{"id":471,"date":"2012-07-11T18:17:45","date_gmt":"2012-07-12T01:17:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/angryweasel.com\/blog\/?p=471"},"modified":"2012-07-11T18:17:45","modified_gmt":"2012-07-12T01:17:45","slug":"dead-mans-curve","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/angryweasel.com\/blog\/dead-mans-curve\/","title":{"rendered":"Dead Man’s Curve"},"content":{"rendered":"

In my last post<\/a>, I tried really hard to focus on the message of employee reviews, and how that message<\/em> shouldn\u2019t be a surprise. I said things like: \u201cI\u2019m not a fan of the system\u2026<\/em>\u201d, and \u201cIt doesn\u2019t matter how messed up the system is\u2026\u201d \u2013 <\/em>yet the mention of the dreaded-curve of the MS review system was still the focal point of some of the comments, and of many<\/em> private emails. I had always planned to follow the Three Surprises post with my view of the curve-based review system, but I\u2019ve gone back and forth several times in the last day. If you\u2019ve skimmed ahead, you probably figured out that I decided to go ahead and share my thoughts. There\u2019s probably nothing new here, but I think there\u2019s probably something here that both MS and non-MS employees will be able to learn from.<\/p>\n

As I also mentioned in my last post, I\u2019m not particularly fond of the curve , but consider it the tax I pay in order to get paid extremely well to do a job I enjoy. The most recent version of the review curve is the third variation I\u2019ve experienced at Microsoft and is only 18 months old. All versions have their pros and cons, and over beers, I will gladly share the full story and dozens of anecdotes. For this forum, however, I\u2019ll keep things (relatively) short and focus on the latest revision.<\/p>\n

The most positive aspects about the curve are the simplicity and the transparency. There\u2019s little mystery to the review system \u2013 peer groups (people in the same level band) are stack ranked from 1-n, and then the rank is broken into ratings groups based on known percentages. The bonus percentages for each score and level band are known, so there\u2019s not that much mystery in the system (other than the surprises I mentioned in the last post). It\u2019s easy to apply and easy to manage at all levels of the organization.<\/p>\n

On the negative side (from my view at least), there are just a few things I think are worth pointing out. Microsoft values differentiation<\/em> of employees. What this means in practice is that once the lines are drawn to determine review rankings, everyone in each peer group receives the exact same reward. In a ranking system of 1-5, this means that the person who just missed getting a \u201c1\u201d ranking gets the exact same rewards as the person who barely squeaked out of a \u201c3\u201d rating to get a \u201c2\u201d. As I mentioned above, this makes the system simple, but also can send some difficult messages. Despite this, since the goal is<\/em> to differentiate employee rewards, this aspect of the curve works as promised.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s also a big challenge for a \u2018superstar\u2019 team. The curve applies to the team (or, for higher levels, across a division), but it\u2019s possible to get a lower review score just by being on a good team. Even worse, the opposite is true. One can guarantee a good review score by finding a dysfunctional team and stepping in as the superstar.<\/p>\n

And that leads to the part I really worry about – the side effects of the curve and competition. Behaviors visibly change as calibration season approaches. Some people begin to suck up in attempt to play the \u201creview game\u201d, while others refuse to take risks they would take at any other part of the year. A co-worker was commenting recently on strange behavior in a meeting when I asked him, \u201cwould the conversation have been different at a different time of the year?\u201d (the answer was a resounding yes). I am a huge believer in collaboration (I once had a manager who said, collaboration was my super-power). The problem is that collaboration and competition don\u2019t work well together. It\u2019s in my best interest (as far as rewards go) to do everything I can to make sure all of my peers fail \u2013 and they, likewise, should feel the same. Given the system, that case could indeed happen, but fortunately most teams are able to rise above it \u2013 despite the potential hit on our own rewards and career growth. Alfie Kohn<\/a> has written some fantastic books on this subject \u2013 including twoI keep on my desk this time of year: Punished by Rewards: The Trouble with Gold Stars, Incentive Plans, A’s, Praise, and Other Bribes<\/a>, and No Contest: The Case Against Competition<\/a>. To me, Kohn\u2019s work says a lot about review systems in general. Combine these with Dan Pinks work on motivation, and you can form a pretty good picture for yourself with review systems.<\/p>\n

Psychologically, as you can imagine, it\u2019s a mess. Once the posturing is over and the calibration happens, news of the actual review scores slowly leak out \u2013 causing a zombie-like depression over a fair share of employees. After a few months, the fog shakes off, and it\u2019s back to business as usual \u2013 for another 8-10 months or so.<\/p>\n

I realize, that by sharing these thoughts, I\u2019m opening the floodgates for criticism and complaints about the system. I live with this system in order to get to do what I do. If I ever get to a point where my job isn\u2019t the best possible job I can imagine for myself, or if a review system conflicts with what I get to do, my story will change. Until then, it\u2019s definitely a price I can pay.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In my last post, I tried really hard to focus on the message of employee reviews, and how that message shouldn\u2019t be a surprise. I said things like: \u201cI\u2019m not a fan of the system\u2026\u201d, and \u201cIt doesn\u2019t matter how messed up the system is\u2026\u201d \u2013 yet the mention of the dreaded-curve of the MS…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-471","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-allposts"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/angryweasel.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/471","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/angryweasel.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/angryweasel.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/angryweasel.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/angryweasel.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=471"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/angryweasel.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/471\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/angryweasel.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=471"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/angryweasel.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=471"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/angryweasel.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=471"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}