I am astounded... performance reviews at work...

The BBQ Pit
1

So get this. Last Friday I have a performance review at work. I’ve had the sneaking suspicion for a long time that my boss was out to get me. He has a reputation of being less than fair to women, which I don’t know if I believe or not, but I do believe he’s less than fair to me. My performance review did nothing but bolster this belief.

I’m a software engineer, and one of the things he used to rate us is lines of code we wrote. Besides being a completely idiotic way of rating people (# of lines differs depending on technology you’re using, the type of project you’re working on, the language you’re programming in, etc.) it doesn’t really accurately reflect what I’m doing right now since a lot of what I do is database maintenance and such things that can’t be quantified. Nevertheless, he uses it, and gives me a very bad mark, about the equivalent of a “D”, in overall productivity. He says that I’m below my peers by a factor of 4 when it comes to lines of code.

I seeth about this all weekend. I’m pissed. Although I do spend too much time on the Straight Dope, I don’t think I’m that bad as far as my job is concerned. So this morning I get to work, and start adding up my lines of code.

The number he indicated I had was 1/5th of what I came up with.

I brought this to his attention. He looks at me quizzically, and says “I’d better double check.” An hour later he comes to me and apologizes profusely. When I asked him where he came up with the original number, he says he doesn’t know. He can’t remember what he did, he must have rushed through it. He’s going to up the number on my appraisal, and has sent emails out to his higher ups indicating that he screwed up.

Of course, the numbers for salary increase and stock options have already been submitted, and he fully admits that he docked me on both, especially the stock, because he didn’t think I was as productive as the other people here. He doesn’t think he can do anything about the numbers. I am so pissed I am shaking. The salary increase is minor - I’m already making a fine salary. The stock options, on the other hand, could very well account to several thousands of dollars over the next few years. In fact, if he had done this last year, the difference in stock comes to almost 20K. So we’re talking quite a chunk of change here. Stuff that he fully admits he fucked up on, and because he did it at the last minute and didn’t review it with us before submitting the numbers, I’m screwed. Fuck your apology, you ass. Don’t be telling me I don’t do my job right when you obviously are fucking up big time when it comes to your job.

I hate this goddamn job.

2

Isn’t there someone you can report this asshole to?

3

Perhaps… but then you get into the whole “I reported my boss” thing, which generally doesn’t make the boss too sympathetic towards you. Normally, had such a thing happen to me, I’d walk out of here and find another job. Unfortunately, for various reasons primarily related to money, I’d like to keep this job for at least a couple more years.

I’m not sure what to do about this, other than make sure that the bulk of my coworkers know about this. This aint gonna get swept under the rug.

4

I hate to be the cynical one here, or point out the obvious here, but he’s already done his damage. Of course he can apologize now, it’s meaningless.

5

I’m not saying that she should go for an apology, I’m saying she should rattle cages until she gets her damn stock. Fuck Tweety, man! it’s all about the putty-tat!

6

Cages will be rattled. He is trying to get me the stock. Hopefully, he won’t make such mistakes again.

What really makes me paranoid is the fact that his “numbers” can tell him that I do 1/4 the work that my coworkers do, and rather than thinking “Hmmm… better double check those numbers” he thinks “Boyoboy! Is Athena ever fucking up bad! Let’s go adjust those salary & stock option numbers!” It amazes me that I apparantly can do the same or more work than my coworkers, and he doesn’t even see it. What the fuck does he think I do all day?

Grrrrrr…

7

There may be nothing he can do about the stock options, if he had a finite number to split and has already delegated them. However, there’s more than one way to skin a cat. For instance, he can give you a cash bonus equivalent to what the shares were worth, plus 28% for taxes since you can’t enjoy them tax-free, so that you can purchase the stock on your own.

Or he can add a week of vacation to make up for your trouble.

If he’s really sorry, and you’re a valuable employee, he’d better make an effort to correct his error in more ways than “Ooops. I’m sorry.” If he doesn’t value you then there’s little you can do about it. Then you have to decide whether it’s worth it to stay. I’m sure you realize that in your field jobs are everywhere.

Good luck.

8

And they don’t grade you on how much bloatware you produce, right?
Hey, I don’t know. I’m just an overglorified mechanic.

9

A rating based on the number of lines of code written. Not how well it was written or if it does the job, especially if it is robust, but just based on the number of lines of code written. This just boggles my mind. Does his supervisor know what kind of rating scale he uses? Can you get him to tell the chair of my department to use the number of pages of ms I submit for publication (not the amount actually published, just the stuff originally written)?

Good luck, Athena. Keep on him for those options.

10

Pundit, well said–you beat me to it.

Athena, there are lots of ways this guy can make good. Take what you’re owed. You’ve earned it, and there is absolutely no reason for you to roll over and accept it just because he fucked up. If he fails to come through, then take it upstairs, but it sounds like he’s making an effort already.

Whatever you do, don’t take “no” for an answer. If you let them get away with it once they’ll take it as a precedent and take full advantage of your accepting nature in the future.

11

What andros said. Plus, I’d be looking for another job, and when I found it I’d be damn sure to let my old boss and his superiors know why I left.

I’m also a programmer. It’s a seller’s market for us right now, so don’t think you can’t do it…

12

I’m with brach…

Rating anyone on lines of code is absolutely asinine. I’ve spent countless hours paring down overbloated code written by idiots who think that way. The real gems are the people who can achieve great things with just a few lines of elegant, readable code.

