Thread regarding Thomson Reuters layoffs

@pomw+1qIbEdds Global centers are blazing TRAIN WRECKS. Leaders are so afraid to raise this that no one dares tell the emperor they have no clothes on. A culture of real fear exists.

Mgmt and upper management will only know what we are enduring if the are assigned 1 -4 days each year to answer phones, sell, and deal with the DIY inefficient platforms and the belabored 16 extra unnecessary steps we have do for one thing!

They being strongly that going overseas is saving them money.

But they are blind to the amount of man hours and selling time wasted on these inefficient processes, all the steps wasted on duplicated efforts or process. outdated platforms, customers we lose with poor customer service, lack of sufficient training for overseas new people in the back office, undoing the sc--w up do to lack of training….

It’s Basic Math!

People that received these annual awards for being #1 in their role, still get “achieved”
How does that make sense?

@fgwh+1qIbEdds You are right. I don’t fit the mold. I’ve been burned too many times to care.

It’s not just about me though, it’s about the 1000’s of others who feel the same way.

I personally do not work over 40 hours anymore. Haven’t in years. I get the same merit increase if I try hard or coast.

I’ve turned down an offer for promotion because it’s not worth it.

So yes, I am not a fit for management as I stopped drinking the kool aid.

But we are rated against those goals. So I if smash them doesn’t that imply I exceeded them?

Or are you implying that it’s all a game of who kisses their managers a-s better. That would never happen here at such a meritocratic company /s

So yeah, for me I play a different game. I have different goals. Those goals do not put the company or my career here 1st.

This isn't, and never has been about recognising talent and effort.

Back in the day, I thought the "moderation" (fitting all direct reports to a bell curve) was normal. Only later did I learn how toxic and discredited that forced ranking is. And how this -- corporate America's worst export -- spread to TR's spinoffs like Refinitiv and Misys.

This "Vitality Curve" garbage seems to be a favourite of bean-counting sociopaths everywhere who think they can run a business via an algorithm or a secret recipe (helloooo, Vista!) and ignore the human element. A terrible discredited concept which like the proverbial unflushable tu-d, never goes away.

A one-off culling of the bottom 10% of dead wood might be called for in the initial stages of turning around a floundering business, but doing it year on year is stupid, evil, toxic corporate cargo-cult B.S which just incinerates business value in the long run.

Layingflat - your response speaks volumes as to why you don’t get an exceeds. People need to understand that there is much more to it than “smashing” your goals. I know people who have missed half of their goals and still get an exceeds because of the work they do get done. And they work 40 hours a week to do it. Doing the work of your managers manager is not about work load. It’s about working smarter and showing that you have the chops and the right attitude.

Did anyone worked with your manager on how to get exceeded/far exceeded, asked what it takes to get there? From what I know many people do not even ask , we just do our work and think it is enough ( to stay long hours will not get you to the top😉) for exceeded and the we are surprised is not. Yes, there might be a case that not every person can get it = politics or your manager
may not be interested in your growth to help you to get there 🤷‍♀️ that is corpo life and TR is not different than any big firms, many people just want you to fall down and not to be on the top..stop taking it personally, or that you are not going enough build your strategy...and play the game too as many of our top colleagues...sometimes it's not skills that will help you achieve better but well played game 😉

@diil+1qIbEdds You are right but the CEO and CHRO review ratings because they want to see the percentage of did not and partially achieved. Those leaders set the curve and all managers knows what the bosses wants.

@diil+1qIbEdds that’s just insane if you really believe that.

You want someone to do the job of their manager’s manager? Ha!

Or if my manager didn’t communicate with me over the year and I don’t like the rating I should contact HR? Yeah let me create an adversarial relationship with my manager. I’m sure that will really help my case to get an exceed rating.

The cognitive dissonance I and my colleagues feel stem from what we believe are the countless times we have gone above either our role or just smashing our goals. And then getting smacked in the face with achieved at best.

Talking from personal experience I have crushed my goals on numerous occasions and told nope not good enough.

I have been coached by one of my managers to not self select as exceeded.

But it took me years to really understand that it didn’t actually matter. The difference is so minimal in terms of merit pay that it just doesn’t matter to stress about it all year. 1% maybe 2%. But I’ll still get my 2% if I coast.

There is NO incentive to push myself, ruin my health, and miss out on time with family.

For the 1000’s of people who read this I truly hope you all give them the finger when they ask you stay late or pile on more work.

Get to it when you can, not when they want you to.

