2013 — 24 November: Sunday
I have already been instrumental1 in incrementing the sales figure of the book by a hero of mine I reviewed here. I also noticed that Kindle sales from Amazon.com don't attract tax in NZ, dammit. Not fair.
"Acting on information received" I snaffled a 720p download of last Friday's Graham Norton show to watch Emma Thompson and others. I have to admit, it did make me laugh. Next: Stuart Maconie's "Freakier" zone. British psychedelia, indeed. That should keep me going until breakfast.
I had my own...
... private term for the system of "performance ranking" used, and quite possibly abused latterly, within IBM (and a great many other, equally misguided, organisations). My term was spelled very slightly differently. Nor had I ever heard it termed "Rank and Yank", which works almost as well. Or even realised it grew more or less directly out of the "Vitality Curve" championed by Jack Welch (despite having read his "Straight from the Gut", which is quite a good romp) until I read this paper on "Forced Ranking in Performance Management"...
The rarely understood failing of these programs [sic] is the impact they have on the 70% in the middle.....
Rank ten employees in this scheme designating two stars, one bomb and seven "Malcolms in the middle", and I guarantee you that out of those seven, at least three thought they should be a star. Among the four that are left, at least three were petrified that they would be labeled the non-performer. And of the two stars at the top, at least one of those feels undeserving, insecure and spends his time covering his butt, playing politics to stay on top and making other people look bad.
Out of the ten, you have a happy superstar, soon to be promoted from the group; a "suspect star" who becomes dysfunctional worrying about keeping his status; three angry folks that weren't picked and don't understand why; three more paranoid associates that just know next year will be their turn to get the axe and one poor soul soon to be dispatched.
That leaves one guy who just comes to work every day, oblivious to the pressure, does his job, collects his pay and spends weekends pouring [sic] through back issues of 'Chip & Circuit
World.'2
In other words, you just completely destroyed a team.
... in a "Unite the Union" presentation I found on the Association of Members of IBM UK pension plans website.
Speaking of...
... General Electric (Welch's little business) I've just been reading Kurt Vonnegut's "If this isn't nice, what is? Advice to Young People" having been tipped off earlier by a chum that it's the Amazon UK Kindle Daily Deal. This snippet made me laugh more than somewhat:
One more optional piece of advice: If you ever have to give a speech, start with a joke, if you know one. For years I have been looking for the best joke in the world. I think I know what it is. I will tell it to you, but you have to help me. You have to say, "No," when I hold up my hand like this. All right? Don't let me down.
Do you know why cream is so much more expensive then milk?
AUDIENCE: No.
It is because the cows hate to squat on those little bottles.
That is the best joke I know. One time when I worked for the General Electric Company over in Schenectady, I had to write speeches for company officers. I put that joke about the cows and the little bottles in a speech for a vice president. He was reading along, and he had never heard the joke before. He couldn't stop laughing, and he had to be led away from the podium with a nosebleed. I was fired the next day.
Listening...
... as I do, too infrequently, to BBC Radio 4's "Pick of the Week" I've just learned of Ray Gosling's death. Dammit.