Amazon tells bosses to conceal when employees are on a performance management plan Amazon instructs managers not to tell

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Amazon tells bosses to conceal when employees are on aperformance management plan Amazon instructs managers not to telloffice employees that they are on a formal performance-managementplan that puts their job in jeopardy unless the employee explicitlyasks, according to guidance from an Amazon intranet page formanagers. The policy, a copy of which was viewed by The SeattleTimes, helps explain why some Amazon employees have described theexperience of being on the performance-management plan, calledFocus, as baffling and demoralizing. Some managers, too, questionwhy they are asked to conceal that their employees are on a pathwaythat often leads out of the company. The secrecy surroundingperformance management is one more reason why some Amazon officeemployees say the company is not living up to its April pledge tobecome “Earth’s Best Employer.” Amazon tracks the number ofemployees in Focus in the context of meeting its goal for“unregretted attrition,” the roughly 6% of office employees Amazonhopes to pressure out of the company each year, according tointernal Amazon human resources documents. The company expects morethan one-third of employees in Focus to fail the program and leaveAmazon. Business Insider detailed employees’ Focus frustrations inMay. In interviews with The Seattle Times, Amazon employees andmanagers also shared concerns about the transparency and utility ofthe Focus program. As it’s described by the company, Focus is a wayto help underperforming employees get back on track. Managers aresupposed to deliver documented coaching to employees on Focus overa period of weeks or months. But some workers who have been onFocus say they were never told what their performance deficiencieswere, or how they could improve. Four current and former Amazonemployees said they found out they were in Focus by accident — forinstance, when they attempted to transfer to another team and weretold they would need additional approvals. They described theexperience of not knowing whether they were on Focus, or how to getoff, as emotionally draining. Meanwhile, three current and formermanagers said they believed it was counterproductive to keepemployees guessing about whether they were on theperformance-management plan. The internal guidance, which iscurrent as of July, is in the form of an FAQ on an intranet pagefor managers describing the Focus program. “Should I tell anemployee that I entered them into Focus?” the question reads. Theresponse: “Do not discuss Focus with employees. Instead, tell theemployee that their performance is not meeting expectations, thespecific areas where they need to improve, and offer feedback andsupport to help them improve.” “If the employee directly asks, ‘AmI in Focus?’ you should answer honestly,” the response continues.“However, remind the employee that the use of a specific productshould not be their take-away from the conversation, as there areimportant performance gaps they must address.” In a statement, anAmazon spokesperson said that Focus is primarily oriented towardkeeping managers accountable for dealing with underperformance ontheir teams. “Like most employers, we provide managers with toolsto help employees improve their performance and grow in theircareers at Amazon,” Amazon spokesperson Jaci Anderson said in astatement. “This includes resources for employees who are notmeeting expectations and may require additional coaching.”Employees have access to “multiple channels” to discusstheir performance assessment, “including our employee resourcecenter, their direct HR business partner, and our anonymoushotline,” Anderson said. Focus replaced an earlierperformance-management tool, called the “development list,” by2019. Under that earlier tool, the guidance to managers was thesame: Do not tell employees when they are placed on the list,according to one former senior Amazon manager who said hereluctantly complied with the rule. “Openness is one of the keythings I liked about Amazon when I was working there,” he said.“Someone has got formal action taken against them by the companyand they don’t know about it? It just didn’t smell right to me.”One Amazon engineer, who joined the company in late 2016, said hefound out that he had been on the development list for nearly 18months only after his manager changed. His new manager, he said,inquired about his performance-management plan. “My response was,‘Are you sure you don’t have your wires crossed?'” he said. Theshock of learning he was on a performanceimprovement plan, he said,was rapidly replaced by bewilderment as he tried without success toget off the plan for six more months. “No one would tell me what mystatus was,” he said. “I ended up in this weird, nebulousperformance hell for a few years.” An Amazon Web Services employee,a foreign citizen of colour working on a team of mostly Americancitizens, said she learned she had been placed into Focus in early2020 only after her application for an internal transfer wasflagged for further review. The employee, who is still on Focus,said she suspects disparate treatment because of her nationalityand ethnic background. In her previous role at Amazon, basedoutside the U.S., her performance had been rated so highly that hercurrent team petitioned for her transfer and sponsored her visa.“I’m not against performance management, if the idea behind it isto provide [employees] with coaching and guidance to become abetter employee,” she said. That’s not been her experience onFocus. The program “is all hush-hush. It’s a hidden way of weedingout people who are not part of the clique,” she said. Not everyemployee is in the dark. Some managers flout the rules and revealto their subordinates that they are on Focus, according to twomanagers and documentation of one employee’s Focus plan seen by TheSeattle Times. “I always broke the rule,” said one senior Amazonmanager. “If I cannot share that an employee is on a coaching plan,how can I give him a fair evaluation?”
QUESTION 1 (20 Marks)
Amazon instructs managers not to tell office employees that theyare on a formal performance-management plan that puts their job injeopardy unless the employee explicitly asks, according to guidancefrom an Amazon intranet page for managers. Distinguish betweenperformance management and performance appraisal and criticallydiscuss why some Amazon employees and managers described theexperience of being on the performance-management plan, calledFocus, as baffling and demoralising.
Please provide at least 600 words.