HTT's Manila Standard Post on "Forced into Poverty"

HTT's post on catastrophes and how people already living in poverty are thrust into even greater poverty, if there is such a term.  poverty is poverty, and there can be no more greater poverty than what is currently being experienced. Poverty has forced them into becoming non-contributing to any pension plan, living in a day-to-day hand-to-mouth existence.  Thus, when their fruitful labor times have passed, they have no fallback positions at all.

In the same post, HTT discusses the recent forced ranking imposed by the GCGG and the DBM.  He said, and i quote:

The “forced ranking” method is an example. Jack Welch of General Electric popularized it using a 20-70-10 percent forced distribution. Done well, it rewards generously the most productive 20 percent and identifies from the bottom 10 percent the undesirables who must be weeded out. Implemented improperly, it brings down employee morale and results in quick employee turn-overs. It promotes individualism but erodes teamwork.


But it was required by the Governance Commission for Government-Owned or Controlled Corporations and the Department of Budget and Management as the basis for the grant of a performance-based bonus to all government employees in 2012.

All employees had to be ranked from highest to lowest.  They were then forced into a 10-60-20-10 percent grouping distribution and categorized as having “Exceeded Expectations (Best)”, “Met All Expectations (Better)”, “Met Most Expectations (Good)” and for performing “Below Expectations (Below Satisfactory)”.

For those employed by profitable corporations, the “Best” were entitled to a bonus of 2.5 times their salary, the “Better” 1.5 times, and the “Good” 1.25 times. By design, 10 percent of 1.4 million public servants were to get nothing.

For those who were ranked high enough, the bonus was released just in time for Christmas expenditures, and much appreciated by their ecstatic dependents.

But for those who honestly toiled in the bureaucracy but still ended up in the bottom 10 percent it was a calamity before Christmastime. They may have met their work targets and thought that they have earned their bonus but nobody told them that others who performed better would instead get it.
They performed tasks of the highest quality of service, the type that endears government to our people. Their outputs, non-quantifiable perhaps, supported the performances of the team’s “Best”. Unfortunately, their supervisors had to put names in the bottom of the performance list.

Now they worry being labeled as a “Below Satisfactory” performer, dreading dismissal, which is the companion of the forced ranking method. After all, it is also called the “rank-and-yank” evaluation system. Does the government have the guts to yank out these 140,000 workers and force them into poverty?

i thanked HTT for tackling one of the more difficult topics - but it was short.

Click here to read in full the manilastandardtoday "forced-into-poverty" article