Confessions of an IT Manager_Phil Factor

The Incident of 'The Two Johns' –
an IT Manager confesses
First published 20 March 2006
Keep your friends close and your enemies closer; but
try not to muddle which is which. Phil exploits his
cloak of anonymity to confess to a grievous mix up in
his managerial appraisal of two team members.
As an IT Manager, I used to love doing staff appraisals. These rituals come
by different names in different companies, be it 'performance review', 'annual
report', 'staff assessment' and so on. There are periodic crazes for tinkering with
the process, and pinning a different name on it, but the tradition itself remains
basically the same.
I appreciated the value of standing back and taking stock of how ones 'direct
reports' were shaping up. To mull over the events of the year, advise them as
best one could, and to do what one could to help the advancement of their
careers. I looked forward to the process … until the incident of 'The Two
Johns'
In my development team, I had two programmers who couldn't have been
more different. They were both called John. Clever John found the world of
work easy. He ploughed through every job he was given with supercilious ease.
He was a useful member of the team, though he seemed to get bored with
mundane jobs and often overcomplicated his code, just to keep himself amused.
Dull John, by contrast, was a plodder. He didn't seem to read enough to keep
up-to-date and he was inclined to ask for help at every turn. He was content to
do just enough to tick along but stay invisible in the team.
When appraisal time approached, I put together reports for every member of
the team, as usual. Because human nature dictates that it is easier to remember
negative things about people, I used to keep a notebook with me to record every
good thing that happened in the day-to-day work of the team. By the end of the
year, the appraisals flowed naturally from these notes.
Clever John's appraisal was a work of unstinting praise, emphasising his
readiness to take on more responsibility and the maturity of his attitude to the
work. I liked the way he took on the 'ownership' of problems and issues when
they happened and told him so. Dull John's report was more of a struggle. I