MM wrote:

It's much too late, but again I can't sleep (having problems with the
old insomnia again) so here's a brief recall: You meet up with your
manager on a one-to-one basis, similar to an initial job interview.
You and he are supposed to take on the role of being best buddies
together during the appraisal. Then there are various forms to fill
out, like the "mission statement" one I mentioned. There are "goals"
to set, "opportunities" for improvement (made me think I should shower
more often), and finally the manager would offer some words of advice
in order to become a better drone. A few days later you'd get a
printed report, i.e. "the appraisal", or even better, "The Appraisal",
with capital letters to show how really, really important it was. You
and he would sign it as a token of mutual love and understanding for
each other and for the fabulous company both of us worked for. Then it
was over for another year.

I believe some managers (the fascist tendency) enjoyed the process
because it gave them the opportunity to speak down to the employee and
tell him how he should pull his socks up.

That reminds me of assessments indicating an area where scope for
improvement was identified, when the concept that I might not
actually have the slightest desire to make any moves in that
direction was met with incomprehension.

My response during my annual review at age 59 to "Where do you
see yourself in 12 months' time?" was "Retired!"

Shortly afterwards the opportunity arose to apply for voluntary
redundancy. I thought that they would turn it down, as it would
cost them almost as much as keeping me, but my luck was in.

One of the best bits about my last few days at work was being
able to say to certain parties who had, whilst pressing me to
make progress on certain matters, singularly failed to engage in
enabling discussions in any meaningful way "If you really want to
talk about this, you've got X days left to do it."

Chris
--
Chris J Dixon Nottingham UK


Plant amazing Acers.