Yesterday I had my 2020 Review at work.
This has been something that I was not particularly looking forward to this year as due to circumstances - getting essentially a less than glamorous review for last year and being "repurposed" into a new job role, I was a little leery of how it was going to be this year. On one hand, it is hard to fall off the floor. On the other, a review that is basically less than "meets expectations" can be hard to come back from.
So I was more than pleasantly surprised when it went rather well.
On one hand it is relatively easy as my "new" boss (I say new, I have worked with him for over three years now) is the sort of person that is easy to talk to and with whom you can have a ready conversation. It is also helpful that he is, innately, a kind person - the sort of person you want to do better for.
On the other hand, as my job duties have changed about 280 degrees, I am being evaluated on an entirely different set of roles and responsibilities, which makes things both good and bad: good in that the past is the past, bad in that you may have less of an overall body of work to be evaluated on.
The other thing (Third hand? Can you have three hands?) is that, as he pointed out, sometimes we tend to be more critical on ourselves than others around us. I can accept and acknowledge that: take a basically self critical nature (mine) and add to it coming off a review that left one a little breathless, and it is easy to start from the position of "I am pretty much unskilled" because that is my natural bent. It is helpful to have someone who is effectively a neutral third party and someone who is interested in making sure you succeed give you an overall evaluation of the things you cannot see beyond yourself.
I have my marching orders for next year, and what I need to gain education in. I even have the charge of making sure I leave enough time (up to 20%) for development and learning and training. A very, very solid "did my job".
Like most businesses these days, there is no longer any formal direct connection between my review and any pay or rewards (or at least, that is what everyone states) and I have no anticipation that financially anything will change. But it is nice, at least, to go into the holidays and the New Year with a sense that in at least one way, I am on the right track.
Glad your review went well! The only people who don't sweat reviews usually don't care.
ReplyDeleteThank you sbrgirl! I think what you say is true, but I also think it is how the company treats reviews: if they are used as punishment or as a file holder, people can not sweat them because they perceive they are used for either bad reasons or as placeholders. It is when they are used as a true and fair assessment that they become rather useful.
DeleteCongratulations on the results. Having a good boss makes Life SO MUCH better, doesn't it ? You are fortunate to have an individual like that.
ReplyDeleteThe comments made about you being your worst critic only tells us that you really care how well you do your job. Small details watched gain favorable attention.
Thank you Anonymous. It is true; a good boss (and a very kind one in this case) does make the world of difference.
DeleteI would like to think what you say about how I do my job is true; the critical part of me also says part of it may be due to the simple need to not have people angry at me because something was not done (which, also, could be true).
That is GREAT news. Well done!
ReplyDeleteThat self-critical mentality is no friend at all (Hi, I'm STxAR and I have a self-critical mentality). But it does keep the fire under your butt. And if you have that, you can keep ahead of the doofii...
Clarity is key, and you know where you are now, and where you are going. Clarity.
We have the same challenge, friend. My challenge is to, as you say, let it fire me up rather than let it depress me to the point of inaction.
DeleteI am always trying to work on clarity. Sometimes it comes easier than others.
I'm glad to know it went well. I know you must be hugely relieved!
ReplyDeleteI am Leigh, thank you. I did not think it would be as jarring as last year, but one never really knows.
DeleteThat said, this is the way things are meant to work: reviewed by the end of the year so every one starts out the New Year clearly focused on the going forward, not the looking backward a little longer.
I was always frustrated with the review process of my past employers, perhaps because I was an engineer and liked an order to everything. Like you said, they had no correlation to pay and thus there was no incentive to actually meet any expectations other than simply remaining employed in the long term. Reviews were also supposed to trickle both ways, i.e. some of my goals would be my boss's goals and some of his goal's would be my goals. But at the end of the day, after I filled out my goals for the upcoming year, they were relegated to a dusty digital folder until review day and then returned to the dusty digital folder with nobody the wiser but my boss or myself.
ReplyDeleteEd, that too often seems the way it is this days. What can complicate things - it complicates mine, anyway - is that we are a "dynamic" environment, which means things seems to change rather frequently. It often seems difficult enough to meet goals, let alone when goals seem to be a moving target. Fortunately, I think that I have the sort of manager that can allow these things to flex - the spirt of the law, if not the letter.
DeleteCongratulations on the review.
ReplyDeleteJeff, thank you. To be frank, I am much relieved to have it done.
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