I just realized I need to re-integrate “dingbat” into my regular vocabulary.
Noted above, and linked, in Post #28.
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.
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.”
So there will be a position opening up in your department soon? Where are you located?
“Her body odor has not yet suffocated any horses to death.”
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, “<Employee>, 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.
“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.”
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.
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.
Back off, I saw him first!
"Dr. Mr. Rhymer,
Please accept this application for employment under your supervision…"
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.
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.