Netflix No Longer Wants to Treat Employees Like Family. No Kidding.

[97K15004WD]

Based on my time in the "working" sector, as an employee, supervisor, manager, and owner - I've found the most important thing is communication of expectations. This includes not just measurements of performance, but a true, deep understanding of the job itself and what the job entails.

The problem I see with Netflix and their announcement is not the requirements so much as the lack of definition of the task requirements of the jobs at hand.

These types of jobs seem to have a "wing it" approach to the work, and the work requirements - that allows a wide latitude of what constitutes an adequate measure of performance by the responsible party who measures said performance.

I see it as disingenuous at best, and misleading at the worst. The measurement of the work product must be defined, measured, and not be subjective. Otherwise, it's just a personality contest and not a job with a real performance review.

Tactics support strategy, strategy supports mission. Without an adequate explanation of the job at hand (including true measurements), there can be no real job performance measurement that isn't subjective with an individual's slant towards the person under review.

 

[John105]

HR and plant director was aware in my case also. I am about 98% sure that the manager change (they actually created a new position tailor made for me under a different manager) was because my then 15 year track record of being able to get along with EVERYONE else in the company, including the 3-4 previous managers I'd worked for, and Manager Satanette had been through a half dozen or so direct reports during her 3 year tenure, all of whom were "uncoachable" per her.

I outlasted her........ mostly though sheer stubbornness.


As a people manager - I've got news for all the 'mainstream quiet quitters' - most of them weren't giving more than about 30% to begin with......

When you say 30%, it sounds unbelivable, BUT, I see it at my workplace!!!!!!! On my own team!!!!

"Hey guys, I'm going to be late today, my son has his kindergarten graduation." Late today means after lunch.

Many argue with me, but that didn't happen pre-covid, at least where I work. Now it's a free for all. Because managers are doing it.

I'm in the office 4X per week--required. But what I see people like me doing now? Coming in at 9 AM, leaving at 1 PM, saying, "I'll work the rest of the day at home." Again, I know, this never happened 2019 and prior.

What online tells me is this is tolerated because profits are hitting historical records. When profits slide, that's when this comes to an abrupt ending....

 

[97K15004WD]

Also involves trust by the employees of the employer and their manager. Not so good right now based on this report:

https://www.cerby.com/hubfs/State of employee trust report.pdf

From the report:

"Every organization should aspire to a high trust relationship with
employees because the most sought-after outcomes in
organizational life flow from high levels of employee trust. Higher
quality products, improved innovation, and increased growth and
profitability are vital outcomes when companies demonstrate high
trust towards employees."

In other words, tell the employees what you want, when you want it, and include performance measurements.

Also from the report and the main three topics:

Key Findings
The three pivots leaders need to make:

1. End productivity paranoia
2. Embrace the fact that people come in for each other
3. Re-recruit your employees

 

[Bailes1992]

When you say 30%, it sounds unbelivable, BUT, I see it at my workplace!!!!!!! On my own team!!!!

"Hey guys, I'm going to be late today, my son has his kindergarten graduation." Late today means after lunch.

Many argue with me, but that didn't happen pre-covid, at least where I work. Now it's a free for all. Because managers are doing it.

I'm in the office 4X per week--required. But what I see people like me doing now? Coming in at 9 AM, leaving at 1 PM, saying, "I'll work the rest of the day at home." Again, I know, this never happened 2019 and prior.

What online tells me is this is tolerated because profits are hitting historical records. When profits slide, that's when this comes to an abrupt ending....

My attitude has changed massivley the last 12 months or so. I don't want to live just to sit in an office for 10 hours a day, 5 days a week.

I changed jobs and I now work from home 3 days a week and I would never go back to a 9-5 in an office. The ability to drop my kids off at school, go out for long walks in my lunch breaks with the dogs, or go for a swim, do some chores etc just makes life so much better.

I actually am more productive at home and work more hours, but with some added flexibility. And as a result my mental health is better, my fitness is better and my quality of work outputted is better.

And if someone wants to go watch their child finish kindergarten (or nursery as it's called over here) then good on them! The kids are only little for so long and these things only happen once!

 

[97K15004WD]

And this huge study (20,000 surveys) by Microsoft:

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/wor...243925)(EHFxW6yx8Uo-4LwIPR8QjJTP6XJTArdYVw)()

"creating a culture and employee experience to meet the needs of today’s digitally connected, distributed workforce requires a new approach."

Because the old way of just a few years ago is no longer working well and a new understanding of work and work product must be developed. It's no surprise that employees want to have a life - and the last few years have let them "taste" the freedom that comes with flexibility. The old workplace grind is not acceptable anymore, just like "sweatshops" of the early 1900's are no longer acceptable.

Most honest employees just want to do their job. Tell them what you want, when you want it, and turn them loose.

Micromanagement is the killer of innovation and creativity and stifles the workplace. Why does an employer worry about the minute by minute if the work is done on time and is accurate? If someone finishes "early", why are they "rewarded" with more work?

