Collaboration and Transparency when creating Promotion docs
Request for comments
Need
I recently finished up and submitted my promo doc to become a Senior Support Engineer, and while/after doing so I realized that I didn't feel very comfortable in sharing that information or talk much about the whole process (apart from with my manager, of course). That was a weird realization and seems at odds with our values. I want to stress that no one ever directly told me anything of the sort, nor did I get it from any kind of official guidance. And yet, even opening this issue feels like I'm touching a somewhat taboo topic – so much so that I first reached out to @bcarranza to "test the waters" with my thoughts.
My suspicion is that this taboo feeling comes from a combination of a) long internalized "that's not something you talk about!" thinking that even I haven't fully shed, and b) simply what I observed here: No one really talks much about planned promotions, you only learn after the fact when it's announced.
I'm super curious about your thoughts on this!
Approach
I would like to see some change here. A valid outcome could simply be understanding the why behind the status quo and documenting one or two sentences about it somewhere sensible, but not actually changing anything. This would remove ambiguity, which is always desirable. Ideally however, I would love for working on promo docs to become more collaborative and transparent.
There's a very simple truth at the basis of that, and in my experience a lot of people share this: I hate praising myself. Especially when it is for my day to day work that obviously just feels completely normal and not noteworthy to me. On the other hand, I love praising others, and making them aware of all the ways in which they don't give themselves enough credit for all the amazing things they do.
Unless there's good reasons not to, I'd suggest for example adding a simple sentence like "If you're comfortable doing so, a pairing session with someone you're closely working together frequently can be a great ressource in moving your promo doc forward" to the handbook. Simply publicly stating that it's perfectly okay to be open about it and collaborate on it, would remove ambiguity as well.
Benefit
Write things down
We should Write things down, and currently this is not written down anywhere. The Career Development in Support handbook page says:
When you are ready to start building your path to promotion, review the tips on creating and building a promotion doc. Ask for manager guidance and feedback as necessary.
The linked section doesn't exist anymore. The closest match seems to be Promotion Document, but I wouldn't really call that "tips". (MR to update this!)
The Pillars section on the same page does mention values with regard to the promo doc:
- All promotions at GitLab require a promotion document. We believe in transparency around the promotion process.
- We encourage team members to live our efficiency value, be a manager of one, and take ownership of their promotion document in partnership with their manager.
Transparency is explicitely mentioned, but it's unclear how it is meant. Transparency about the process, i.e. I know the timeline of what's happening? Transparency in the sense that after a promotion, the promo doc is public? This first bullet point does not Say why, not just what: "Try to link to an operating principle of the value or provide more context, instead of just saying a single value's name."
The second bullet point is more direct about how creating the doc should happen: You're supposed to be the DRI, and work with your manager. I do not propose to change that, actually. You absolutely should be the DRI, it's a valuable experience. But I think it would be just as valuable if you could decide to work on it together with someone (other than your manager).
Public by default
I suppose the fact that it is not specified otherwise anywhere (unless I missed) makes Promo docs (from creation onwards, not just after submitting) Public by default:
Everything at GitLab is public by default. If something is not public, there should be a reference in the handbook that states a confidential decision was taken with a link to our Not Public guidelines, unless legal feels it carries undue risk.
If there are legitimate concerns (which might very well be, see below) for not collaborating on promo docs, we should be explicit about them somewhere.
Competition / Alternatives / Concerns
- People might worry they have to do it transparently to succeed. I 100% do not want this. It is completely valid if someone doesn't want to talk about their plans for a promotion until they know that it was successful. There's a huge psychological safety component here. But I hope that simply saying "Hey, if you want to, it's totally fine to help each other out with your promo docs" makes it obvious that nothing should change with how a finished promo doc is handled.
- Maybe the learning experience of finishing the promo doc alone (mostly, now I worry this will sound like my manager didn't support me – she very much did and I'm super grateful!) is considered a valuable part of the process. There's two components to this, and as I just went through this I can attest to both their value – but I also think both would still apply just the same:
- You show that you're capable of actually creating a good promo doc
- You learn something about yourself and your accomplishments while compiling it
- From an HR perspective I could see concerns that if a promotion doesn't go through, it might lead to bad blood if someone thinks they might have gotten the promotion if only they hadn't listened to the advice of xyz person when collaborating on it. I don't think it would actually be an issue – you're still the DRI. It's on you in the end.