PHP Programming

Along with all programmers out there, I'd know how to change what I do during the day to meet performance goals if my pay depended on it. Sure, I wouldn't be happy that I was spending my day faking it just to get paid - I'd much rather be working on something useful and interesting. But if the boss wants performance targets met, the boss will get performance targets met. That's why setting targets won't make things better.

(No, work hasn't done anything crazy like setting performance targets! )

Of course, I've never thought the phenomenon of performance goals reducing performance would be limited to situations where people are sitting in a office. Inspector Gadget writes:

"Chief Inspector at the briefing: 'I don’t want any further arrests for Section 5 of the Public Order Act in this town. This offence gets counted as a violent crime, and we are over our targets for violent crime. Just get in between them and push them apart if they start fighting.'"

Yep, that sounds exactly like what happens when you set performance targets to me.