Probation is a two-way street
Here’s the dirty, dirty, secret that the corporate world doesn’t like people knowing: probation periods work both ways.
I’m long enough in the tooth to have come to this realisation myself, but am often surprised when I mention it to my peers and find that they think it is a radical idea. A notion of madness they just never fathomed.
We’ve all been there. You start a new job and immediately begin being on your best behaviour because for the next few months you are in your ‘probation’. Now, don’t get me wrong, probation periods are an important and useful tool for a manager to have in their back pocket. So long as you don’t look at them as merely an ‘emergency brake’ to be pulled so you can fire somebody who is under-performing.
You see it is entirely possible to have hired somebody who was fantastic during the interviews, but then in reality turned out to not be as dazzling in the role. You, as a manager, can say ‘Well, we’re in your probation period and sadly you haven’t really impressed so we’re going to let you go.’ or you could say ‘Look, let’s extend your probation by another three months and work together to see if we can turn this around.’.
I’ve done the latter before, because you never know what is going on in a person’s personal life that might be effecting their professional one. I’ve never done the former.
But recently I was speaking with a friend who told me this was how they found out their probation was over.
The Call
A little backstory: Bill (a fake name) was a week out from their probation time being over. They had, during the previous months, performed extremely well in their job. One project assigned to Bill was described as ‘A nice to have for us, but don’t worry if the customer doesn’t accept it.’ — a project that could fail. The purpose of the project was just to get on the company radar for the customer, for potential future projects so that they would consider Bill’s employer.
Bill not only delivered the project to such a high standard that the customer went with them, it was described by the customer as being one of the best submissions they had ever seen.
During this time they had one mistake, an email that got stuck in outbox. A mistake, yes, but not one that had disastrous consequences as they were able to correctly adjust and meet the deadline.
Their line-manager, let’s call them Ted (fake name) rang them towards the end of the week.
-Rough Transcript-
Ted: Well, how do you think the last few months have gone?
Bill: Good, yeah. I was delighted we got Secret Project over the line.
Ted: Yeah, that was actually really impressive. I didn’t think you’d be able to pull that off but that is a big win.
Bill: Yeah, nice it worked out. I know you said to not get my hopes up with it, but the fact the customer went for us over the other crowd shows how strong we were.
Ted: Exactly and that’s why I am putting my neck on the line now and not extending your probation.
Bill: Oh…right…
Ted: That email that you didn’t said, look, you need to be on top of those things.
Bill: I … look I owned that mistake and cleared it with the customer. WiFi error, but we still had the meeting and they were happy with the proposal.
Ted: Right, it’s just you shouldn’t have had that email stuck in your outbox. After I heard about that I decided I was going to extend your probation. But then you got Secret Project accepted by the customer and that showed you can do the job.
Bill: Yeah, okay. I just…I mean I did take the blame for that with the customer and they didn’t seem to mind. But yeah, I get…your point.
Ted: Good, good. Because I really am sticking my neck out on the line by saying you’ve passed your probation.
The Breakdown
There are so many things wrong with this feedback from a manager to their employee that it could be an article in itself. The one that really struck me was ‘I am putting my neck on the line now…’.
This is simply something a manager should never say to a person reporting to them, ever! More so when it is in reference to the smallest of mistakes that, at the end of the day, did not lead to earth shattering problems. An email was stuck in the outbox and the person adjusted afterwards, even taking the ‘blame’ for the delayed sending of the mail to maintain relations with the customer. But in spite of delivering a number of tasks above and beyond what was expected, their manager decided to zero in on this tiny mistake and then imply it was bad enough that it might have resulted in their probation being extended.
This is not a constructive use of a probation period. It is ignoring my previous comment above, that maybe something is happening in a person’s personal life that is impacting their professional one. Maybe the email had not been sent not due to WiFi issues but rather Bill had to run off and collect a sick child. The feedback that Bill received is, in my view, creating a fear culture. A culture that if you make even the smallest of mistakes it could mean your job.
Being a bit of a blunt personality, I told Bill to quit that job immediately. They asked me ‘why’. I explained how their manager’s behaviour was bordering on toxic if that was how they spoke to people. More to the point I questioned the culture of the company if the manager was allowed to behave in such a manner.
But why was it important to highlight how Ted’s behaviour isn’t to be accepted? Well for the simple reason that Ted is acting in a manipulative, almost bullying, manner. He tried to use fear as a leadership technique and probably tried it on Bill because he felt he would get away with it. This, to me personally, is a red flag.
Fear should never be used by a person in a leadership role. The whole point of being a leader is to help, educate and lead by example If you have to rely on fear to get your message across, you’re not a leader.
Overall I stressed to Bill my view of how probation is a two-way street to try and give them some options on how to deal with Ted.
How it works
It’s actually not that crazy to understand how this concept should work. While the company are watching you to see if you are the right hire for the role you’ve been hired into, you yourself can see if the company is as they advertised.
What’s the culture like? Did you get told during the interviews that it is all about inclusion and paired learning when in reality you’ve been thrown in the deep end with no support and also things are a bit toxic?
How does the tech stack look? Is there a great big monolith that nobody mentioned because during the interviews it was buzzword bingo about Kubernetes and micro-services?
How about that work-life balance that was the big selling point from the company but in reality only exists in dreams because the twelve hour day is what they need and is the model they’ve always operated on?
These are all things that a new hire will be looking at during their probation period and, if the person is big on feedback loops, will bring up with their manager when the ‘call’ is made. Some folk may suggest that the probation period is extended — a move that companies could find strange. After all, we’ve been brought up in a world that has taught us having a job is important. Why would we voluntarily stay ‘at risk’ of losing a job? The ‘why’ is simple — because maybe the probation period has not given an employee enough time to fully see if the company is worth sticking around for. By requesting it is extended, the new hire is giving the company a chance to show that the role is actually as advertised. It also puts the power in the employee’s court. While extending their probation period if things do not seem to improve, despite feedback loops, then they can hunt around for another job and only work a probation notice period (anything from a week to one day) instead of a normal notice period (anything from a month to three months).
Just as easily if the person doesn’t want to stick around any longer then can politely decline the role. Again, another shocking move most companies probably don’t expect to see. They have just told you you passed probation and yet you are turning them down. If I was a manager on the receiving end of somebody leaving during their probation period I would take that as a huge alarm bell ringing to tell me something isn’t right with how we are advertising the company. Even more so if I was Bill’s manager I would be taking a moment of reflection on my management style and maybe try to change things a little.
The main thing to realise is that today’s market is screaming for talented people. There is no need for folk to stick around in a job just because they have finished their probation if the fit isn’t bi-directional.
As I took roughly a week to write this (I tend to not write in one sitting…for my sins)another person wrote a similar themed article, sharing some different thoughts and perspectives. Why not check it out here.
