That’s exactly what I was trying to illustrate.
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Saw that as well. Just stupid.
Going through a review process like that would be so incredibly demotivating.
At the last job I worked at that did employee reviews on an annual basis, I was continually knocked for calling in sick (migraines) when work was slow. It didn’t matter that I was the only person in my department with a such a high productivity metric that no one could meet it on my worst day, since the work was hourly, I was saving the department money when times were slow and the other folks in the department were not sent home early because they were trying to keep up with my work. When I annually pointed out that I was the highest producer, they would always bring up, “Well, you did call in three times in the past year.” Yeah, well, I also worked for three months in a row with no days off so I could finish projects for you because you have no idea what it takes to get those projects done. This was always met with a grimace, a dirty look and “We aren’t giving out raises this year, there’s no money.” I finally said, “well then, I don’t work here any longer.” I walked out and it was the last employment I had. I declared myself unemployable and loved every moment of it. I don’t like the reviews because it always casts a bright light on the incompetence of most managers, but the blame is always put on the employees and not their supervisors.
Any good supervisor knows the good from the bad employees and bad ones don’t make it to annual reviews.
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@Severine Said company tried to hire you back?
I have my “end of March” review in two weeks (mid June).
Given the “interaction” between $boss and myself, I’d much rather go to the dentist.
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Not that I have any boss to “interact” with nowadays, but seriously, if you fear your dentist (other than his/hers bills), get someone else. I fell asleep when my dentist used a pry bar to get my wisdom tooths out. And that was not due to medication.
I’m not afraid of the dentist, I’m just using it as a “something with a bad reputation (or terrible mental image) that I’d rather do”.
We have annual Noncommissioned Officer Evaluation Reports (NCOERs), theoretically supported by quarterly counselings. NCOs are rated in these categories: Competence, Physical Fitness & Military Bearing, Leadership, Training, and Responsibility & Accountability.
For each, you get a mark: Excellence, Success, Needs Improvement (Some), and Needs Improvement (Much). You can include up to three bullet comments for each; they are mandatory for anything other than Success, but as a practical matter you’d better have some comments.
Since those theoretical quarterly counselings almost never happen, NCOs are generally writing their own NCOERs out of whole cloth, and then their rater, senior rater, and reviewer may tweak and modify before signing off on them.
I always keep a running list of notable things that I do and when I do them. The only truly mediocre evals I’ve had were the ones I made my rater (the company 1SG) do without much useful input from me. The rest are personal works of art that other people just sign off on.
The one junior NCO I rate has actually been counseled (if not quite quarterly) and we both keep lists of notable achievements and goals and whatnot. She’s basically a self-guided munition; I just tweak her evals and write her up for awards from time to time.
What I always tell the kids is that the bullets matter far more than the rating; everyone knows the ratings are BS and arbitrary. There are few bigger warning signs than an “Excellent” with a damning-with-faint-praise bullet (e.g. “arrives to formations on time and in proper uniform”).
As an evaluative tool, it’s largely useless. I use it primarily to trick junior NCOs into thinking of clever ways to do useful things and add value.
For my full-time position, I have slightly less formal counselings. They are usually variations on a theme of “thank you for making an attempt not to undermine authority. Please keep trying.”
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I admit, when I was an employee I had horrible reactions to annual reviews, because most of the time I did not respect my supervisor as competent enough to judge my work. So usually it would end with, “Well, that’s what you think and we all know how well you do that.” Just before I was escorted out the door with a box of my belongings. I now look back and realize I was unemployable way before I realized it.
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I do not respect my supervisor as being able to breath and walk at the same time.
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At the poison pit, my closest buddy/ coworker and I referred to our boss as “4 i’s”
Not four eyes, like glasses but:
- Illiterate
- Incompetent
- Immature
- Insecure
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When I was getting kicked out of the Navy, my lawyer asked my CPO (emphasis on petty) to write up a review of my performance (which should have been done 2.5 months previously).
Our scale at the time was 1-5. I got mostly 5’s, the average was 4.25. I saw a copy of this the day the CPO finished it.
Two weeks later, my lawyer calls to ask when she will see the eval. My CPO tells her that he hasn’t had time, and he needs to confer with the Loot, the Commander, etc. etc.
I waited until the important people (officers and NCOs) left the office for the night, opened the CPO’s desk drawer, pulled out the eval and photocopied it. My lawyer had it in her hands shortly thereafter.
At the admin hearing for my discharge, my lawyer blew everyone out of the water by bringing up the eval, and then demanding to know a) why the CPO lied, and b) why the bottom had a big NO next to “Recommendation to retain service” (or something like that).
I believe this was one of the reasons that the DoD vacated the decision of the hearing (they wanted to give me a Dishonorable) and upgraded the discharge to “General Under Honorable Circumstances” (half a step below Honorable).
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I haven’t yet had anything negative come back from the self-evaluation report I wrote for my review. Which means I put enough BS into it to keep him happy.
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At this stage I’m not too fazed about anything to do with Performance Reviews. Busy spamming world+dog with my CV and looking for a job in Cape Town (located in JHB atm).
They can shove that performance review where the sun didn’t shine. I did ask for assistance a while ago, but nothing came of it. Doing things as best as I can.
Thank goodness for quiet days as I’m able to catch up a bit on quiet days with some admin and goofing off stuff. Otherwise I wouldve gone crazy long ago…
My review was verbally the best one I’ve had in a couple years, but I scored 20% lower on the points.
I brought it up and I’m still not sure why. I guess I reset my average?
I spoke too soon. After having two weeks to review my review, $Boss gives me one hour to look at his review and provide feedback.
We seem to have different definitions of the word “complete”. If I’ve built something, it’s finished. Looking after it is a different task. Marking my work as “incomplete” because I have to look after it is just plain wrong.
I wonder how $boss goes with the people who built his house? Does he expect the builder to come and provide routine maintenance?
Cheap shot below the belt to ensure $Boss get a bonus and not you…
No, he’s an ass. Pure and simple.
The two aren’t mutually exclusive, you know.