Performance Appraisals are worthless IMO.

[buck]

Well its that time of year here and I have to have my PA right before vacation. I just think its worthless because I do a good job here but its almost like my boss has to come up with something to get me work on harder. Even if he did have something to really gripe about, he would be worried to piss me off and get me disgruntled. I just got to thinking about it and if a boss cant really be honest what is the point of these?

Not just that, I have to waste an hour writing down bullshit comments when I need to be catching up on real work.
I need more coffee.


/weak rant

 

[altonb1]

Originally posted by: buck
Well its that time of year here and I have to have my PA right before vacation. I just think its worthless because I do a good job here but its almost like my boss has to come up with something to get me work on harder. Even if he did have something to really gripe about, he would be worried to piss me off and get me disgruntled. I just got to thinking about it and if a boss cant really be honest what is the point of these?

Not just that, I have to waste an hour writing down bullshit comments when I need to be catching up on real work.
I need more coffee.


/weak rant

My company does this, and we have a self appraisal and then PEER reviews, also. This year, I got to write do reviews for 6 other people plus my own. I won't see the results until late Feb or early March, though, right before our bonus checks and raises hit.

 

[Schfifty Five]

I hate them too. It especially sucks for me because my boss doesn't see all the work that me and my team does. In fact he probably only sees 10% of the stuff we do and he bases all his reviews on that. And I also have to spend time writing BS answers to questions about how I helped the company. F that.

 

[spidey07]

How else are they gonna motivate you unless they dangle a carrot in your face?

"Here, if you meet every single one of these impossible goals you'll get a...no I'm serious...you'll get AN EXTRA .5% ON YOUR RAISE!"

Say it with an office space "you'll have upto to 4 people...under you" tone of voice.

 

[giantpinkbunnyhead]

I agree. Our evaluations are the sole factor for determining how much our raises will be; and they're so incredibly subjective and ill-conceived. We are scored on criteria that don't even apply to our position. For example... I'm an aircraft dispatcher. I get evaluated on FORKLIFT SAFETY. Generic evaluation form FTL. So anyway since I never use forklifts, I'm assigned an arbitrary score of 3 (out of 5). Since I generally score 4's in other areas, this "3" serves to lower my overall score. Which lowers my raise.

Also, managers are told never to issue 5's because the company believes "there is always room for improvement." A 5 suggests improvement is not possible. Well, sometimes it's not! I was not absent, or tardy, ONCE in the past year. Yet I still got a 4, not a 5, in "attendance". I asked why I didn't get a 5 when I could not possibly be LESS tardy or absent, and was told "we can't give 5's." WELL THEN WHY THE HELL ARE THEY EVEN AN OPTION?!?

/my own weak rant

 

[KeithTalent]

When implemented properly they can be a very effective tool for the development of an employee. This, of course, would mean everyone is invested in the process and that is properly followed up on.

I do agree they are a pain in the ass to complete sometimes though.

KT

 

[TruePaige]

Heh..raises. =D

Well I've been working at my job that I love for a while now...

But I still kept this crappy 14 hour a week tech job..for a bit it was 'till the holidays...but now I just like getting a check every week..Big check, small check, big check, small check...

Anyhow they do reviews there...but they don't even fill anything out, they just pick U, M, E

 

[spidey07]

Originally posted by: giantpinkbunnyhead
I agree. Our evaluations are the sole factor for determining how much our raises will be; and they're so incredibly subjective and ill-conceived. We are scored on criteria that don't even apply to our position. For example... I'm an aircraft dispatcher. I get evaluated on FORKLIFT SAFETY. Generic evaluation form FTL. So anyway since I never use forklifts, I'm assigned an arbitrary score of 3 (out of 5). Since I generally score 4's in other areas, this "3" serves to lower my overall score. Which lowers my raise.

Also, managers are told never to issue 5's because the company believes "there is always room for improvement." A 5 suggests improvement is not possible. Well, sometimes it's not! I was not absent, or tardy, ONCE in the past year. Yet I still got a 4, not a 5, in "attendance". I asked why I didn't get a 5 when I could not possibly be LESS tardy or absent, and was told "we can't give 5's." WELL THEN WHY THE HELL ARE THEY EVEN AN OPTION?!?

