Boss asking about other people's work performance

[ursher]

Hi so my boss is having one on one's with people in my department asking about my colleague's work performance (the good and the bad). Pretty much to weasel out who's not really giving 100% everyday so to speak.

Is this allowed by my boss or is this against some kind of HR code in Canada?

TIA

[pastarocket]

-not sure whether it violates any laws in Canada. Does your employer mention anything to staff during one on one meetings about performance evaluation that involves your peers? Peer evaluation for evaluating work performance is something I have not encountered before in my career.

[ursher]

these one on one's are hush hush right now. I heard from another person that the gist of the meetings is pretty much talking shit about other people to the boss.

[punkwax]

If you're not comfortable discussing other people's performance, tell your boss that. What kind of a shitty boss does that anyway; its up to him / her to judge performance. What a cop out on responsibility if you ask me.

I find people who are comfortable complaining about a co-worker's lack of production certainly don't mind sharing anyway..

[nns]

It's not a cop-out to ask for someone elses opinion. You basically said it yourself: you can tell what type of character a person is by what they say about others.

A lot of people, including myself, are not entirely comfortable being around management. I'm always careful of what and how I say things around them because I know their opinion of who I am is what matters, not my coworkers. With my coworkers I feel I have a lot more freedom to be myself and say what I think with less discretion.

All those snide remarks, cheap excuses, lackluster effort, etc come back to haunt you during your review. Things like this are most often observed by your colleagues down in the trenches, not the boss at his desk back at the office.

I would think a good boss would take the opinion of your coworkers into consideration, combined with other factors to formulate an opinion of so-and-so person. Not just base everything off what your coworkers say.

[punkwax]

^ I agree that theres nothing wrong with a boss asking "how's so and so doing?" in passing. But OP lead me down the path that the boss sitting people down trying to get them to talk shit. That is not effective...

[StutteR_]

Studying Human Resource Management and currently doing my practicum.

Having individual meetings with everyone in the office is perfectly legal...sadly he is not breaking any laws.

Like the others mentioned, you could just state that you are not comfortable speaking about people's performance.

If your boss however goes into personal issues that is not related to your workplace...then there could be an issue.

It seems that your boss is just going to make matters worse for him in the long run once people start realizing what he is trying to do.

[saiko]

I believe a good boss doesn't need to ask his own employees about each others performance. From where I have worked, it is obvious who is a slacker and who isn't.

Even if people do "fake work" and look busy all the time, it is clear who deserves to be let go. This is based on the results the employees can give out when requested. Possibly, once or twice the slackers can hide, but they cannot hide every time all the time.

[BaBiE_Bee]

A previous manager of mine had us do anonymous peer evaluations for our year end reviews; she told her the comments of our peers but we didn't know who exactly said them. I thought it was good constructive criticism.

My manager did it in a professional manner, but I had a really good relationship with her.

Despite what others have said in this thread, I've always had really good relationships with all my managers, guess I've been lucky.

[AzNightmare]

I always thought this was normal and happens all the time.
I'm not sure how official these type of meetings are, and I would think it also depends on company size.

But a lot of times, the big bosses that make the decision in hiring and firing are not the same people that are working with you on a daily basis, and in some cases, probably only see you once or twice a month, when you end up bumping into each other in the coffee room or something.

I don't know about them asking a review from co-workers in the same position or level, but they would most definitely check supervisors who do deal with you or give you daily tasks. But of course, this also depends on the person's position as well.

Either way, I don't think there's anything to worry about if you didn't do anything wrong.
Unless there is a dick in the company who would tell lies. But a good manager/boss that deals with hiring and firing would probably take in a few people's opinions instead of base it on just one person's opinion.

[tiger_handheld]

I believe the business term for this type of questioning is
360 degree evaluation

you evaluate youself
your immediate manager evaluates you
your peers evaluate you


this is very common in the corporate world

[Gridlock]

Probably not illegal...but definitely not how you lead a group of people to success.

You are asking a bunch of co-workers to break rank, rat out their co-workers and think its going to solve a problem.

A for instance: We had a girl that was the supervisor of the department that was a stuck up, ignorant bitch. Her tactics were intimidation and knowledge. If she couldn't intimidate you, then she'd just blast you with e-mails, and speadsheets and all kinds of shit that you couldn't even answer for one on one. So really, intimidation through computer.

I should mention, she tried with me. I got called into an office that I was late 2 days in a row for 7 minutes, and 12 minutes respectively. She would actually have others send a time stamped e-mail when they arrived. I said, you're right...my bad. You'll also notice that I stayed for 2 hours yesterday, and did not submit overtime. I don't submit overtime, for personal reasons. Please don't make me change that perspective. Funny, no one ever questioned when I got to work anymore

So, fast forward. Boss is out of town. We're left with this chick. She berates the woman she didn't like, in front of everyone. There's tears and all that shit.

So my boss has one on one meetings regarding the incident. This I agree with. We were able to discuss the situation, tell her this chick is fucking nuts and whatever. Nothing happened, because the main boss liked her(mainly for the skimpy, "I could be an escort" outfits) but that is a scenario where you kind of need to make a safe environment, so people can actually tell you whats happening.

Here's what its actually going to do. One person will sit there and sing like a canary. Throw multiple people under the bus. Others will learn of it, so now co-worker a HATES co-worker b.