If an employee finishes an assigned task accurately and before their time requirement, I see that as a management time allotment failure - not the employee being a "slacker" because they don't pick up another assignment. In this particular case for example, this is a management failure and not a failure by the employee.

If companies are demanding more work from their employees, then they better expect more from their managers or the trust is gone and the work product will suffer.

By definiton, "exceeding expecatations" means the manager "under-estimated" what their employee could do. Whose fault is that?

 

[John105]

My attitude has changed massivley the last 12 months or so. I don't want to live just to sit in an office for 10 hours a day, 5 days a week.

I changed jobs and I now work from home 3 days a week and I would never go back to a 9-5 in an office. The ability to drop my kids off at school, go out for long walks in my lunch breaks with the dogs, or go for a swim, do some chores etc just makes life so much better.

I actually am more productive at home and work more hours, but with some added flexibility. And as a result my mental health is better, my fitness is better and my quality of work outputted is better.

And if someone wants to go watch their child finish kindergarten (or nursery as it's called over here) then good on them! The kids are only little for so long and these things only happen once!

I’d be lying if I said I like 4x tracked required per week in the office, better than your situation.

I don’t.

But why I’m so torqued on this subject is I miss all the events that 5/7 on my team attend. Not to mention doing their work that they can’t from home because equipment is physically at HQ. Someone here pointed out that in their humble opinion I have a bad manager. I agree.

What I try to tell myself is I enjoy my work and the people I work with in the office (only one is on my team some are completely different departments like brokers and finance folks). At least I have that much and it’s now quite easy to outperform the others.

When 7/7 are in the office the distinction isn’t as obvious.

 

[joekingcorvette]

Most employees who are let go are able to find better jobs than what they had. As far as working from home I have done both and like a combination of working at home and at the job. As far as thinning out the workforce all companies do this only without a game plan or structure. There is nothing wrong with letting the "slackers" go if they are non-productive. There is not real blanket statement or set of rules to determine how to lean out the workers that take advantage of a company.

 

[SC Maintenance]

I have "worked from home" several days per month for 20 years. Any day I am not on a customer site.

I have seen people that do well from home, and those that do not. I have seen managers that do well with it, and those that do not.

Do I care if my programmer writes code from midnight till 8AM, and turns it in on time at 8:01AM. I do not.

But if bill is supposed to take customer calls from 9-5 and doesn't, then that's an issue.

Its individual and job specific.

Just tell everyone there 100% commission or contract / completion based pay - and they can work from wherever they want. Then the problem solves itself.

 

[Dave Hess]

The job market is very tough and younger adults entering the workforce now realize they have to do what the company wants or they get fired.

Employers hold all the cards and makes the rules.

 

[Dave Hess]

Where I work is like being in a catty High School again. Three people got a promotion over me and others. Two of them have less overall experience, in everything yet are buddy buddy with a couple of managers. Top it off the management allowed people to be promoted in secret which violates Colorado's equal opportunity employment act. Everyone is jumping ship. The only upside is that the people who were promoted didn't even get raises.

Freshen up your resume and start looking for another job.

There’s job opportunities if you look and apply.

 

[UncleDave]

The job market is very tough and younger adults entering the workforce now realize they have to do what the company wants or they get fired.

Employers hold all the cards and makes the rules.

A bunch of " protester type" kids thought a few years ago they were going to be able to dictate what type of material content providers broadcast (read as boycott anything that offended them)

A few groups of providers informed them how they felt about that . You dont get to pick who our bill paying clients are, or the door is over there.

 

[The_Eric]

My dad who ran a software co in the 90s said what you are. He posed a question to me. How do I quantify productivity. Lines of code? If so, they write more lines, which may be inefficient. Also he said some musicians who studied music theory make excellent programmers.

It's interesting that you mentioned this - just this week I was talking to a friend who said that he got his start in coding because of music - he had some MIDI equipment that as he said was made by a software engineer, not a musician and it didn't perform to his expectations. So he taught himself how to code, which led to a successful 10 year career in the field.. He made good money then got out to live his life and do what he loved

 

[supton]

Micromanagement is the killer of innovation and creativity and stifles the workplace. Why does an employer worry about the minute by minute if the work is done on time and is accurate? If someone finishes "early", why are they "rewarded" with more work?

The reward for doing your job well is... getting more work.

Every time you exceed expectations you raise the bar higher. One of my prior bosses said that, and when working in his org we usually just put middle of the road on reviews. We did what was asked of us. met the expectation.

But micro-managing... ugh. We have a problem with throughput and so we've been asked to record communications. Like how many emails we get per project, how many meetings. Which makes sense, it's a metric that, if measured, might help us figure out how to better pass data. Too many emails (and meetings) lowers productivity. But part of me thinks I'm being asked to count TP squares. I'm putting off emails as I know I need to go put a tally mark down for it.

