Layoffs are coming. You're a manager. You have ten employees:
- Grumpy. Grumpy doesn't like you, and you don't like Grumpy. He doesn't keep you updated, and seems to sit in an office with a closed door. He complains a bit.
- Happy. Happy is your best friend, and tells everyone what a great manager you are. If all your employees were like Happy, you'd have perfect job security!
- Cheery. Cheery goes out and showcases all the great work he's doing to everyone. Everyone believes Cheery is the heart of the team.
- Praisy. Praisy is a good friend, you have kids in the same school, and you go to the same church. Firing Praisy would ruin a lot of relationships.
- Toss in six more caricature personas.
You cycle positions every 2-3 years in the company, and so no one can really tell how good a job you're doing from output except by signalling.
Your boss tells you that you need to fire 20% of your team. Whom do you fire? Whom do you keep?
If, as a CEO, you could count on every line manager and tech lead representing you, this might work. In practice, line managers and tech leads want to keep their jobs, signal the work they're doing, and keep their friends. They might also not be following their reports' work directly, and might not know whether Grumpy is the heart of the project (where this post started), or is in fact just playing video games.
I am a manager indeed. I more or less familiar with whereabouts of my reports, I know a lot about their performance and performance of their teams (some of them are team leads). I also know who is looking at the market for opportunities, who recently became parent, who is interested in relocation from their current country. I know who is safe to lay off from their teams, who is underperforming and who is currently vulnerable and it would be ethical to let them stay.
- Grumpy. Grumpy doesn't like you, and you don't like Grumpy. He doesn't keep you updated, and seems to sit in an office with a closed door. He complains a bit.
- Happy. Happy is your best friend, and tells everyone what a great manager you are. If all your employees were like Happy, you'd have perfect job security!
- Cheery. Cheery goes out and showcases all the great work he's doing to everyone. Everyone believes Cheery is the heart of the team.
- Praisy. Praisy is a good friend, you have kids in the same school, and you go to the same church. Firing Praisy would ruin a lot of relationships.
- Toss in six more caricature personas.
You cycle positions every 2-3 years in the company, and so no one can really tell how good a job you're doing from output except by signalling.
Your boss tells you that you need to fire 20% of your team. Whom do you fire? Whom do you keep?
If, as a CEO, you could count on every line manager and tech lead representing you, this might work. In practice, line managers and tech leads want to keep their jobs, signal the work they're doing, and keep their friends. They might also not be following their reports' work directly, and might not know whether Grumpy is the heart of the project (where this post started), or is in fact just playing video games.