Review season again... This friday is my groups "write your review day". It's a bit
frustrating that it takes 3 months from the time you write your review to the time
you get your first paycheck with any changes, but I've seen the schedule of reviews
of reviews and reviews of those reviews that it takes. Microsoft puts a pretty high
priority on people reviews, and so they like to make sure that everyone puts thought
into it.
This year I've been involved in a training program that has involved several classes,
the upshot is that I've spent the better part of this year focused almost completely
on myself. I find myself feeling like the squeaky wheel with my manager, constantly
asking to talk about my career, direction, and future. Hopefully next year will be
a bit more balanced.
the culling
I still believe in the relative ranking system at Microsoft. After reading Straight
from the Gut I feel even more strongly. Not only is regular turn over healthy
for an organization - it is required.
I would almost take this to another extreme (but not quite) - your bottom 5% should
be cut, your top 5% should be given away. A strong organization should be growing
new talent, and should be farming them out to the rest of the company. If you have
super star performers in your team, give some away (not all of them).
Ok, before you call me insane... people need to see opportunity for growth. If you
work under the best developer (or program manager, or tester, or...) in the company,
you have no hope of ever being the "big cheese". By letting these top tier people
go off and build new farm teams you help the company as a whole, and your organization
now has better opportunity for people to grow. Of course, everything must be done
in moderation. Getting rid of all of your talent would be devestating.
critical feedback
I've always been the type of person to beg for critical feedback. In a way I don't
care what people think I did well - I want to know what I can improve on. What did
I screw up? One of my classes talked about leading from your values. In addition I
read Now,
Discover your strengths. The common thread that I walked away with was - be mindful
of the things you do well, and do them more often. I am often far too dismissive of
positive feedback (other than the good feeling everyone gets from praise). You can
learn as much from positive feedback as critical.
consistency
For probably the 4 year in a row, there is a substantial change in the review process.
This start in 2000, and has continued each year. Sometimes the changes are larger,
sometimes smaller. But every year there has been non-trivial changes. Large enough
changes that I often feel that last year's review isn't as applicable to this year's.
I wish I understood the eventual place we were headed. So far, in general, I think
most of the changes are for the better (I really like the changes for this year, for
example), however at some point I would rather have consistency for a couple review
cycles than "improvement.
final thoughts
I get grief for this all the time, but even with the changes, even with some of the
belt tightning (this is not new),
I still find this to be the absolute best company to work for. The people are passionate
and smart, the problems we tackle are massive, and I still believe we have the best
"deal" anywhere.
For a historical perspective, last year's posts... My
views on the curve system... And the review
system...