Developers should be judged by the value they’ve added given the circumstances they’re in and the complexity of the tasks. If that means that some pathetic little Microsoft Project boy can’t count up lines of code and dole out raises accordingly, then GOOD! Software managers should be able to UNDERSTAND what their developers are doing well enough to judge their performance. Hell, they should know it well enough to step in if they have to and finish the job.

13

ghod, what I wouldn’t give for a job that rated me on the volume of my code. Friends of mine in a prior job used to call me “Captain Spaghetti.” I can write heinous code with the worst.

14

Sorry, andros. Didn’t mean to strike so close to home with that last post. :smiley:

15

Don’t give this asswipe a chance to back out of his major error. The beauty of this entire situation is that people like this always leave the door open for a nice covert counter-attack.

This cretin needs to be taken to school, a very public lesson so he can learn to quit messing with women and a lesson that really hits his pocket book as well. I would not rest until I had torpedoed him, then I would smile and nod at him as he sank, only he and I would know where the torpedo came from.

16

Athena, how big is the development organization? How high is your boss (organizationally, not chemically)? Anyone who has any experience in the industry knows that grading by lines of code is stupid, especially when you’re comparing different languages and technologies. If your boss reports to another technical boss, you should send a polite letter to both and request that the whole review process be audited. Though your boss doesn’t get this, if his/her boss has been in the technical side of this industry, they may.

If, on the other hand, your boss is the lead technical guy reporting to say the CEO, you’re screwed. I would still write your boss a polite letter describing why the process is wrong, why it should be changed, and recommendations of how to fix it.

Oh, one other thing. You said that you didn’t want to go over the bosses head for fear of reprisals. You also said you wanted to make sure everyone else in the department knew he was an idiot. Believe me, if you’re concerned about reprisals, the second course of action is worse. If your boss finds out that you’ve been inciting unrest among his reports and his peers, he’ll be much more pissed than if he believes you’ve complained to his boss.

Let me repeat one thing from above. Write a polite letter. You want to come across like somebody who’s worked hard and gotten screwed by an honest mistake (a miscount by the manager) and a bad policy (grading on lines of code). You don’t want to come across as a whiner and an ingrate.

17

I just went through my semi-annual review, and lines of code wasn’t even an issue. The grading system we use is A,B, or C. And you are graded simply on how much value you bring to the company. That means initiative in solving problems without having to drag others in, facility with complex technologies, project management skills, willingness to take on new challenges, elegance of solutions, etc. Basically, “what’s this person worth to us?”.

As everyone else said, lines of code is a ridiculous way to judge a developer’s performance. In fact, we are on a major mission right now to cut down the lines of code people produce, because we have too many developers using the ole’ cut and paste to replicate functionality when it would be better encapsulated into a function or object for general use. And how could you ever compare a guy who’s writing a device driver for a complex piece of automation hardware with another guy who is building Javascript UI components? I guarantee you the guy writing the device driver will work a hell of a lot harder for each line of code he produces.

I’m guessing that your supervisor is either non-technical or he’s a technical guy that is in over his head, and doesn’t have the skills to evaluate performance in any other way than this.

I’d also second the other opinions that you should look for a new job. At my company, they bend over backwards to make sure we are treated fairly. I was the victim of a small payroll screwup a few months ago, and I think I’ve been apologized to about 20 times now. And this was nothing on the scale of what happened to you.

Developer jobs are easy to find. Most people I know who move to a new company almost always wind up making more than they did at the last one, because they are the ones with the option to move or not. So exercise your power! Go right into your supervisor’s office and tell him that you are unhappy with the cavalier way in which they are treating you, and that you are thinking of leaving the company. Then see how serious they are about keeping you. If they aren’t, you’re better off elsewhere.

18

I understand the stock option game enough to know why you might want to stick around regardless. But two can play that game.

How about this? Starting now, everywhere you would have written one line of code, fluff it up into two or three lines. Annotate your ass off. Throw extra routines in that are never called. Cut & paste shamelessly. Never link to a library when you can write the routine yourself in 10 times the space. Whatever you can slide through the QA review. Next year, when he mindlessly goes to his rating system you will look like the hero of the department. He won’t be able to avoid giving you a top raise and the biggest chunk of options. He’ll have no choice.

Of course, a year is a long time. You should occupy your time by industriously ratfucking the bastard in devious ways that can’t be traced back to you. Go ahead, be low and devious just this once. It couldn’t happen to a nicer guy. And it might just turn into an enjoyable hobby to help you while away those idle hours.

19

Ignore these people who are telling you to start breaking things. Causing damage is a bad idea. It will not make your salary go up. It will not make your block of shares bigger. It can potentially make the value of the company (and thereby the value of your stock) go down. It can cause problems getting a reference. It can cause other problems down the road.

If things are too messed up, then leave. You’ll do fine in another position elsewhere. If the golden handcuffs are too heavy, then work within the system to get things fixed.

There’s no value short of ego to causing damage. People who delight in revenge have miserable little lives.

20

In our increasingly litigious society, phrases like ‘I’ve retained Counsel’ and ‘Sexual Discrimination’ can strike fear in the hearts of insecure middle management types.

Squeaky wheel gets the grease.

Just a thought.