Recently I received an email from an expat mailing list to which I have subscribed. The personal was discussing the “negative reinforcement” of the French school system. I didn’t go to school here, and my children aren’t in school yet, but it was interesting to note that I have experienced exactly the same thing at work.
Basically negative reinforcement means that instead of concentrating on what good was done and offering suggestions for improvement, you concentrate on the bad and criticize and critique it, ignoring what is good. In school it means getting low notes, like 10/20 which would seem like a failure for an American but seems to be average for a Frenchman. In work it means getting a note of C in the range of A-D, and that C being considered average.
For 3 years now I’ve been working in a very French company. For the first year I got B’s during my reviews (“depassed my objectives”), but since then I receive a grade of “C” which is “succeeded my objectifs”. Everyone wants an A but no one gets it, a few get B especially if they’re underpaid, and the rest get C unless you’re really bad and then you get D.
I’ve done a great job there and so it’s very frustrating to get a C. So after a few C’s and being made a scapegoat for things out of my control (lack of resources, bad planning, etc.), I decided I’m not going to put in all the extra effort and hours any more just to get a C again. And I did just that. For my next project I left at 18h – 18h30, spent more time with the family, etc. And I still got a C (despite having completed a very successful project, deployed into production, with a very satisfied client). Instead of saying what I did right, it seems every review I have is just a critique of what I did wrong!
And then ironically, when I got my bonus at the end of the year, I actually got some extra money even though I only had a C. Now that blew my mind. I was expecting to get the minimum but I got more. When I asked my boss about it, she said “a C is good”. Bizarre!
I find it very frustrating. This “negative reinforcement” has a very negative consequence in my opinion. Instead of getting us to try harder, we just say “screw it” and try less. Like “no matter what I do, they’re going to find stuff wrong with it so why try harder?”
I really don’t see how this works. It’s not just me but many of my coworkers feel the same way. It’s like people come into the company very motivated and determined, and then after a year or two the company finally breaks them and they just cruise on autopilot. The good ones move on and the ones comfortable with autopilot stay. Wouldn’t the company want the opposite?
All this makes me question whether I want my kids to grow up in France or the US. I know the quality of the education is better here, but what about the quality of life for the children? I really don’t think that is better here, not for them and probably not for the parents who must dedicate a lot of time to the children’s homework.
I’d like to know how you feel about negative reinforcement. Please add a comment.
I don’t know if you read it, but I just did a two-part series on the French education system last week (19th & 20th), and got tons of comments from both French and foreign readers.
And as far as negative reinforcement goes, my husband and I were just talking about this today. I’m studying to pass le code, and every day he asks me how many wrong I got at that day’s session, while I prefer to focus on how many I got right. He said “Yeah, but no one cares how many you got right, it’s how many you got wrong that counts!” and I thought that was a very French statement to make.
I remember at the end of each lesson, you fill in on your answer sheet and on your record your score. I didn’t know if I put 32 (the number I got write) or 8 (the number I got wrong). I quickly learned it was the number of mistakes that counted, and to qualify for the real exam you have to have a score of 5 or better.
You are right, it is a very different way of looking at it.
I’m going to go read your article, and for everyone else here is the link.