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Constructive Criticism Is Impossible
Workplaces can’t improve if there’s always a fear of reprisal.
A missive on how clear communication is hindered by the very people that would benefit the most from it. No surprises there.
It’s the elephant in the room of every performance review, every ‘anonymous’ workplace survey, and every meeting with HR that “anything you do say may be given in evidence” as the old adage, and police caution, goes.
Of course, HR insists that communication with them is confidential, but it doesn’t take great pains to point out that their allegiance lies with the company and not the actual employees, as we’ve discussed before.
That is, if something you volunteer is deemed interesting or controversial enough then it will most definitely be communicated upwards, and probably sideways too.
The same is true with performance reviews, which naturally should be confidential along the food chain of:
Suffering progressive software engineer -> HR Droid -> Manager of some sort -> Another manager of some sort -> Yet another manager of some sort -> ad infinitum…
What with so many people in the chain it’s simply a matter of time before someone talks about something they really shouldn’t, emails go astray, or someone forgets to collect their printout¹ from the…