JOBFINDING: Make your job output objective and verifiable

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13527925/wells-fargo-fires-employees-simulation-keyboard.html

Wells Fargo fires a dozen employees for pretending to work – here’s how they tried to get away with it
By Emma Richter For Dailymail.Com
Published: 16:36 EDT, 13 June 2024 | Updated: 16:44 EDT, 13 June 2024

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Dozens of Wells Fargo employees were fired after the bank investigated claims that they were pretending to work. 

The workers, who were all employed in the firm’s wealth and investment management unit, were let go last month after it was discovered they were allegedly involved in ‘simulation of keyboard activity,’ Bloomberg reported Thursday.  

According to disclosures filed with the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, the former employees were ‘creating an impression of active work’ through simulation tools. 

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Back when I had a life, I supervised big and small groups.  Often, geographically spread across the USA and in one assignment globally.  Early in my career, I hated “evaluations”.  So I turned it into a game.  I’d ask the employee or consultant how they would like to be managed?  Most were in favor of a “low touch; high autonomy” environment.  Me 2!  So, I’d ask them for objective criteria that they could use to demonstrate productivity and thus high ratings.  

Later, AT&T came up with “ratings and rankings” to merge groups of employees’ performance across divisions and departments.  That was right up our strong suit.  When you could make statements like: “Joe cleared 95% of his tickets in less than and hour with high end User satisfaction ratings” or “Jane completed over 700 security exceptions with a MTTR of 4 hours and has received 36 positive User feedback emails to the Division Head from his counterpart.”  It was easy to justify that “my” Joe or Jane was “better” than  “their” Sam or Sarah. If “my” people didn’t get that “Outstanding” rating  — which meant more salary or bonus money and promotions  — I could tell them why and they could come up with their own “improvement plans”.  Win for them and win for me.  

I got high ratings for employee performance, morale, attendance, safety, and all sort of other stuff.  And, I was always AMAZED that “leadership” never asked me how I did it.  Which was fine with me.  I was happy to keep my “special sauce” secret.

In looking for a “job”, sell your past successes “objectively” and in metrics that focus on creating value for others.

IMHO

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