January 3, 2024
PIPs: It’s Impossible to Explain Why We Still Use Them.
PIPs: Unraveling the Mystery of a Flawed System (And Building a Better One)
Performance Improvement Plans (PIPs) sound good on paper. An employee struggles, so we offer a structured path to success. Unfortunately, reality often paints a bleak picture. PIPs, despite their good intentions, are riddled with problems that can undermine their effectiveness and even harm employee morale. Let’s delve into the key issues lurking beneath the surface of these seemingly well-meaning plans.
October 30, 2023
It’s Impossible to Explain: Administering Punishment to Adults
We’re smart people so it’s impossible to explain why, in the world of HR and management, we still find ourselves mired in the age-old tradition of punishing employees for their shortcomings. It’s a question that’s been on our minds lately, and we can’t help but challenge the prevailing norms. We believe there’s a better way, a more progressive and respectful approach to dealing with performance and behavior issues in the workplace. One of the ways to administer corrective behavior is to develop a performance improvement plan. We’ll discuss more about the pros and cons of a performance improvement plan and how that affects an employee’s outlook.
July 28, 2023
It’s Impossible to Explain – Managing Hybrid/Remote Work Part IV
This series has been based so far on the assumption that our organization leaders are smart and forward-thinking. If this is the case, previous examples related to employee treatment by Corporate Management have been impossible to explain.
In this instance, we want to focus on employee expectations that are impossible to explain.
May 31, 2023
It’s Impossible to Explain – Managing Hybrid/Remote Work Part III
Several times we’ve talked about how remote work is being monitored by software and over-controlled by policies. The stated outcome for doing this is the desire to assure people are being productive. But what are they measuring?
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May 18, 2023
It’s Impossible to Explain – Managing Hybrid/Remote Work Part II
In our last blog on this topic we tried to understand why companies would use elementary school policies for monitoring work as well as treat people as commodities when recruitment and retention are major challenges today. Since that post a few weeks ago, more of the same types of examples continue to roll in. Here’s the most recent.
May 6, 2023
It’s Impossible to Explain – Managing Hybrid/Remote Work
It’s Impossible to Explain – Managing Hybrid/Remote Work
One of our family members is working remotely 100% of the time. Her company fully supports this as a remote position BUT has written a number of policies to assure productivity and efficiency. For example:
- Two 15-minute breaks are granted per day at specific times as well as a 30-minute lunch break. She must log in and out. The policy states that if an employee is “unresponsive”, they will be listed in the system as MIA with an associated code of TIME OFF NO PAY which, the company states, will impact overall performance.
April 26, 2023
It’s Impossible to Explain – Why Meetings Still Suck
This past weekend, CBS Sunday Morning featured MEETINGS on their Money Issue – because it is such a significant cost issue.
An estimated $37 billion is lost per year to unproductive meetings. (more…)
April 4, 2023
It’s Impossible to Explain – the Progressive Disciplinary Process
Sadly, the progressive disciplinary process is alive and well. And, by progressive, I mean a series of actions that expect an employee’s performance to get better while treating them progressively worse. (A good friend of ours who is unfamiliar with this draconian approach to dealing with people thought progressive meant “advanced” or “cutting-edge”.) He was shocked to learn that this punitive practice is a common approach to dealing with adults on performance issues. (more…)
March 1, 2023
It’s Impossible to Explain – How We Treat People During Layoff’s
It seems more and more often, things occur that are impossible to explain.
Here’s an example. Amid the mass layoffs currently occurring, one long-term employee posted her recent layoff experience on LinkedIn. She did not do this to argue specifically with the decision – but wanted to take the opportunity to say goodbye and thank those she had worked with for so many years.
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