Competence phase transition

The Human Resources military-industrial complex Go Premium The competence phase transition, yesterday The instrument (the “telescreen”, it was called) could be dimmed, but there was no way of shutting it off completely. Index: Click ᐅ to expand: HR Comments? Questions? Suggestions? Requests? Insults? We’d love to 📧 hear from you. Sign up for our newsletter.

Competence phase transition
/ˈkɒmpɪtəns feɪz trænˈzɪʃ(ə)n/ (n.)

(Human resources): Grazing grounds for weak gazelles. A sort of purgatorial state occupied by earnest plodders who don’t really earn their keep but do the organisation no real harm, such that no-one can quite summon the bureaucratic energy to proactively whack them, but few will shed crocodile tears if they did decide to push off.

Note that the more expensive the employee, counter-intuitively the greater the phase transition: this is partly because the cost of getting rid of well-paid employees is higher, but also the more a person is paid, the more likely she is to be the one making the decisions who to get rid of.

And turkeys don’t vote for Christmas.

See also

• Lateral quitter