Two employees do the exact same thing. One is a hipo and the other a common peasant.
When feedback arrives the peasant is told they met expectations but it was a very competitive rank group and they are now in a PIP.
Meanwhile the hipo is sent in a speaking tour to share how their genius way of working has revolutionized the industry. They present a word salad of meaningless executive speak and slides created by planners to make them look good. They remain assessed as outstanding.
@gh Totally agree this was the case before DW’s post COVID, but the peasant might not make it in EM today no matter what they do UNLESS they are from KL or India…
I have seen the most id--tic employees promoted because they were liked by the management.
@fx I think you mean "don't hate the game".
A Tale of Two Employees: The HiPo and the Peasant
The HiPo climbed the corporate ladder, made a fortune, collected many titles, traveled the world, and became a legend on Zoom and in conference rooms. At home, his marriage fell apart. His divorce cost a fortune. His children all attended prestigious private schools. They barely speak to him. He dates frequently, drinks excessively, and spends his weekends trying to convince strangers he's important. His LinkedIn profile is spectacular.
The Peasant never became anyone important. He rarely traveled. He never delivered a keynote speech about unlocking enterprise value. He just went to work, did his job, collected his paycheck, invested his money, and went home. His wife adores him. His children love him. They live at home and attend public school. His investments have grown. His house is lovely, his health is excellent, and he has plenty of time for hobbies, exercise, and family vacations. He sleeps like a baby.
In this scenario, the HiPo wins the corporate ranking. The Peasant wins at life. One spent his life convincing the company he was valuable. The other understood that his life was valuable whether the company recognized it or not. So tell me again... which one had the higher potential?
Your reason of existence is for the company to sell an illusion that creates a tax free revenue of cash.
The moment you crossed the atrium you were branded as cattle and sold as such.
Don't hate the player.
@OP sorry that you are a bit jealous of us.
Some belong in business class, while others belong in economy.
And EM hired an annuitant to cover the actual work while the HiPo only did PowerPoint.
So the HiPo did nearly zero actual value adding work while the peasant achieved above average work with industry leading safety.
I lived through this scenario as a peasant.
We have a junior high type culture here wrapped around this perverted eval system. People are living off old work if they ever did any. Propped up by people who never have impacted anything other than bad ideas and wrongful empowering of people. To say someone is a “hipo” is subjective right? If people don’t like you and your boss is weak minded , that can play against you. I’ve seen it over and over. Or just lazy boss who help friends of friends so forth. This place is toxic , make a decision and find a way out.
Easy to tell when the people taking credit for something didn’t actually contribute to the success as they speak executive talk and ramble on without actually saying anything meaningful. Oneteam, alignment, blah blah blah
Hipo sounds like a recruiting manager.
To make your scenario more realistic you have to add that the hipo was allowed to grow the team and bring in more resources, was supported at executive level, etc while the peasant screamed into the void begging for more resources and was just told to work harder.