Zombie Management Practices

A partial list of scary management practices which will not die:

1. Inflating performance evaluations so marginal performance gets pushed up into "Meets Standards" or higher.
2. Tolerating bullies if their numbers look good.
3. Selecting an applicant on the basis of race, national origin or sex instead of whether he or she is the most qualified person for the job.
4. Treating some jobs as if they are a lower caste.
5. Issuing employee handbooks with harshly-worded employment at will language.
6. Trying to come up with jazzy new names for what is more accurately called the Personnel Department.
7. Monitoring performance via numbers that are obsolete by the time they are reviewed.
8. Holding staff meetings that do nothing but waste time.
9. Creating jobs that don't have a career ladder.
10. Keeping job descriptions where the most accurate phrase is "other duties as assigned."
11. Spending more time buying a new computer than selecting a new employee.
12. Not doing what has been promised.
13. Reading reports instead of going to see.
14. Keeping people who pull down the entire team.
15. Letting good performers leave without trying to persuade them to stay.