/my own weak rant

5s are an option to justify a promotion.

Here's another dirty little secret. All those ratings? They have to follow a bell curve. Even if every employee is going above and beyond, it's still a bell curve.

 

[hanoverphist]

as a person that has to tell others to fill those out, they are a good thing. they give perspective on where they think they are in view of "managements" position of where they are. that perspective could show management what they need to focus on to make them a more productive employee as well as point out things management may not have been aware of. it also lets the employee see what the management perceives as important tasks/ items to focus on.

all in all, they are a good tool for both sides.

 

[AnyMal]

You have to deal with it once a year, ours is every six months.

 

[edro]

On a scale of 1-5, everyone gets 3s or 4s.

Also, your pay increase is not really linked to your appraisal.

Yes, the system is severely retarded.

 

[Whisper]

Originally posted by: spidey07

Originally posted by: giantpinkbunnyhead
I agree. Our evaluations are the sole factor for determining how much our raises will be; and they're so incredibly subjective and ill-conceived. We are scored on criteria that don't even apply to our position. For example... I'm an aircraft dispatcher. I get evaluated on FORKLIFT SAFETY. Generic evaluation form FTL. So anyway since I never use forklifts, I'm assigned an arbitrary score of 3 (out of 5). Since I generally score 4's in other areas, this "3" serves to lower my overall score. Which lowers my raise.

Also, managers are told never to issue 5's because the company believes "there is always room for improvement." A 5 suggests improvement is not possible. Well, sometimes it's not! I was not absent, or tardy, ONCE in the past year. Yet I still got a 4, not a 5, in "attendance". I asked why I didn't get a 5 when I could not possibly be LESS tardy or absent, and was told "we can't give 5's." WELL THEN WHY THE HELL ARE THEY EVEN AN OPTION?!?

/my own weak rant

5s are an option to justify a promotion.

Here's another dirty little secret. All those ratings? They have to follow a bell curve. Even if every employee is going above and beyond, it's still a bell curve.

Well, technically, if every employee is going above and beyond, then there's still going to be a bell curve...it'll just be one in which the middle of the curve is closer to above average, and the lower tail is average.

Then again, seeing that the curve is really just about comparing the workers to one another, it'll still stand that the majority of people will be in an average range (even if that "average" is above average compared to other companies).

As for performance evals, as another poster mentioned, they're great if they're implemented well. But if the workers don't take them seriously and/or the managers are ill-informed concerning work habits or are afraid to be honest, then they lose their purpose pretty quickly.

 

[ultimatebob]

I've always found performance evaluations amusing, as it reminds me how little the HR people know about my job. They usually misspell some of the product names wrong, or word them in a way where a hardware product sounds like a software product and vice versa.

Oh well, it's job security.

Besides... like everyone else I basically already know what my performance evaluation is going to be. They can't give me a top rating because then they would actually have to give me the bonuses and promotions that they're always promising their "top performers", but they can't give me a lousy evaluation because they fear that I might get fed up and quit. I'm sure that I'll get the same average/above-average rating I get every year. Yawn.

 

[jandrews]

I like our work performance reviews. It takes me about 5 hours per review to write and score and I had to do that for 12 people this year. One newer guy commented how great the reviews were and how you actually learn something from them. A lot of companies look at performance reviews as a big pain in the ass hinderance which makes them pointless to the manager and the employee. I am glad to work somewhere that actually gets 'it'.

 

[Rage187]

We do 1 yearly self, 1 middle of the year self and then we do mid year peer reviews.

A chance to toot your own horn and let management know if you are getting enough feedback or not. I like my manager so I try and provide as much feedback as possible.

Ours also has a spot to pick 3 positions we are interested in.

 

[JS80]

I agree that it's annoying and generally a waste of time but I can't think of another way to "effectively" document your accomplishments, goals, etc. Anyone have any better ideas?

 

[KeithTalent]

There are some interesting comments in this thread.

What type of role does HR play in your performance appraisals in general? At my company they really are just a conduit for information. They do setup the templates and file everything for us, but establishing, implementing, and following up on all of the objectives and performance reviews is entirely up to the managers of the specific areas.

The same holds true for bonuses and salary reviews.

KT