company culture

[cellio]

This Dilbert strip illustrates one of the key cultural differences between small companies and big companies.



Policy-makers see only policy; they often do not think about the messages they're sending. When they do, they often don't care.

Comments

[mortuus.livejournal.com]

I had a conversation Monday on a similar topic. I'd stopped by to visit a friend and fellow employee, and she had just finished with her yearly review and was in a bad mood. She is a very good employee, has brought a huge new task to our company, and does a lot of extra work to maintain and update our Company X databases (which are incredibly important to track all of the tasks and money). However, a couple times she was an hour or so late entering her time into the timecard database, so he marked her entire review down for that.

So I'd mentioned this to another friend and fellow employee, and we ended up discussing how it doesn't matter if you market like mad and bring in new tasks, and it doesn't matter if you have a great reputation that brings in work, and it doesn't matter if you are an excellent employee. I understand if consistently disregarding administrative policies is an issue, but if you are an hour late inputting your time a couple times over an entire year, it is hardly reasonable to see that as equal to or greater than the other stuff.

[cellio]

I once got dinged on a performance review because, while doing my best to stay productive after an injury instead of inconveniencing the company by applying for short-term disability, I was sometimes down a couple hours (a few times over a few months). I left soon thereafter.

[caryabend.livejournal.com]

After several years of stellar reviews and fast-tracked promotions, the new director did not give me the tools our department deemed necessary for my new responsibilities. The lack of appropriate tools made my job considerably harder, and my performance suffered since I could no longer do the job well. Predictably, I was called to task for my poor showing and asked why this was. I produced sheaves of documentation supporting my opinion, and was summarily dismissed with a "Well, if you were any good at doing the job we gave you, this wouldn't have been a limitation."

Riiight. A master of one's craft knows better than to claim that the tools given were insufficient to the task, but to not be given any tools at all is another matter entirely.

I later found out that nearly the entire staff defected to another division within 18 months after my removal.