Annual evaluations

We're in the annual employee evaluation season at MPOW -- a time when I would readily pack up and go somewhere else. I wish that we could give everyone a gold star and a raise and go on with our busy days that never have enough hours in them to accomplish what we have to do.

I started out my adult career life as a teacher, and I quickly learned that my toughest times were spent not with the middle-schoolers, but rather in parent-teacher conferences. I never really had any bad experiences, but the whole time of meeting with the kids' parents was exhausting. Then I became a parent, and found out that parent-teacher night was just as draining on the other side of the table.

This whole business about accountability is built into our culture. My current organization has a merit-based pay raise system. Indeed, most of my career employers have had some sort of financial incentive tied to someone else's opinion of how effective my work efforts have been. As a supervisor, it's humbling to be thus entrusted. When I worked for the Air Force, the evaluations I wrote had a direct relationship to promotion or possibly the end of a career. Sort of brought to mind admonitions about "judging not" and "lest you be judged."

This question was in the "Working Q & A " section of this morning's Pioneer Press: "I have a star employee. She is motivated, gets her work done quickly and doesn't seem to need my guidance. Am I breaking some rule of good management by letting her work largely on her own?" The columnist's answer somewhat surprised me; she said that it's even more important to manage star performers, since they want to know that they have a boss who's looking out for them and setting them up for continued success.

Colleague Tom Shaughnessy, Metronet Library Director, wrote a very insightful piece in which he uses the terms "review" and "root canal' in the same sentence. He then goes on and makes a good point: "Some HR experts have argued that less emphasis should be placed on looking backward and more on improving future performance." I like that approach - although Tom does close the post by saying he's still searching for a better way after 30 years, and solicits opinions from others. And incidentally, he's gotten no comments.

For all my kvetching . . . I think the evaluation process is important. I would much rather work in an organization that evaluates, than one that does not. For if an organization does not step back and assess its most important resource - its people - it does not truly value them. And I truly do strive that the evaluations I give have no surprises (as I long ago learned in Air Force civilian personnel training). The time to deal with problems is when they happen, and the time to celebrate successes is as often as possible. The annual evaluation process just brings it all together, and sets goals for the future.