Blizzard’s ‘Workplace Ranking’ For Employees Sounds Like Hell [Update]

A story ran on Bloomberg earlier in the present day with the headline “Blizzard Supervisor Departs In Protest of Worker Rating System”. It sounds very businessy, possibly one thing that will land on the Linkedin information feed of a HR supervisor, however the stuff it’s describing is vital as a result of it sounds completely dystopian.

Right here’s how that “worker rating system” is described within the report:

In 2021, Blizzard, a unit of Activision Blizzard Inc., applied a course of known as stack rating, during which staff are ranked on a bell curve and managers should give low rankings to a sure proportion of workers, in keeping with individuals aware of the change who requested to not be named discussing a non-public matter. Managers had been anticipated to offer a poor “growing” standing to roughly 5% of staff on their groups, which might decrease their profit-sharing bonus cash and will hamper them from receiving raises or promotions within the close to future…

You’ll must forgive me right here, as regardless of my tenure on this job I nonetheless stay and work in Australia and so aren’t absolutely in control on the specifics of American workplace circumstances, however what the fuck? You’re telling me this firm has applied a system the place 5% of its workforce, even when they’re doing simply fantastic, even when they’re going a nice job, will likely be focused—and undergo financially—simply to satisfy a quota?

No surprise persons are pissed! A kind of individuals, Brian Birmingham, a co-lead developer on World of Warcraft Basic, obtained so mad that in keeping with Bloomberg’s report he emailed workers final week to “to specific his frustration with this method”.

When staff leads requested why we had to do that, World of Warcraft administrators defined that whereas they didn’t agree, the explanations given by government management had been that it was vital to squeeze the bottom-most performers as a manner to ensure everyone continues to develop. This form of coverage encourages competitors between staff, sabotage of each other’s work, a want for individuals to search out low-performing groups that they are often the best-performing employee on, and finally erodes belief and destroys creativity.

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Birmingham goes on to say he can’t work underneath a system like this, which he and different managers (who had been requested to maintain it a secret!) had managed to “circumvent or skip” for the previous few years however which had not too long ago begun to be enforced. He reportedly instructed workers he can be leaving the corporate if the coverage was not reversed, however shortly after the e-mail was despatched he was known as into HR and “terminated”.

For those who work at Blizzard and have been impacted by this coverage, and wish to share your experiences, you possibly can contact us right here.

UPDATE 8:48pm ET – Birmingham has launched a prolonged assertion on Twitter increasing on his ideas concerning the coverage and concerning the company management scenario typically. It begins right here: