“I’m going to issue a write-up.”
“He should be written up.”
“Her manager is going to give her a write up.”
“HR must be present when a manager gives an employee a write-up.”
“Should I write-up this employee?”
“The employee refused to sign the write-up.”
“Write-ups don’t work; our employees are still doing the same thing.”
*****
I can barely begin to tell you how I abhor this list. These articulations, as captured above, have recently appeared in various and assorted Facebook groups where HR practitioners gather. And while HR folks are accused (and sometimes guilty) of any number of bone-headed maneuvers, the language used by many around employee performance is one move that’s in serious need of adjustment.
“Write up” (used as both a verb and a noun) is up there in my top 5 most-hated-phrases-uttered-by-HR-people.
It’s lazy. It’s infantilizing. And it reduces the manager/employee relationship to one of parent & child. Or school principal and pupil. Or lord-of-the-manor and servant. The use of this phrase communicates everything wrong with an organization’s culture, its views on performance management and the employee experience.
It has to go.
I implore you HR – stop being the master of the one-note samba (“write up!”) and sing a different tune.