Going to be here now for myself

Everyone makes it sound like an achieved is a bad thing. It’s not. It means you did your job. You can be a low achieved (doing bare minimum) or high achieved. Going above and beyond. Exceeds means you are doing more than your job (the job of the level above you or even 2 levels above)
You should not be surprised at your rating. It is also not true that their MUST be a partially achieved. If that’s what you / your manager are hearing then either they are not aware of their job or someone above them is giving misinformation. Exceeds and partially achieved both have to have a good explanation documented for why that rating was given. This documentation is outside of the review process and for leadership eyes only.
If you did get a partial then your manager should have had convos throughout the year. If that didn’t happen then talk to HR. If it did then maybe reevaluate how you show up

As a former people manager of a large team at TR I can confirm that I had only minimal influence on the ratings given to employees. And it is a bell curve system. Even if your entire team kicked a** all year, you are forced to find 20% that partially achieved. One, if you’re lucky, will be able to receive exceeded. It’s all smoke and mirrors, including the bonus payout allocation by team. Trust me, it’s not the same across the board. Life isn’t rainbows and giggles outside of TR but it’s a he-l of a lot less BS and blatant systemic politics.

I was told that even if everybody in your group has achieved their goals, they have to have at least one person as “partially achieved“. As one of the posters said, these reviews are pure BS.

There was a period of many years where I was doing the work of more than one person and basically managing the workload. My colleague(s) just weren't pulling their weight or putting in the effort without a ton of prodding, despite my complaints about that to my manager. Even so, I never got an exceeded for doing their work and mine. It's my fault for letting that happen. Never again.

Even when I was in TR (two stints, between 2006 and 2018) it was a real struggle to get anything beyond Achieved. The effort and personal sacrifice required to get beyond that was never worth the tiny increment and bonus.

Learn to "act your wage". I learnt far too late that it's best to only work hard enough to avoid the bottom tail of the bell curve. The C-suite and investor class don't care about you -- so why should you go the extra mile?

I am sure our managers got exceeded or whatever the top rating is 😉

Just do the minimum to get achieved and skip all the town hall meetings.

"then at most, work only to the level they pay"

This is where I'm at. After years of no promotion whether it's exceeds or achieves, watching people who did the same or less work than me at my level actually get an exceeds, and having multiple people come to me to vent because they aren't comfortable going to their manager since they get blown off, I've decided 2024 is the year of "acting my wage." It's also the year of being bluntly honest when asked about it. It will be interesting to see if I'm still here in 2025.

I came on here to read the post as my colleagues started to ask if I had wrote this for it sounding so much like me.

My rating was no different. I was told that it was in fact moved down to ‘Achieved’.

Demotivated. Will I work as hard this year for the same rating: No.

There are two reasons TR has to conduct reviews - cost management and documenting whether you've raised a claim against the company (a claim they'd have to spend money on to defend against). In general, the majority of managers are given rating instructions as part of budget management. If you don't raise a claim, and then have one later, they use the past failure to report against you. If you do raise a claim, you're doomed. Your review at best will be "achieves" and may be pushed lower because they're juggling the money and want to give what you should get to someone else (usually higher up).

Being a reporter for Reuters is the best you can do in terms of your CV, and that isn't even worth what it used to be. If you're employed in any other capacity, no one cares about TR. It's not some big, glorious brand with cache in the market. It's one more role on your CV. My advice having gotten out is to do what you need to do to pay your bills, look for better opportunities, then at most, work only to the level they pay. Trying to do more, or go beyond, is giving them free services because either you have a decent manager who is not permitted to reward you, or you have a manager who can but is too focused on getting for themself at your expense.

My old boss complained one year to us about the ratings system. They said they were told by the higher ups to not give anyone exceeded ratings. To keep it at achieved, if not lower. At the time, they were upset at this new policy and told us that if they could give us the exceeded we deserved, that they would.

Fast forward to today, and this boss and I are both laid off survivors. Don't know who's left still standing from our core team. Old exec team are all gone too. RIP TR as we knew it, when times were once good.

Reviews are pushed from the top down now by upper management who look only at numbers. In a life long ago and far away I worked for a church owned social services agency. When the budget was super tight EVERYONE got glowing reviews, but no money. When budgets were flush, it was like it is now at TR, an honest review was very hard to find. If you're staying get used to it.

I believe that many individuals share a common sentiment with the original poster. It is disconcerting that such practices persist annually, and there is a collective frustration regarding this recurring pattern.

^^^^^

Is anyone here truly pleased with their EOY review? Seems like this is a worthwhile Q&A question for a town hall or ask me anything meeting. A year's worth of high effort for little to no reward is an obvious disincentive.

Apparently upper leadership was forcing partially meets expectations down managements throat this year. I thought I would get at least achieved for all my work (and good quarterly checkups)... Nope.

Also keep in mind that there is a cap on the amount you can get based on the payband you are in. Which means unless you get promoted you could in theory stop getting even 1% increase.

Most are not there but I know it happens. Even if you hit exceed you will still not be able to get any increase.

My old manager (who was recently laid off) told me that no one gets the exceed expectations designation, even if they obviously did. Performance reviews are BS.

Most people get an "achieved" rating. Higher ratings are not worth the effort. They only get an extra ~1% raise. TR does not value employees. My advice is to find a company that does.