 

[cb_13]

I’ve quiet quit before. It was shortly followed by actual quitting.

It was my last gig at a car dealership. I had come from main shop at the last dealer but started in quick lane to get my foot in the door here. I had just more than doubled their sales record for my position and spent the entirety of the year in the higher bonus structure(they did hours per repair order). They decided we were not doing enough oil changes so they took our one actual tech(the one who would do brakes or a ball joint whatever may be found by the lubies) away and told us to schedule oil changes on the rack he had been using they were putting another lubie on it.

I figured it up after the first month of adjustment. After the drop in commission and bonus this was gonna cost me almost 10k a year and this was NOT a 100k a year job this drop was huge! I did the bare minimum and drew a paycheck for about 2 months until I found another job.

 

[John105]

The reward for doing your job well is... getting more work.

Every time you exceed expectations you raise the bar higher. One of my prior bosses said that, and when working in his org we usually just put middle of the road on reviews. We did what was asked of us. met the expectation.

But micro-managing... ugh. We have a problem with throughput and so we've been asked to record communications. Like how many emails we get per project, how many meetings. Which makes sense, it's a metric that, if measured, might help us figure out how to better pass data. Too many emails (and meetings) lowers productivity. But part of me thinks I'm being asked to count TP squares. I'm putting off emails as I know I need to go put a tally mark down for it.

I no longer work in insurance but when I did, we went to 1 conference and 2 off-site training per year, no exceptions other than 2009 when there was a recession. My brother and buddies who work in insurance, say the same about the reviews. Then they get near double digit increases and double digit bonuses. For mediocrity.

At my old job, I could not ship a package without director approval, but I could stay at a $400/night hotel (in 2004 that was a lot).

I started at my current employer and they said, here's your UPS Campus Ship login. HUH? They even gave me a $50 tape gun. I was thinking wow, I really made it! Until it got better in 2015. They gave me my own Brother label maker with the TZ-e tape.

 

[Dave Hess]

Folks currently with a job will just have to do what the boss wants or no job.

All the folks on social media need to stop complaining and accept the fact they will never have their dream job or make the money they dream of.

Check out all the recent job losses.

DailyJobCuts.com

https://www.dailyjobcuts.com/

 

[John105]

Folks currently with a job will just have to do what the boss wants or no job.

All the folks on social media need to stop complaining and accept the fact they will never have their dream job or make the money they dream of.

Check out all the recent job losses.

DailyJobCuts.com

https://www.dailyjobcuts.com/

What really helps for me is I like my job.

When I’m around the people at work I’m happy and start to forget about the 5/7 on my team who wfh.

I like it when I know my car is parked in the company garage and nobody can ding me.

The piece de la resistance is I have nothing withheld for medical and that’s easily $850/mo when FSA was considered.

Life is good

My bro and other people I know with the huge bonuses and crazy perks? They all got expensive lousy healthcare and are similarly not happy at work. Sounds like they just want the pay.

 

[slo town]

My bro and other people I know with the huge bonuses and crazy perks? They all got expensive lousy healthcare and are similarly not happy at work. Sounds like they just want the pay.

Nothing wrong with that. Isn't money why we all work? I had a great job at a really good company with fantastic colleagues, but no way would I work for free. Had I won the lotto I would have tendered my resignation the very next morning. But unlike the quiet quitter types and other malcontents I would have stayed around long enough so there was an orderly turnover of my responsibilities.

Scott

 

[John105]

Nothing wrong with that. Isn't money why we all work? I had a great job at a really good company with fantastic colleagues, but no way would I work for free. Had I won the lotto I would have tendered my resignation the very next morning. But unlike the quiet quitter types and other malcontents I would have stayed around long enough so there was an orderly turnover of my responsibilities.

Scott

I agree that’s basic. But nothing their employers do seem to make them happy.

Not my bro but let’s say the co my buddy works for. Attend Super Bowl for free. Unlimited sick and vacation. Catered lunch every day. Poker and pool tournaments on company time.

1 year off when a woman has a child, 6 mos for male, paid.

Buddy says caustic environment.

I’ve never had any of the above, but I’m overall happy. You’d be surprised what it means to be able to park in the garage where my precious 2007 BMW won’t get dinged

Truth be told both cos are private. If profits dry up, both sets of employees are screwed.

Ps health care expensive and terrible for my buddy, so that’s my little bundle of joy too that I don’t need it

 

[slo town]

.....But nothing their employers do seem to make them happy.

Not my bro but let’s say the co my buddy works for. Attend Super Bowl for free. Unlimited sick and vacation. Catered lunch every day. Poker and pool tournaments on company time.

1 year off when a woman has a child, 6 mos for male, paid.

Buddy says caustic environment.....

Given all that (and the high pay you mentioned in an earlier post) - the employee is the problem, not the company.

Solution is simple. He needs to find another job that pays less and has fewer perks. That should make him happy.

Scott