[ok_dad]

> people with no output for years canned

Often I see this happen, and the result is the company loses out somehow. I think maybe metrics for “output” are wrong in many cases, and you’ve just canned someone who had a useful or even critical role you didn’t know about. A lot of people who are important to company operations are invisible!

[bgnn]

output doesn't capture accumulated know-how. If you fire researchers you loose know-how, hence you loose potential.

[a_bonobo]

Output also doesn't capture 'enabling' functions: as a researcher I love to help others get to their goals, I love working on tricky problems and using my know-how to feel needed. I think I'm not alone in that.

Unfortunately that means that on paper, I have zero output while the people I help have all the output. Especially in computing/data science it's easy to fall into this trap; it takes a daily check-in to make sure that I'm working on the stuff that counts for me and my group.

[mjcohen]

You need to document everything you do.

[pdimitar]

lose*. It's not so hard, man.

Also accumulated know-how can be partially visible by writing out docs, patents, guides and the like. Definitely not enough but can increase visibility.

[bgnn]

yeah lose. I don't know why I keep typing this wrong..