How is your career going?

[gbasden]

Downside is that tough performance management may actually get me as I will be "competing" with some of our top talent.

Stack ranking is ridiculous bullshit. At least in my experience, good people end up on teams together because they attract good talent. Arbitrarily voting 15% off the island is stupid 90s bullshit thinking.

But that’s how it’s done at so many companies today. I hate HR. We just did our annual performance reviews, and I got massive pushback when my direct report and everyone on her team got a highly successful rating. HR told us that was well beyond the anticipated percentage of highly successful employees. We told them to stick it.

Helps that my last day of work is this Friday!

Yeah. Its most certainly not unusual. It doesn't change my feeling that it's incredibly counterproductive. Why should I help my colleague if it means they might be ranked above me? I lived it for about 6 years before it was phased out at my work and it was poisonous to team dynamics. I saw a number of really good people get kicked to the curb because they got unlucky. It just sucks. Good on you for spiking HRs wheels on the way out!

[RunningMn9]

That’s the same garbage system that Intel used when I was there. Giving me a financial incentive to sabotage my coworkers never really seemed like a good system to me.

[coopasonic]

HR told us that was well beyond the anticipated percentage of highly successful employees. We told them to stick it.

My Director would be on board but tell me the next level isn't going to have it. My Sr Director would be open to discussion (and then veto it). My VP would tell me right where I could stick it to meet the distribution or she would meet it for me. Actually if they were all really top tier, I could get away with it at the cost of slightly less top tier talent. The problem is we've gotten rid of the under performers and we aren't hiring much these past couple years so most everyone left is a high performer but that distro must be met.

[Zaxxon]

HR told us that was well beyond the anticipated percentage of highly successful employees. We told them to stick it.

My Director ...
My Sr Director ...
My VP ...

Think I found the problem.

[Kurth]

HR told us that was well beyond the anticipated percentage of highly successful employees. We told them to stick it.

My Director would be on board but tell me the next level isn't going to have it. My Sr Director would be open to discussion (and then veto it). My VP would tell me right where I could stick it to meet the distribution or she would meet it for me. Actually if they were all really top tier, I could get away with it at the cost of slightly less top tier talent. The problem is we've gotten rid of the under performers and we aren't hiring much these past couple years so most everyone left is a high performer but that distro must be met.

To his credit, after my VP pushed back (because HR was pushing back), he did say that if I really believed everyone on the team was highly successful, he'd put it through and make someone else tell us "no." That's the kind of boss he was, which is one big reason it's bittersweet that I'm leaving.

Also, no one told us "no," so I think we're all good. So all's well that ends well.

[Kurth]

First day of work at a new job after 9 years at my last one. Feels strange, but exciting. Bracing for the inevitable weirdness of starting new somewhere . . .

[Zaxxon]

First day of work at a new job after 9 years at my last one. Feels strange, but exciting. Bracing for the inevitable weirdness of starting new somewhere . . .

Best of luck!

[Paingod]

We might save a dollar or two over someone's salary. We're going to piss away twice that through inefficiency and waste.

And that's before they inevitably lose you once you get fed up enough.

Without a doubt. I'm already looking for a new job. There are few opportunities in the realm I want to work around me, though.

The new GM casually dropped in our one-on-one last week that he was gutting my role, putting all of my departments under other people (including himself) and relegating me back to IT only. He was also cutting my pay by 10%.

He offered absolutely no explanation other than "because I want to" - not poor performance, not interdepartmental conflicts, not efficiency insights he invented, not even any real cost savings. Nothing. 10% of my salary is nothing in our labor budget.

I've never been invited to leave this hard in my life. My job search just upgraded from "Casual" to "Urgent".

[Kraken]

Ouch. That's barely a step above getting PIP'd.

[Zaxxon]

Terrible.

[Paingod]

Terrible.

That's the prevailing theme people have replied with at work when I let them know the things they used to come to me for are going somewhere else. A mixture of confusion and/or disgust. For the last three years I've built a good rapport with a lot of staff members and have a reputation as the guy that gets shit done and is consistently putting in a high quality of work and hours.

