Performance appraisal meetings are being conducted at my office this month. For a half hour, each employee sits with their supervisor and hears what the supervisor thinks of their work. When there's a good, collegial relationship, it's easy. "You did a great job. It's a pleasure to work with you."
"Well, thank you very much. Goodbye."
When the relationship has been less than stellar, it's a painful process.
It's a strange dance between a person who has power and a person who doesn't.
The supervisor gingerly comments on the less-than adequate work.
The employee tries to defend himself.
The supervisor tries to be encouraging and offers suggestions for how to change.
The employee seethes and wonders what's the point.
The supervisor ends the session with a "things will be better next year" comment.
The employee hangs his head and wanders away.
From the manager's point of view, it's tough to face someone and tell them how you really feel. I suspect that most managers avoid being completely frank. Afterall, how do you continue to work with someone when you've just told them they suck.
It's a necessary evil, I suppose.
I wonder what would happen if each supervisor and employee were completely frank?
"You're a control freak!"
"You take no responsibility for your errors!"
"You're a whiner!"
"If you call in sick one more time on a Friday, I'm going to scream!"
Hmmm. Wouldn't that be interesting...
I'm going for the phony approach.
The answer? Become self-employed. I did that for 20 years before retiring. No time-clock. No boss. No performance appraisal. I recommend it.
ReplyDeleteLOL, agree, I got a list of things that bosses wished they could write in a review, one I remember was "John would be out of his dept in a puddle in the parking lot" .
ReplyDeleteI got my the other day with two boss's they did the good cop, bad cop, I still don't know if I had a good or bad year.