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, that sits below the cost-value threshold but close enough to it that no-one can summon the bureaucratic energy to proactively whack them, nor any crocodile tears should they decide to push off by themselves.

Counter-intuitively, the more senior the employee, the greater is the phase transition between the categorically valuable and the definitive fish-food. Partly, this is because the cost of getting rid of fat birds on thin branches is greater, but also the more one is paid, the more senior one is likely to be, and therefore the one making the decisions who to get rid of.

And turkeys don’t vote for Christmas.

See also

• Lateral quitter
• Cost-value threshold