggressive at the higher tiers, because promotions are a tool of employee retention and "flattening" the management stack is a good way of pushing out the experienced, expensive older employees. You'll also see a lot more outsourcing of department rolls, as C-levels opt for lowest-bidder contractors you can hire/fire inside a business cycle than big teams of veteran staffers who sit on the payroll thick or thin. That means fewer mid-level managers, as the actual process of team management is sent overseas or subcontracted out to temporary management firms.

McDonald Douglas and Yahoo both executed on this strategy back in the 90s to great effect. Stock valuations boomed, because they were able to create the illusion of cost cutting without impacting quarterly revenue. All it cost them was mountains of technical debt. And then nothing bad happened to either company.

[-] GissaMittJobb@lemmy.ml 7 points 11 months ago

I'm not sure if you're up to date on how layoffs have been done lately in tech, but management has been primary targets in layoffs. Full layers of management have been removed, and middle managers have often been expected to take on twice as many reports for no increase in compensation.

No comments on the C-level part which is largely correct

[-] athairmor@lemmy.world 5 points 11 months ago

Funny enough, it’s all content moderators and fact checkers.

[-] TheReturnOfPEB@reddthat.com 20 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

Then the ones just above the lowest 5% become the newest lowest 5%.

Is he gonna cut them next ?

First they came for the lowest 5%,
and I didn’t speak up,
because I wasn’t a lowest 5%.
Then they came for the lowest 5%,
and I didn’t speak up,
because I wasn’t a lowest 5%.
Then they came for the lowest 5%,
and I didn’t speak up,
because I wasn’t a lowest 5%.
Then they came for me,
and by that time there was no one
left to cut below me.

[-] UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world 19 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

What you can end up with is a lot of new hires queued up for the firing line. The "bottom 5%" is, initially, the people in the office who are currently in a slump. But then you bring on a load of fresh new hires who have little experience and a lot of pressure. They burn out fast and become the next "bottom 5%".

Meanwhile, the more politically and technically savvy learn to survive by creating make-work tasks that look good on performance metrics but do little for the firm as a whole. Their superiors approve, because a team that is constantly appearing busy is more important than a team that's producing anything of value. So you end up with these little entrenched departmental fiefs, dedicated to making themselves irreplaceable at the expense of the company as a whole.

There's a ton written on the Sears collapse in the early 00s, where this exact dynamic played out. Managers turned against one another, because stack ranking mattered more than inter-department cohesion or bottom line figures. The company went from a network of high end retailers to a shitty outlet stores over the course of a decade.

[-] henfredemars@infosec.pub 15 points 11 months ago

Gotta make them fear for their jobs. Keep the workers in line.

Unionize!

[-] cyberwolfie@lemmy.ml 14 points 11 months ago

Time to print out your commit history and show Zuck how many lines of code you wrote last month!

[-] psychiatric_hippo@lemmy.zip 13 points 11 months ago

who is going to be the next CEO?

[-] Imgonnatrythis@sh.itjust.works 5 points 11 months ago

I heard vice president Donald Trump might be interested if president Musk will let him

[-] Imgonnatrythis@sh.itjust.works 8 points 11 months ago

Show me the lowest 5% of performers at Meta and I'll show you people doing God's work.

[-] formergijoe@lemmy.world 3 points 11 months ago

Probably the metaverse crew. I doubt that's God's work.

[-] brsrklf@jlai.lu 4 points 11 months ago

Wasting meta's resources on a deserted wasteland absolutely nobody wants or cares about? I think I don't mind that actually.

[-] affiliate@lemmy.world 3 points 11 months ago

i show you mark zuckerberg

[-] Hegar@fedia.io 6 points 11 months ago

Unless they're axing the top 5% of the org chart, they're not cutting the lowest performers.

[-] Nougat@fedia.io 6 points 11 months ago

What even counts as "performing" there?

[-] radiohead37@lemmynsfw.com 8 points 11 months ago

Number of likes.

[-] Atelopus-zeteki@fedia.io 2 points 11 months ago

Bye Bye, Meta, I wish I could say it was fun.

[-] TypicalHog@lemm.ee 1 points 11 months ago

I mean... It makes sense if they like money.

this post was submitted on 14 Jan 2025
106 points (97.3% liked)

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