Obscure Performance Management

KTRIC

I work in a small team of 3 engineers and 1 team leader. We're all contractors bar one guy.

Recently the company started its yearly performance reviews for all staff but seeing as we're contractors we can't really do it. Instead my team leader (who's not long in the job and a contractor himself) has come up his own version of a performance review.

Essentially we were sent a questionnaire like the one below and asked to fill it out for ourselves and one for each of our colleagues in the team. I've been working in IT for nearly 10 years and never seen the likes of it. The questions are obscure and its all anonymous. Also there is a little clique in the office of which I'm not part (don't want to be), so how can this witch hunt for a better word be non-bias ??

Opinions please ??



fully aware of his professional role and the corresponding
expectations
enthusiastic/ a self starter
a team player
adjustable in a reacting environment
looking forward/ searching for additional projects/ challenges
showing willingness to come to a compromise
looking for ways to improve in terms of a long term approach
able to take/ accept criticism
qualified and experienced enough for his daily business
suffering under ‘pressure to perform’ from time to time
not able to work without clear objectives
checking tasks if they are realistic before he start to work on them
pushing himself even more when something is not working
calling customers and colleagues back without being asked
solving claims immediately
able to fill spare time offside of his daily business with meaningful work
keeping focus and patience even on time consuming jobs
able to start work with just a rough briefing
apologizing for his mistakes.
keeping contact with his colleagues.
asking his colleagues for their opinion.
asking about impact on others.
interested in personal feedback
keeping his working environment clean and in good condition
keeping common OSS tools and rooms clean and in good condition
feeling thwarted by his colleagues from time to time
happy with his current situation within OSS


Each one of those has six tick boxes with a right / not right option depending on what you think.

InReality

Definatly home-grown questions there !
there not all bad though ...
Will the review process affect your pay ?
If not no worries and you might even get some good ( critical and/or positive ) feedback .
If it will then .. don't really know. Talk it out with the person making the pay decision and see if they have some issue with you.

Overall though I would not assume that its directly at me personally.

doolox

They can do this because they can get away with it.
The good times are over and workers need to realise that every job has to be fought for and justified. More will be demanded off them and within reason more will have to be done. This is why high levels of unemployment are evil, they reduce the bargaining power of workers and even self-employed are affected as prices are lowered and payments get delayed or defaulted on.
No one wins in a recession except the cash-rich.
Those with fixed assets, shares and non-liquid assets also suffer from the uncertainty and weak bargaining power engendered by high unemployment, uncertainty and low credit availability.
In deflationary times cash is king, the credit squeeze results in a high cost in borrowing money which cannot be met with reasonable profit margins so jobs, previously viable, become inviable and are lost.
The incentive to invest in projects is lost as money appreciates in value for those who have it and there is no imperitive to invest in companies and shares because prices are lowering and demand is diffcult to forecast and predict.
A certain level of inflation is needed to make holders of cash to look for ways to protect the spending power of their cash. This leads to investment in shares and companies and work for the labouring classes. Money circulates and wealth is distributed to all who can work. Hopefully the state looks after those who cannot work for whatever reason.
Unlike the hungry 50's we no longer have recourse to emigration to solve the "surplus" labour problem. Most of the OECD nations have similar problems to our own. We will have to solve this recession from our own resources with our own money and our own people. All of Europe will be doing likewise.
The unpleasant truth is that we will all have to give more time, effort and attention to detail in our jobs than in the good times.
Hopefully this can be done in a spirit of cautious cooperation with managment without recourse to bitterness, rancour, industrial unrest or exploitation, harrassment, bullying or the respective vices of each opposing group in the economic scheme.

HashSlinging

I've seen this type of performance review, and to be blunt this is basically to help the clique, they will all up themselves..this is war.

YOUR MISSION

1. Start making notes and gathering evidence to support your good work. If you have an unsatisfactory review ask for an appeal, if there is a performance review there must be a HR dept, you can appeal there, but make sure you have documented proof that you are pulling your weight. Also maybe have a conversation over the photocopier with one of the people in HR to see if other departments are conducting similar reviews.

2. Until the review is completed fake it till you make it, massage the egos of the supervisor, these ass*oles love praise. I know its painful but you gotta do it. Arrive in with sweets on a friday, buy coffee and arrange (although you would probably prefer to hold a gun to your head) arrange a few drinks out.

3. You work in IT, and do you work in support if so start doing your own market research by that I mean sending your users a satisfaction survey, its only a simple thing.

something like this -

Hi (name) I'm just checking if you are happy with the service you received today.

Start making an excel sheet and have it ready when the review comes around.

Hope this helps.

KTRIC

Thanks HashSlinging, some good points there.

I voiced my opinion to the Supervisor about this whole thing but he wouldn't back down.

In the end I just flew through all the reviews randomly marking each section without reading what it was.

Can't wait for the review