In cleaning out some files, I came across documentation that my former boss wrote about me just prior to the RIF.
Lies. Outright lies, unfounded information. Ha, and this while emphasizing "positive intent."
Glad to be away from her. What still feels so unsettling is how she was able to lie, lie some more, and create underlying levels of hostility.
Her primary skill set was politicking. You would have thunk her “extra-curricular” activities would have raised an eyebrow or two.
The good old bell curve that they are a slave to. As pointed out, a line manger could have a team of high performing members, but because of the bell curve requirement one or several would have to be dropped back. Imagine what this does for morale, motivation and team dynamics. The bell curve principle would also be applied for calculating bonuses. If you had a team of high performers, some would inevitably miss out because of the bell curve and there not be enough money in the kitty to pay everyone for their high performance.
When I was a line manager with 5 people’s reviews to do I was told by my manager to make the scoring fit the bell shaped curve.
Well I had someone who was ‘far exceeded , 2 people hitting exceeded and 2 as achieved’.
I had a mature , experienced team who delivered.
On seeing my scoring i was told again to set one person as below achieved.
I held out and refused and my senior manager moved onto to an easier person managing a team to comply with hitting test bell shaped curve.
These comments are totally unacceptable. It is also totally unacceptable that HR studiously ignores situations like this. This company seriously has to look at itself and ask itself why it there are so many negative comments posted about it here. You don’t have to be a brain surgeon to see there is a lot of negativity with this company.
Normal stuff. She probably had favorites she wanted to stay so needed to make someone look bad which will make the elimination decision easier.
You can bet your skip level manager knew.
So for your next job, make sure you are buddy buddy with your skip level.
This is so unfortunate in many ways, maybe this person is no longer with TR, but I doubt it. Unfortunately HR is complicit in all of these situations, they blindly accept or go along with what the manager said because they are in a higher band. This is why there is a mass exodus of talent, and everyone realizes its a paycheck not a career. Culture needs to change and that starts with leadership. If you have been fortunate to work at or even see other companies create a culture where effort and results are rewarded and people are treated with respect and empathy, it is a wonderful place to be. At TR it shocked me to see the revolving door of talent get squeezed out for the silliest reasons ever. Once again HR doesn't care, they just make sure they dot I's and cross T's to cover against litigation.
Honestly, I am so curious who you are talking about, don't mention by name, but can you give the segment?