Two people have said that this guy is clearly threatened by me - I tried to get the job that he got instead of me. Gutting my role and cutting my legs out from under me is his way of doing a victory lap and pissing on his competition. It only took him 5 months to get to this because his Finance Brain only makes big changes when the fiscal year ends. July starts a new year. July 1 is when this all takes place.

On my way out I intend to let the Board of Directors know how the guy they hired treats his employees and where he's taking their culture. This isn't an isolated issue; he's already driven out another good manager. They keep an intentional distance away from interference and don't actually know any details aside from things like headcounts and budget numbers.

[Tao]

If I recall there ae a number of IT folks on the board and a couple of federal employees...

https://www.usajobs.gov/job/796418000

If anyone is interested or knows someone that may be interested and has questions feel free to message me.

[Kasey Chang]

It seems I may be interviewing for a job next week. It's for my local hospital's patient ambassador. We shall see.

[RMC]

Downside is that tough performance management may actually get me as I will be "competing" with some of our top talent.

Stack ranking is ridiculous bullshit. At least in my experience, good people end up on teams together because they attract good talent. Arbitrarily voting 15% off the island is stupid 90s bullshit thinking.

But that’s how it’s done at so many companies today. I hate HR. We just did our annual performance reviews, and I got massive pushback when my direct report and everyone on her team got a highly successful rating. HR told us that was well beyond the anticipated percentage of highly successful employees. We told them to stick it.

Helps that my last day of work is this Friday!

We switched our performance reviews to Meets, or doesn't meets. No point system, etc.. I don't really like it, but it's better than ranking my employees, and then sticking it to some and rewarding others on an arbitrary numbers put into a program. Now I get to give out raises, based on what I want too, but since everyone learns what the base raise is, and I have to steal from peter to pay paul, it's basically the same thing without the ranking. <shrug>

[Default]

Last day when the uniform isn't an exercise in cosplay.

[Isgrimnur]

Last day in uniform should be a day for cosplay. What could they do, fire you?

[Kasey Chang]

Commentary: most companies don't bother writing you back that you've been rejected until MONTHS later, if they do so at all.

I've been tracking my job applications. I've applied to 24 jobs since April. I've gotten rejections from... 2. One I didn't expect to get far, as it's pretty much advertised for young guns and I'm an old geezer. Another one I suspect to be a resume harvesting op as they sent a rejection within 48 hours. The rest just sat there, as their autoreply basically says "If we like your resume we'll contact you", which is code for "Don't call us, don't expect notification from us".

[Kraken]

I *really* want to retire after we finish buying/selling houses and get settled...but I just signed on to edit another round of GTC sessions because NVIDIA just pays too well to turn down. The job starts in October and will take 75-100 hours, mostly of my own choosing, between then and March, with payment next May. And that will be the last time, I swear.

[Default]

Last day in uniform should be a day for cosplay. What could they do, fire you?

I didn't cosplay, but I picked up my last postal sinus infection. Actively trying to purge the knee jerk lookahead planning thoughts for work.

[Kasey Chang]

Went to an interview yesterday, I thought I did pretty well. The interviewer went to get her boss, who appears to be the hiring manager. And we had a chat as well. That's a good sign, right? Like I got to round 2 right away?

[Jeff V]

Went to an interview yesterday, I thought I did pretty well. The interviewer went to get her boss, who appears to be the hiring manager. And we had a chat as well. That's a good sign, right? Like I got to round 2 right away?

Maybe. You didn't show her your junk, did you?

[hepcat]

….or Jeff’s junk, if you’re still subscribed to his newsletter.

[raydude]

Found out I got promoted to Principal Professional Staff recently. The staff rankings at APL are Associate Professional Staff 1 & 2 then Senior Professional Staff 1 & 2. Then every year each Group puts forward a candidate for PPS and I guess my Group put my name in as a candidate. Then they have to convince the Branch management to put a name forward for the Branch, and then Branch has to convince the Department, which then has to convince the APL Board of Directors. From there it goes to the Johns Hopkins Board of Directors and then finally they select around 6 people to be the PPS for a given year. This is out of a staff of about 12,000 employees. Apparently it's the APL equivalent of tenure although unlike tenure I still can get fired if I do stupid or illegal things.

