u/freezoneandproud

We have had a lot of conversations here about the CofS assigning a statistic to every Org staff member for their post, by which their progress is judged.

I am not against productivity metrics. They certainly are popular in businesses, whether the stat is "server uptime," "widgets sold," or "article pageviews." Stats really can be a dispassionate measure of progress. Most ordinary companies treat them as one sign among many, however. You aren't thrown into the hoosegow for missing a number ("First prize is a Cadillac El Dorado. Second prize is a set of steak knives. Third prize is you're fired" notwithstanding).

However, my current curiosity is not about the misuse of statistics in Orgs or the stat push regarding Thursday at 2pm.

I'm wondering about the nature and meaning of the stats that Orgs use. Some are obvious. A salesperson's primary stat is, reasonably enough, something like "income from services you sold" and maybe "...from new starts." An auditor's stat could be "well-done auditing hours," though that's problematic when no one gives the auditor anyone to audit. The Flag housekeeper's stat is "number of rooms cleaned," I know, from my short time working for her. (Her productivity was astonishing.)

But what about the others?

This came to mind during a discussion a while ago about the guy at Flag who handled office supplies. MrFZaP was put on a project to write a set of things, which meant he needed paper and pens (and very little else). The Office Supply Dude (whatever his title) regularly gave MrFZaP 20 sheets of paper when a ream was requested; pens were doled out only when you could prove the last one had run out.

It made me wonder: What would the Office Supply Dude's stat be? In a sane world, it would be "supplies delivered to staff" because the job role encompasses "make sure everyone has the tools they need to succeed." In today's business parlance, what would the guy's "success metric" be?

And now I am musing: What are the stats for other roles? Someone who works in Estates cleaning floors has a stat (to worry about on Thursday at 2): Number of square feet of Org space scrubbed? Or, what?

I can imagine that the Ethics Officer stat is "number of people I terrified this week," but surely that cannot be so; that'd reward situations where everyone is out-Ethics. Is it something like, "Percentage of the staff and public in good standing"?

How is the accounting person (whoever pays the Org's bills) measured?

I'm not even going into how useful the numbers are at measuring progress. (Most of us here are too familiar with the stat for Central Files — "Number of letters mailed" — when "Number of letters received" would surely be more meaningful.) I'm simply wondering aloud what the formal stat is for most roles. And a web search isn't being helpful.