Giving up in public

At last the voice of reason! Alan Wingrove sums up what is wrong with public-sector performance management – as managers we are neither allowed nor supported to do it.And worse still, as the HR manager for my organisation, I have been pilloried for attempting to manage the long-standing poor performance of three members of my team. One of them raised a grievance, went off sick for many months and then, because she was so allegedly distressed by the thought of speaking to me, demanded to be transferred to another manager on her return – and had her demands met.