"The annual performance review objectively measures who performed and who didn't." Except the score often says more about the manager who gave it than the person who earned it.

In Lie No. 9 of Lies of HR, we take it apart: how recency, availability and affinity bias quietly distort every rating, why forced ranking and the bell curve are statistically invalid (real performance follows a power law, not a normal distribution), how Goodhart's law turns any review score into a target people game rather than a measure that works, and why automating the whole flawed process with AI just makes biased judgement faster and harder to challenge. Then the reframe: separate evaluation from development, make feedback continuous, and keep a human accountable for every call.

The voices are AI; the arguments come from Martin Spiteri Schillig's sixteen years in HR.

Full written breakdown, sources, and the mailing list: https://liesofhr.com/lies/we-measure-performance

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This is the ninth lie in the series. New episodes regularly. Also on Spotify, Apple Podcasts and Amazon Music.

Productivity is a function of time — measure the hours and you've measured the output." The punch clock outlived the factory by a century, and nobody's quite sure why.

In Lie No. 8 of Lies of HR, we take it apart: why hours are a factory measure that collapses on knowledge work, why the fashionable "results-only" alternative is also a trap, and how the deeper lie is single-number thinking. Then the AI twist — why a third of employees who use AI now hide it from their managers (efficiency gets punished, not rewarded), and how AI-driven "speed-up" cranks the treadmill instead of freeing people. Then the reframe: reward efficiency with trust, set humane expectations, and support people instead of surveilling them.

The voices are AI; the arguments come from Martin Spiteri Schillig's sixteen years in HR.

Full written breakdown, sources, and the mailing list: https://liesofhr.com/lies/hours-drive-output

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This is the eighth lie in the series. New episodes regularly. Also on Spotify, Apple Podcasts and Amazon Music.

"Leadership is what matters." We screen for it, promote for it, and blame it when things go wrong — while treating "follower" as a word nobody wants attached to them. But you can't lead an empty room.

In Lie No. 7 of Lies of HR, we take it apart: why leadership is a relationship rather than a title, what Robert Kelley's followership research reveals about the yes-people, the cynics and the exemplary few, why Ira Chaleff's "courageous follower" is the most valuable person in your organisation — and why this suddenly matters far more in the age of AI, when the confident authority everyone nods along to is an algorithm. Then the reframe: build a culture where challenge is rewarded, and treat AI's answers as proposals, not orders.

The voices are AI; the arguments come from Martin Spiteri Schillig's sixteen years in HR.

Full written breakdown, sources, and the mailing list: https://liesofhr.com/lies/leadership-will-get-us-there