And my name goes up on the APL wall of PPS in the lobby of Building 1 to be enshrined with the rest of the PPSes from APL's past through present. I was truly honored to get it.

[RMC]

Found out I got promoted to Principal Professional Staff recently. The staff rankings at APL are Associate Professional Staff 1 & 2 then Senior Professional Staff 1 & 2. Then every year each Group puts forward a candidate for PPS and I guess my Group put my name in as a candidate. Then they have to convince the Branch management to put a name forward for the Branch, and then Branch has to convince the Department, which then has to convince the APL Board of Directors. From there it goes to the Johns Hopkins Board of Directors and then finally they select around 6 people to be the PPS for a given year. This is out of a staff of about 12,000 employees. Apparently it's the APL equivalent of tenure although unlike tenure I still can get fired if I do stupid or illegal things.

And my name goes up on the APL wall of PPS in the lobby of Building 1 to be enshrined with the rest of the PPSes from APL's past through present. I was truly honored to get it.

Congrats!

[The Meal]

That’s damn amazing!

[Zaxxon]

[disarm]

Very cool raydude... congratulations!

[Kraken]

Sweet! I got my name on a wall once for donating a small percentage of my pay to a capital improvement project. It's not so thrilling when you paid for it.

[Kurth]

Three weeks into the new job and . . . I’m realizing how easy I had it at the old job! Every new job I’ve had, I’ve always been a little bored at the start waiting for things to ramp up. Not this time. Not at all. It feels a little like I was in a carnival dunk tank these first few weeks, and now I’m struggling to stay above water.

It’s amazing how you can look at a big company and assume their legal department is a smoothly running machine, but when you get a look from the inside, it couldn’t e further from the truth. This new place makes my old place look like it was a paragon of sophistication and legal efficiency.

But it’s all good. I made the move because I wanted opportunity and a challenge. Those are being delivered in spades.

Plus, I got to prep and defend the deposition of an expert witness for us who is a legend in the gaming world. Legitimate legend. So that’s pretty freaking cool!

[Paingod]

The new GM casually dropped in our one-on-one last week that he was gutting my role, putting all of my departments under other people (including himself) and relegating me back to IT only. He was also cutting my pay by 10%.

The job search is ... going. Absolutely no bites yet on the resumes I've sent out, so I'm going to review my format and make sure my nuts and bolts are tight.

I've been the Director of IT now for 10 days and because the GM is so bad at change management, people keep coming to me to ask for help with things I used to be in charge of. I don't want to hinder my coworkers, but I also won't do my old job without my old pay. I keep deflecting things back to him.

Over the weekend we had an absolute catastrophe in the store. A boiler ruptured and leaked glycol across 15% of our retail floor below. The Fire Department showed up and made things worse by shutting off valves that had nothing to do with that system but did cause problems with refrigeration. I would have been the person leading the response as our Facilities Manager quit the week before I was pulled from my old role. Instead I got to watch from the sidelines as multiple managers who had no idea how the systems come together struggled to hold things together. The GM, who took this responsibility from me, was out in the woods on vacation and had no idea what happened in the store for 36 hours. The people making it up as they went called in the wrong contractors and didn't organize the spill containment and cleanup well enough in the first pass to satisfy the state.

I'm not saying it was satisfying to watch people running around like chickens with their heads cut off, but I was glad it wasn't my circus or my monkeys.

[Zaxxon]

Yikes, that sucks, PG. For all involved.

Plus, I got to prep and defend the deposition of an expert witness for us who is a legend in the gaming world. Legitimate legend. So that’s pretty freaking cool!

Don't leave us hangin', man!

[LordMortis]

it wasn't my circus or my monkeys.

As someone who led disaster mitigation all too frequently, I'd have been thanking my 10% paycut and stay checked out until my work was no longer protected by the SEP field and I'da fell damned good about it.

