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Yes, you never know what’s happening in someone’s personal life which may have a knock on effect on their performance. Emotional intelligence is generally lacking in consulting from what I’ve seen.
This is possibly the most Deloitte comment I have ever read.
If you are senior enough to have sat in on some of those discussions, you will know full well that arbitrary targets are sent down from (usually global) leadership and the local management has to pick the people who should get fired even if everyone in the team is bringing in money and making the firm look good.
Also, how can you not have compassion for someone who is losing their income. They may have bills to pay, debt to pay, a family to support. They may send money to their parents or overseas to family. How much of a psychopath (apologies if you actually have a diagnosis) do you have to be to not feel compassion for those people.
I hope that if you ever stumble, people show compassion for you and you realise how important that is.
Well all I can say is 🤷🏻♀️🤷🏻♀️🤷🏻♀️
Yes, I was asked to leave and it wasn’t because I wasn’t trying, it was just such a toxic environment combined with my anxiety made it an impossible situation. People are more than those asinine scatterplots Deloitte keeps shoving down your throats every year
Well said!
Yes. Rarely is it a performance issue. Typically it’s a leadership failure.
Just one example: I was in a new manager training way back, and there was a theme of new managers saying “yes but I have this senior who isn’t getting it, but ‘I don’t have time’ to blah blah blah, what should I do?”... The partner leading the session quickly said “counsel them out!”
Leadership is not valued, and a new wave of staff is lining up at the door every year, with only 1% of applicants getting selected.
Ya, I feel for the “low performers”, they’re no less capable of this job than anyone else. I only wish more of them would stand up for themselves and fight back.
A lot of ‘low’ performers are not actually low performers, based on my anecdotal experience. They are folks who are either put into a really tough spot, have to deal with a very bad boss or have something serious going on personally.Sometimes, things just don’t work out.
And let’s face it: consulting is not rocket science. Most folks can do it.
I was fired by Deloitte after being marked as a "low performer". And I believe it was sheer failure of Deloitte leadership rather than my failure.
Glimpse of my background: I joined Deloitte Consulting with over 7 years of core technical experience and with double masters from reputed universities (GPA in one of them: 3.95/4.0). I have been awarded as a Top performer by Accenture after scoring highest rating 3 years in a row. I was silver medalist (3rd rank in University) in my Bachelor of Technology degree. I won 2nd prize in a national entrepreneurship competition in which teams from top business schools participated.
Why I was labeled as Low performer in Deloitte, is still a mystery to me.
I won't be sharing much details about what happened with me but wanted to say that every "low performer" who is fired is not actually a low performer.
Eh. Having been at PwC, Accenture, and Deloitte... I think a lot of top performers at Accenture don’t get consulting. If you’re technically skilled, Accenture will generally overlook shortcomings consulting skills.
Yes, definitely. I’ve worked with some people that truly seemed to be low performers, in that they just were not cut out for the job or didn’t try very hard. But you’ve no what expectations were ever communicated to them, training and leadership support they didn’t receive, or what was going on in their lives to potentially impact their performance. I understand why the firm let some of those people go, but everyone deserves kindness, support and the benefit of the doubt. How could you not empathize? I also completely acknowledge that certain metrics and processes and pressures result in normal and high performers being let go as well, which double sucks.
I did however work with one absolute monster of a woman (I’m female so don’t @ me) and she got let go last fall. Didn’t feel too bad for her...
Of course. I have compassion for anyone who is a good human being. That has nothing to do with being a good consultant. Being a good consultant is not a guarantee for success, and one can be a good consultant but be a low performer in a specific context. I’d never adjust my compassion based on performance. Actually a low performer may have more difficult circumstances that require compassion.
D9 is the people I’m proud to work with. Deloitte or non-Deloitte. People, above all.
Yes, period. Colleagues for life, period.
Even LeBron misses several shots in a row from time to time, which can cause his team to lose. In consulting, when the “stats” aren’t so black and white, poor performance can be wildly subjective, as well as the factors that lead to it. Bad team lead? Toxic environment? COVID diagnosis because your firm made you travel? All of these things can make someone become a poor performer quickly.
Take a lap, OP
Yes. Sometimes top performers are just on relatively easy projects with nice clients and easy going Partners. Conversely, low performers are sometimes just top performers who were thrown under the bus by client, weren't given sufficient direction by leadership, or had a personal issue. The personal issue is a big one that's missed....
👏👏
I have compassion because I've been there and know that the "low performer" label is not always accurate. I was labeled a low performer and laid off after reporting my senior manager for highly unethical conduct. I couldn't prove that my trashed review was retaliation quickly enough to save myself, despite having other good reviews. That SM got fired after I was laid off, but damage to my career was done by then.
Even if someone doesn't have a special case like mine, now that I am part of the review process for reviewing associates and seniors, I see that the majority of low performers are people who are decent at the job but were unlucky with utilization not quite hitting the target. It is unfair to label a 23 year old associate a low performer because the firm didn't sell enough work.
Same boat at another company. Sucks but I'm way better off now.
OP- this question to me sounds like “ Do you have sympathy for people battling with mental disorders?” You make it sound like it’s only their fault for low performance... there could be multiple reasons for poor performance I.e personal life (divorce, single parents, family and personal health) not only that most important a**hole boss/manager and team that doesn’t support, provide tools etc.
From a human perspective, absolutely. Compassion and justification are not mutually exclusive. (From a consulting perspective, if you understand how the consulting model works and how consulting firms make money, it is completely justifiable to lay off folks that don’t meet the job expectations and don’t bring ROI.) The firm cannot afford to pay salaries for folks that are staffed only partially throughout the year and are long term benchers. In addition, clients expect to pay hundreds $ per hour for excellent service, not mediocre, not average performers and certainly not ‘poor’ performance.
No, I don’t have compassion. A job is duties performed for $$. There’s an exchange there. Unable to perform = loss of job. 🤷🏻♀️
Someone who gets laid off could have not deserved it. Maybe they had a toxic team and/or worse, a toxic manager.
I definitely have compassion for those people.
I remember a partner telling me - 80% of the job is ending up on the right account.
He's definitely right!
Yes.
Partial. Never want to see someone “Fail"
OP- I think you have been blessed that you always had good project with great leaders
“Poor” is subjective as someone said above but I agree there are some people who really don’t give a shit but I would still let go of my bonus if they are allowed to have a job during this difficult time and they can support their families