# Recommending a star employee over a marginal one isn't racism or playing favorites, you dingbat. **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [December 7, 2012, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommending-a-star-employee-over-a-marginal-one-isnt-racism-or-playing-favorites-you-dingbat/643326 "2012-12-07T18:49:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![SeaDragonTattoo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/df705f/32.png) [@SeaDragonTattoo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SeaDragonTattoo)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2012, 7:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommending-a-star-employee-over-a-marginal-one-isnt-racism-or-playing-favorites-you-dingbat/643326/41 "2012-12-11T07:37:47Z")
I just realized I need to re-integrate “dingbat” into my regular vocabulary. ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2012, 9:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommending-a-star-employee-over-a-marginal-one-isnt-racism-or-playing-favorites-you-dingbat/643326/42 "2012-12-11T09:54:22Z")
> [@Nava](#): > > Didn’t you recently have a post about some dude who hadn’t been calling a customer, and a woman who had stepped in and done the guy’s work for him? I don’t remember if you called her Ginger there, but my crystal ball gives a 99.99% probability it’s the same person. Noted above, and linked, in Post #28. ---
**Author:** ![Dogzilla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e480ec/32.png) [@Dogzilla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dogzilla)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2012, 2:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommending-a-star-employee-over-a-marginal-one-isnt-racism-or-playing-favorites-you-dingbat/643326/43 "2012-12-11T14:36:19Z")
> [@Chimera](#): > > Reminds me of a woman I worked with 20 years ago. She was a Programmer. That was her job title. The lowest job title for programmers at the company. All of the rest of the team were Programmer/Analysts and Sr. Programmer/Analysts. She went through a period of work probation over performance. As soon as she got out of that, she started making a fuss about wanting to be promoted to Programmer/Analyst. > > Boss says: “If you want to be promoted to Programmer/Analyst, you need to show me Programmer/Analyst level of work.” > > She says: “I’m not getting paid to do Programmer/Analyst work and I’m not going to do it until I get promoted.” > > Needless to say, while I was there she never got promoted. My dad’s career was blue-collar, skilled trade. He worked in factories his entire working life. Somewhere along the way, we were having a conversation about The Peter Principle™ and other things and I found myself explaining to him that you don’t get promoted as a reward for just doing your job. You get promoted after you’ve already been doing the better job for a while. You have to do the work first, then you get credit for it. Nobody hands out a raise/promotion/bonus as incentive to start doing the work. Those are rewards for work already done. When I was a manager, people would come to me wanting to know how to get promoted. I’d assign them extra responsibilities. “That’s a team leader responsibility. Will I get more money for taking on extra responsibilities?” “Yes, when you show me that you can handle this work and even take things a step further, then I’ll know you’re team leader material and then you’ll be getting team leader pay.” It seems backwards when you’re sitting at the desk, but from the manager’s ivory tower, there’s no sense in rewarding someone for what they haven’t done yet. My dad had trouble grasping this concept. Which is why he was never promoted into management. ---
**Author:** ![Dendarii\_Dame](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/bbce88/32.png) [@Dendarii\_Dame](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dendarii_Dame)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2012, 2:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommending-a-star-employee-over-a-marginal-one-isnt-racism-or-playing-favorites-you-dingbat/643326/44 "2012-12-11T14:51:05Z")
> [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](#): > > “At no point during her tenure on my team has Robin been investigated for any felonies.” How do you _know_ this? Maybe the police/FBI/Interpol haven’t been keeping you in the loop. ---
**Author:** ![Nawth\_Chucka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/c57346/32.png) [@Nawth\_Chucka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nawth_Chucka)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2012, 5:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommending-a-star-employee-over-a-marginal-one-isnt-racism-or-playing-favorites-you-dingbat/643326/45 "2012-12-11T17:32:23Z")
> [@Dendarii\_Dame](#): > > How do you _know_ this? Maybe the police/FBI/Interpol haven’t been keeping you in the loop. “I am wholly unaware of any International felony investigations into Robin’s past gun purchases and/or sales.” ---
**Author:** ![April\_R](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3da27b/32.png) [@April\_R](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/April_R)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2012, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommending-a-star-employee-over-a-marginal-one-isnt-racism-or-playing-favorites-you-dingbat/643326/46 "2012-12-11T17:46:56Z")
So there will be a position opening up in your department soon? Where are you located? ---
**Author:** ![Cryptic\_C62](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/3e96dc/32.png) [@Cryptic\_C62](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cryptic_C62)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2012, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommending-a-star-employee-over-a-marginal-one-isnt-racism-or-playing-favorites-you-dingbat/643326/47 "2012-12-11T17:51:49Z")
“Her body odor has not yet suffocated any horses to death.” ---
