Welcome to calibration#
SLOP3385, week 1
Somewhere in your future employer#
A room. A list of names. A fixed number of “exceeds”.
Your manager, for about three minutes.
Not you.
The curve, 1981#
General Electric under Jack Welch: 20 / 70 / 10.
The bottom ten percent left, every year.
The curve, 2011#
Microsoft: five buckets, fixed percentages, a memo from the chief executive.
2012: “the most destructive process inside of Microsoft”
2013: “No more curve.”
The curve, 2025#
Meta, January: five percent cut as “low performers”.
Meta, May: managers of large teams told to rate 15 to 20 percent below expectations. Up from 12 to 15.
The curve left the handbook and moved into a meeting.#
What your manager carries in#
- Their memory of your quarter
- The numbers
- Your self-review
That is all. That is the whole case.
Most of a rating is the rater#
Two thousand managers, each rated by several people.
Less than half of any rating was the person being rated.
The rest was whoever gave it.
What three minutes does to a sentence#
“I rewrote the onboarding guide and people seem to find it easier.”
becomes
“Docs.”
This week’s trick#
Know the rubric better than your manager does.
Every sentence you hand them maps to a rubric line. By name.
Why it works#
Your manager argues from what you gave them.
Rubric-shaped input, rubric-shaped argument, less friction in the room.
Who pays#
The name read out last, because the room ran long.
Forty names, three minutes each, a room booked for ninety.
What this course will teach you#
- weeks 1 to 3: the room, and who speaks in it
- weeks 4 to 6: the inputs you control
- weeks 7 to 9: the inputs you do not
- weeks 10 to 12: the system fails, and then you design it
What it will not#
It will not make you good at your job.
It will make you legible to a room that was never going to check.
Thursday: bring a rubric.#
Any rubric. If you have never seen one, bring ours.