Some of the choices lately have been downright bizarre. I'm just wondering if my manager has any say in it, or if it's all coming from much higher up.
17 replies (most recent on top)
@bv we have to think outside the box. In some cases your manager is the director.
@fx+1k07545d7 is spot on
There have been rounds where it was purely based upon the higher bands
@f3 As I also called out, this was 5 or so years ago when the job posting board was very different than it is today.
RIF listing is a grade school popularity contest. The company is paying for it now. If you run your business like a grade school clique, don't cry when the stock tanks and no investor will even look at the company. What a joke.
Depends on team/dept. I would have input..other teams /depts don’t and the directors make the decisions. Personally I would choose the lowest performer-someone not meeting metrics over time.
@OP Back in the day when I helped fill out the RIF worksheet, it was a metric rating spreadsheet... but it was very subjective based on what the rater thought the employees skills and abilities were. After 18 years my number came up last year, my manager professed that they were told I was the chosen sacrifice to the RIF god that round. I don't know how true that is, or not. Sometimes i think its just down to making a $$ quota.
@ez was there a “hotness” column? Keep the hotties, fire the fuglies! That’s how I’ve kept my job for so long LOL
@ez Long term goals to make a "career" - hard to do when positions are rarely posted and the candidate has been chosen before the post. I am agreeing the prior poster, they use whatever black and white metric they can to rate staff. At the same time they already have an eye on who they want to see gone and work on a way to include them in their insane process.
When I was in management (5 years ago) we were given a spreadsheet to rate associates. Topics consisted of everything from production to insubordination to employees long term goals to make a “career”
@bv Managers do get a say, sometimes. Speaking from experience, I was told by director that my team needed to reduce by one FTE. I had no control over that but did have to choose who would be let go. Worst part of management.
Decisions are based on whether your position is contractually required or needed to fulfill a contractual agreement, staffing ratios per members, and if your manager likes you or not. If your position is a nice to have then it’s always up for potential RIF.
Coin flip
@a5 that is not how the process works. Managers have no say in who gets laid off. Those decisions are made at HR and VP level with some input from Directors. Managers are informed about 2 weeks prior to the date of the planned RIFT.
@ak No logic - just black and white bean counting so they can explain it
@aa Your area sounds like it is run with some logic behind decisions making process. Unfortunately I’ve seen vast areas being run with no logic behind it and Directors and managers acting like preschool children. So it really just depends at the end of the day.
Factually the VP typically decides with Director input - to use some metric - what are your numbers, was your performance evaluation weighted and if it was there is a score and they can use that as the metric. If you have a history of challenging the kool aid it is not hard to see your name on a list - Directors sometimes ask Managers for a list of names - but know this - Directors have all the information that Managers have about any Metric - so in the end Managers have little say - seen it many times. Yes Manager here
My understanding is manager puts your name on a list. It is based on either how much they like you or if they deem you expendable or not. So if you have a stupid manager then most likely the people riffed will make no sense. I’ve also heard other managers say they didn’t have a choice. It think it just depends on area and how much involvement Directors or SVP decide they need. I’ve seen people argue that it’s always the manager making the choice but I personally don’t think that is true across the board. Doesn’t matter your yearly performance rating just how much your manager likes you. So very flawed system imo as we have so really inexperienced and immature managers.