**Author:** ![fluiddruid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/c2a13f/32.png) [@fluiddruid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fluiddruid)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2012, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommending-a-star-employee-over-a-marginal-one-isnt-racism-or-playing-favorites-you-dingbat/643326/48 "2012-12-11T17:54:18Z")
There’s a certain group of people in the world who are greatly concerned with ‘fairness’, and typically that they feel they are not getting treated fairly if they do not get for free what other people earn. These same people tend to take minimum requirements to mean “what I need to do and I’ll do no more”, but then whine and cry that we won’t “give them a chance” when it comes time for promotions and goodies. Look, you won’t bother taking a chance on the company by putting in some extra effort, why should I give you a chance by giving you goodies and then hoping you decide to be a better employee? I’m going to give the rewards to people who deserve them. Why take a chance that Susie Bareminimum is going to be awesome in a new position, when Sally Toptenpercent has been rocking it where she is? Of course, the person always just got a chip on their shoulder that I was “unfair”, or “racist”, or “sexist” or “prejudiced” in some way, or “mean”, or whatever, even though I was always honest with the reasons and communicated feedback on my performance often. In some cases, I was even treated to the logic that they should be promoted for being bad at their jobs, because we should move them to new positions if they weren’t good at what they are doing now! One particularly memorable guy who worked for me did basically the bare minimum not to get fired for months at a time, racking up a lot of warnings but never being quite terrible enough for me to convince management to dump him due to labor shortages. Finally, he just stopped showing up one day. I didn’t hear from him again until he called for a reference to Foot Locker or some shit. I didn’t know how to respond, so I paused a long time and finally said, “\, do you really want me to give an honest reference of your work performance to this new company?” I got a lot of grumbling – clearly, no, he wanted me to make something up, but he couldn’t quite yell at me for not lying. Of course I hear through the grapevine what horrible things are being said about me and how mean and unfair I am. Hell, on more than one occasion I literally explained to the person, “Look, if you were hiring for someone to come and be your peer, would you pick the person with the lowest performance or the highest?” And yet I’d still get an angry, whiny response that it wasn’t faaaaair. I’d ask why is it not fair? Because I want it and I think I should have it and I don’t care about other people, basically, was the only answer. There was just no getting through. Some people’s children. ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2012, 6:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommending-a-star-employee-over-a-marginal-one-isnt-racism-or-playing-favorites-you-dingbat/643326/49 "2012-12-11T18:43:27Z")
“The police have not, at this point, shown up at work and taken Robin into custody. Further, we have no concrete proof of her dealing _any_ drugs at work.” ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2012, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommending-a-star-employee-over-a-marginal-one-isnt-racism-or-playing-favorites-you-dingbat/643326/50 "2012-12-12T17:55:45Z")
> [@April\_R](#): > > So there will be a position opening up in your department soon? Where are you located? The South. I dunno about the position opening up. I have no plans to fire Robin, and while _I_ think Ginger should get the training job, I can’t imagine she’s the only candidate. ---
**Author:** ![shiftless](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9c0ed/32.png) [@shiftless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/shiftless)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2012, 6:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommending-a-star-employee-over-a-marginal-one-isnt-racism-or-playing-favorites-you-dingbat/643326/51 "2012-12-12T18:37:33Z")
You clearly don’t work for the federal government. Ginger is a good worker who makes your life easier, Robin is a mediocre worker who you would like to get rid of with as little effort as possible. The only logical choice is to give Robin a glowing reference and Ginger a terrible one, just don’t let Ginger see her’s. ---
**Author:** ![Enter\_the\_Flagon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/b9bd4f/32.png) [@Enter\_the\_Flagon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enter_the_Flagon)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2012, 5:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommending-a-star-employee-over-a-marginal-one-isnt-racism-or-playing-favorites-you-dingbat/643326/52 "2012-12-14T05:27:33Z")
> [@April\_R](#): > > So there will be a position opening up in your department soon? Where are you located? Back off, I saw him first! "Dr. Mr. Rhymer, Please accept this application for employment under your supervision…" ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2012, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommending-a-star-employee-over-a-marginal-one-isnt-racism-or-playing-favorites-you-dingbat/643326/53 "2012-12-20T20:23:46Z")
> [@shiftless](#): > > You clearly don’t work for the federal government. Ginger is a good worker who makes your life easier, Robin is a mediocre worker who you would like to get rid of with as little effort as possible. The only logical choice is to give Robin a glowing reference and Ginger a terrible one, just don’t let Ginger see her’s. You jest, of course, but I know managers who’d do that; I’ve worked for them. I decline to join their ranks not merely because it’s unethical but also because making a practice of doing so is bad for the team as a whole. If Ginger’s continued hard work doesn’t pay off with a promotion eventually, she’ll either jump ship or start slacking. ---
**Author:** ![StGermain](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stgermain/32/2868_2.png) [@StGermain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StGermain)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2012, 9:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommending-a-star-employee-over-a-marginal-one-isnt-racism-or-playing-favorites-you-dingbat/643326/54 "2012-12-20T21:04:11Z")
Did she get the job? StG ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2012, 9:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommending-a-star-employee-over-a-marginal-one-isnt-racism-or-playing-favorites-you-dingbat/643326/55 "2012-12-20T21:19:05Z")
> [@StGermain](#): > > Did she get the job? > > StG Not my call. They’re done with the interviews but I’m thinking the announcement hasn’t been made. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommending-a-star-employee-over-a-marginal-one-isnt-racism-or-playing-favorites-you-dingbat/643326.md?page=2)