A good LEADER will know who is contributing what. You don't need to be over their shoulders, but you need to be observant. When I made it to supervisor, I used to take a little time on Friday afternoons to make chit chat. I'd basically sit in the middle of the cubicle farm and and just start talking to people. Some of it work related, some not. How's the kid doing? Big plans for weekend? Oh...don't forget we have xyz coming up next week. How did you make out this week with whatever customer. Fuck, we're off the record...your customer is an asshole. Whatever it took to get people on the same page, a few laughs and find out where people were.

It actually worked. At least people could come up to me with problems and I could help them, not rip their head off.

Trust is a fickle thing. You don't need to be best friends, but they need to trust you and respect you.

I know for me, I quit shortly after losing both myself.

[drunkrussian]

in terms of the legality, not only is it legal, it's a encouraged by good hr. 360 reviews where your manager assesses your performance based on what they think, what metrics show AND what colleagues say paints a better, less-biased overall picture of you as an employee.

with that said, i hate hr and would personally say nice things about everyone. I'm just saying legally and logically it makes sense and not NECESSARILY your boss being a dick

[Noir]

Yes it's probably not illegal, but I will have to disagree that this is common in the corporate world; though I don't doubt that it exists.

At the end of the day, its unprofessional as fuck. And I think it actually speaks more about management than it does the employees.




I hate to be sexist, but I swear this is an honest observation.

After working for an insurance office for over 4 years, guys in my office don't talk shit about each other even when goaded. At worst case, they'll try their best to be PC or polite if they have to critique. Women on the other hand with inner-office gossiping... fuck, it doesn't matter if their in the 20's, 30's, 40's +, its like fucking high school "mean girls" culture again.

And here's also why its stupid. For the people that actually do/did talk, it was all biased BS based on the inter-office cliques. It didn't reflect performance at all, it just reflect who was closer to who, or who liked who.




TBH, good management, and good leaders that I had the benefit of working for, can assess and evaluate a person one on one without having to turn the office into its own version of the Donald Trump, celebrity apprentice board room.

When they have a problem with you, or if they need to bring something to your attention, they do it quietly and discreetly so you don't get dehumanized in front of your peers; or singled out as a problem-person in the office.

[xmisstrinh]

Its not illegal, and its not unprofessional. Its a 360 evaluation.

Though I believe you should have the option to remain anonymous.

[Glove]

its always the women

[goo3]

If there's respect and professionalism in the work environment, there's nothing wrong at all with 360. I guess there needs to be some maturity where you work...

[Noir]

Originally Posted by xmisstrinh

Its not illegal, and its not unprofessional. Its a 360 evaluation.

Though I believe you should have the option to remain anonymous.

So...

(a) You don't think its unprofessional to talk about some people behind their backs.

(b) And you think, it should be anonymous so nobody knows it was you who trashed someone...


and you just happen to be a girl right?


Again, I hate to be a sexist but sometimes its hard to ignore patterns you've observed.

When guys do this, it makes them hella uncomfortable. Maybe its just a stupid "macho" thing that we think we can solve problems ourselves, or as a show that the annoying things other people do, doesn't affect us. Or maybe its a different culture, and it doesn't matter how much a guy dislikes someone, but no guy usually wants to be the rat.

[Gridlock]

I should mention that I got the idea from the OP that this is a fishing exercise, "Pretty much to weasel out who's not really giving 100% everyday so to speak." NOT a 360 review where I tell you what is good and bad about YOU and you guys tell me what is good and bad about ME.

His boss is asking what is good and bad about your co-workers.

That's just shitty management style, NOT trendy management technique.

[drunkrussian]

agreed it totally depends on the situation whether its a good 360 review or shitty mgmt

rrgarding women: id say this only happens if there are enough of them (ie a larger office). i worked in a tiny office with only men with no problems. inalso worked in a small office of 15 with a mix and it was ok. however now i work for a 300 person company and our tram is mostly women and the gossiping and bitchiness doesnt end lol. i think it depends on the size of the org because that increases compettion, insecurity and stress

[Glove]

Why are women like that? lol, the female psyche is so interesting, half the things they do just make no logical sense.

I used to work for a company where all the secretaries / help desk were all female, and my GOD THE GOSSIP / drama.

Now I work in an all male place and shit gets done, and it gets done efficiently.

If my boss every came up to any of us and said, how do you feel about so and so's performance, none of us would throw anoyone else under the bus.

But women would jump on the chance to bitch about a co worker, hell my GF texts me on an hourly basis while she's at work bitching about work people.

[GGnoRE]

What kind of a boss doesn't know his subordinate's work progress? Can't you tell by the progress of the work assigned and the results the worker produced? What kind of an inefficient micromanagement system is that (making workers do peer evaluation on each other)? I would only understand if the boss is doing a 360 evaluation before promoting a worker to a higher position but man, that is a really shitty leader.

[dachinesedude]

ive never had managers ask me about others' performances, most of the time they can assess your performance by asking YOU and how you respond to their questions

[Mr.HappySilp]

If I was in your position I would say something along the lines of " I never really notice how effective my co-workers becasue I only concerate on the work I have to compelete or do."

That way you are not saying anything negative or postive about your co-workers and it implies you are focus on your work rather than being a social butterfly at work.

[highres604]

Don't rat out your co-workers. Just terrible. Also any good manager shouldn't have to ask these questions. The only time it would be somewhat acceptable is if the manager is based out of a different location and does not have day to day exposure to the employees.