Hacker Newsnew | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submitlogin

I think a big part of the issue here is the management style that says "Set unreasonable expectations in the hope that you motivate people to achieve reasonable results". That few managers can objectively predict or even evaluate performance and staffing needs, so we'll just fuck their day up a bit and the shit rolling downhill will hopefully wipe out the slackers.

You simply can't "do more with less" in the long term by overloading people. There are only 8 hours in the workday. So the ridiculous growth mandates of Jack Welch et al simply create a certain amount of disappointment that needs to be absorbed somewhere in the org chart.

Autistics can frequently do the work, but they have difficulty handling this particular trauma of not making the numbers being demanded. Of disappointing their bosses. Demanding unrealistic numbers is an attempt to stress the people at the bottom into staying busy all the time, and if they are already busy all the time, they will show no improvement.

Stay on for a few years and you internalize that a certain amount of disappointment is mandated, and should not be taken personally. The "expectations" might be distant goals, but they were never expected. Chasing the sunrise a bit, day by day - you'll never get there. If you're putting in your eight hours, staying busy, you're doing all you can, and you should treat a manager asking for more like you would a new CEO who's completely illiterate - dangerous but not living in the same world, informationally, as you.

If you have a manager that isn't completely incompetent, they would rather keep on an employee like OP and not meet goals, than deal with a new hire who will be even worse relative to goals. It is only when management is spineless, incompetent, or corrupt that they give in to this sort of pressure and let go of performers.



It's not only about raw numbers. Others here explain.




Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: