Posted by Ask a Manager
https://www.askamanager.org/2025/12/updates-the-wall-of-shame-the-performance-review-restrictions-and-more.html
https://www.askamanager.org/?p=35180
It’s “where are you now?” month at Ask a Manager, and all December I’m running updates from people who had their letters here answered in the past. Here are four updates from past letter-writers.
1. My office has a wall of shame with the names of people who are late or out sick
We had a Very Ballsy coworker bring it up in a staff meeting, demanding to know whether they preferred we infect all the people, children, and families we worked with every day in order to avoid being shamed for our own illness. (Yes, this was a preschool/daycare.) She also pointedly asked why *management* who called out sick or were otherwise not present were not included on the list.
They did the very performative “oh, we had no idea you felt that way, that’s not how we meant it AT ALL” and then got rid of the list. But I did overhear them grumbling in the office later that “it worked, though.” They wanted staff to be mad at each other for being over our child:teacher ratios, instead of complaining to management.
I’ve since changed careers, and while I’m still hourly, nobody shames me for taking a sick day anymore.
2. I can only rate one person on my team “exceptional” no matter how well they do
I took your advice to heart and started changing how I spoke about the ratings. My team doesn’t love the idea of forced ranking, but understands why there’s some limits. Handling the discussions at the start of the ratings period helped with the introduction, since it wasn’t tied to any negative feedback, and all in all it went well. In the meantime, my manager retired, and my team was assigned to a different supervisor, Lainey, with direction to grow our focus. My team is super excited because Lainey is setting up a lot of opportunities that are interesting to them and may even lead to promotions down the road. The excitement definitely helps drive motivation within the team. Finally, as I started writing this update, word came down that our ratings system was being adjusted and the new system will have a wider range of ratings, so there’s a good deal more nuance I can apply to my scoring.
I’m still frustrated that I can’t formally reward all of the passion and expertise that my seasoned crew brings to their work, but I’m happy that I was able to navigate them to a new understanding without destroying the trust we’ve built together over the years. Thank you for the assist in how to give my team the transparency they deserve.
3. I feel guilty about getting my coworker’s job after they were let go (#4 at the link)
I have a teeny tiny update to my question about getting taking a coworker’s job after they were let go.
After getting into the meat of their job and realizing how backed up they were, I uh, I get it now.
4. I don’t want to collect students’ dues anymore (#5 at the link)
A big thank you to Alison and all of the commenters for all of the advice. Looking back to when I wrote in, there was a lot of other stuff/drama that was feeding into my problem. All of the faculty in my department have very big feelings, and my supervisor and department were not on good terms with one another. My problem became another part of that. After a lot of back and forth between several offices, our business office was able to find a solution that theoretically will work. I say theoretically because we’ll try it out for the first time next semester. But, I’m optimistic it will work and I won’t have to handle any cash besides my own. I’m calling this a win.
This experience has also shown me how much I let myself get mired down in office drama. I’m working on trying to pull back from all of that right now. I also think it’s time to start looking for new opportunities.
Thanks again for Alison and everyone’s help!
The post updates: the wall of shame, the performance review restrictions, and more appeared first on Ask a Manager.
https://www.askamanager.org/2025/12/updates-the-wall-of-shame-the-performance-review-restrictions-and-more.html
https://www.askamanager.org/?p=35180
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
retrogrrrl
![[syndicated profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/feed.png){kind=small}