I'd continue to only do my new job while looking for the next one. But that's me. If GM fires me for his incompetence, then so be it. Of course, I lost my fear of being fired some six or seven years before I quit my position. People would say be careful what you wish for and I respond we're all replaceable but I'll take unemployment and the excuse to find a new job any time you're ready to give it me. I had a horrible attitude. Bust my ass. Kept everyone going and satisfied while I stress ate and slept but I was among the noticeably worst attitudes in the company. Even after I gave them my open ended notice, it took them six months to get a replacement and that was only because I finally gave them a deadline.

I would have soooo taken a 10% pay cut before I hit the point of no return to leave all my stresses and after hours work in someone else' lap.

[Paingod]

it wasn't my circus or my monkeys.

I would have soooo taken a 10% pay cut before I hit the point of no return to leave all my stresses and after hours work in someone else' lap.

I will add that there's a certain level of satisfaction in thinking "Well, well, well. If it isn't the consequences of my own actions." when I observe stress fractures in the GM's demeanor and darker circles under his eyes this week. I'm not missing the stress, but I do miss the challenge. I really liked leading multiple teams. There was always something interesting.

[LawBeefaroni]

Yikes, that sucks, PG. For all involved.

Plus, I got to prep and defend the deposition of an expert witness for us who is a legend in the gaming world. Legitimate legend. So that’s pretty freaking cool!

Don't leave us hangin', man!

Derek Smart, undoubtedly.

[LordMortis]

it wasn't my circus or my monkeys.

I would have soooo taken a 10% pay cut before I hit the point of no return to leave all my stresses and after hours work in someone else' lap.

I will add that there's a certain level of satisfaction in thinking "Well, well, well. If it isn't the consequences of my own actions." when I observe stress fractures in the GM's demeanor and darker circles under his eyes this week. I'm not missing the stress, but I do miss the challenge. I really liked leading multiple teams. There was always something interesting.

I liked challenges especially the challenges of new things to make me sharper. Stressful challenges? Fuck that noise.

[Kurth]

Yikes, that sucks, PG. For all involved.

Plus, I got to prep and defend the deposition of an expert witness for us who is a legend in the gaming world. Legitimate legend. So that’s pretty freaking cool!

Don't leave us hangin', man!

Co-founder of Activision. Arguably created platform gaming by making (pretty much single-handedly) a little game called Pitfall.

Edited to add: I had a great moment today when a colleague dropped by to gift me an awesome Shadow of the Colossus poster for my office after learning that SotC is one of my all-time favorite games. Definitely the coolest office decor I've ever had!

[Zaxxon]

Sweet!

[Jeff V]

So after achieving her stated goal for the past decade -- a regular dayshift with all weekends and holidays off, wife is now talking about working every weekend and taking days off during the week, because that's when none of the things we do on weekends are happening. It also means I'll be working even more even though Social Security checks start dropping in 2 weeks.

[AWS260]

After 25 years at the same PR agency, today is my last day on the job. It's very much a planned exit - I started talking to my boss about it last year - but it still feels weird. I still really love this place.

At the advice of colleagues who have been in a similar position, I'm going to take a month off before throwing myself into the job hunt.

[LordMortis]

I never once felt guilty stopping my day to just sit down and watch TV growing up, nor even throughout all my college years. Now, even as I don't work for a living and everyone said "what will you do if you're not working? Won't you get bored?" and while still largely without much contact with other people, I feel a sense of guilt doing nothing, stopping my day and just watching TV. As if anyone but me matters when it comes to what I do with my time and the only time it's OK to be idle and in a completely passive state like that is at the end of the the day before going to bed.

Of course, I started deep cleaning my office/bookshelves/computer room two months ago, got side tracked, and still haven't finished... Two years not working and my house still isn't really clean. Two more deep cleaned rooms before I get to the basement... Then the garage. And heaven forbid my arm gets well enough to working on fixing things.

At least I have a good routine for keeping the thing I've already cleaned... clean.

BTW, what do others do for dusting? I have a couple of boxes of Swiffer sheets but using disposable... anything... always seems so wasteful. Like there should be a quick rinse version of Swiffer sheets.