This blizzard guy did, and he got fired. 
Activition holding a gun to blizzard’s head apparently.
Its Blizzard lets be honest they all suck.
Question for people complaining about this: just like the harassment stuff from a few years ago… are you guys just going to complain for a few days and still give them money or do something about it this time (stop giving them money)?
And yes paying your sub with gold is still contributing to them getting money.
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It’s a very messed up system that I once got in trouble for speaking against it. I would argue that it’s not a “You need to give someone a bad review” as much as it’s a “It’s not possible for everyone on your team to be outstanding, so don’t”
When you have a group of 35 to 40 people all in the same role, and you tell them all that only one of them is allowed to get the highest raise percentage from the puddle. (Cause monies that low do not come from a pool). You’re pitting them against one another for that position while at the same time being wing clipped from recognizing true outstanding performance.
I honestly feel as if the Manager of the employees gets screwed over as much as their staff being put into a situation that is essentially fixed.
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Why do I have this going through my head…
Close. Also musical chairs too.
I am pretty sure all big businesses are like this? Where I work the customers leave a review and anything under an 8 of 10 is considered a 0 and an 8 warrants extra training for managers to continue to hound us about it. It can be used against us as well.
Complaining about corporate making money, stupid surveys, or meeting quotas is really just complaining about your job tbh. The only way to avoid that sort of stuff is to work for yourself and that requires A TON of work and motivation.
It’s not all just corporate.
Yeah that was a disturbing read.
It’s one thing for a company to have this garbage and employees apply/stay, another for a parent company to enforce it on a sub.
No wonder the expansions appeared 75% deliverable, parent company flexed.
I dont see the difference between how blizzard treats its employees and how players of wow treat other players.
Get what you deserve
I’ve had some large teams under my supervision over my career and can’t say I’ve not encountered any system that required me to put someone in a ‘penalty box.’ Instead, evaluations sought to rank the project or department team from top to bottom. That said, the lowest ranking person could still (and usually was) be a vital part of the team and not be subject to any withholding of rewards, etc.
The articles I’ve read were vague on detail, but if the stated situation is actually the case, ATVI has a problem.
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You do realize different companies use different appraisal methods? Stack/bell curve method is the most primitive appraisal methods out there and I would advice against working for such a company because it’s a pretty good indicator of a completely incompetent HR team. Don’t even get me started on how this causes talent drain and a backstabbing culture.
Most competent HR have moved to using 9-box and a 360 appraisal system because they actually think about how HR policies affect behavior and productivity.
I’m glad Brian called this out.
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Satisfactory was an option. If the dude headed up a small 5 man team and everyone pulls their weight and does their job, why does he absolutely need to say 1 of them is underperforming. Underperforming to what standard?
Folks saying “most” companies doing this is definitely hyperbole. Just hope this is one of those trends that lasts for 1-2 years before management realizes how bad it is for the company.
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It’s not as much he/she needs to say the employee is underperforming. It’s more along the lines of “Not all of your employees can be outstanding.”
Right, but my understanding of the situation is that he was being asked to move one employee from “Satisfactory” to “Developing”.
He wasn’t marking everyone Outstanding.
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Nope this isn’t a trend. It’s been around since the 80s and while it’s terrible for employees, it’s great for upper management to control the peons. Especially when it comes to justifying lay-offs. This is why employees need to be aware of these things and try to avoid such companies unless if you don’t have other options for a job.
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this is nothing new - it is to prevent people like that from giving employees superior ratings instead of accurate ratings.
If that guy had been paying attention he should easily be able to identify outstanding performance and below average performance because guess what there always is that full range.
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Didn’t Microsoft abandon this due to the mess it made - like way back. There are multiple articles about how terrible stack ranking is from years ago, and how it damaged multiple big name companies before they stopped using it.
It doesn’t make financial or HR sense to use Stack Ranking. Just another example of why ABK has been having problems making WoW successful.
Can’t they stop doing this stuff and let WoW win? Just a little bit?
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Standard in what sense? I have seen it is standard where only a few can get a high mark, but the rest get “satisfactory” or “meets needs”.
I have never seen where they were forced to be derogatory and give poor reviews.
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It is a colorful allegory for the idea that one should not feel beholden to uphold or tolerate a policy they admit has terrible implications. The moment you admit something is wrong, the next obvious logical step should be to stop it. In other words: don’t be sorry, be better.
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