Performance Review

The company has what I imagine to be a fairly normal compensation philosophy, but one which is counter-productive for both the company and the employees.

Every year each employee fills out a long (and rather tedious) form regarding their goals for the upcoming year. This can include things like decreasing line shrinkage, completing a funding proposal, completing documentation, doing audits, or managing a project. Everyone’s job descriptions are different and thus their goals are unique. Then, for each of these, the employee sets benchmarks for what is below average performance, vs average vs above average vs superior. Managers vaguely look over the goals and sign off on it. Once the year is completed, each employee does a self-evaluation and then meets with their boss for a performance evaluation, where ideally the boss and the employee will reach an agreement on how the employee performed. Once the entire department has been evaluated, the boss divides up the possible salary increase. The company will set a certain percentage, say 3%, as the average compensation increase. A department manager then has to make sure their department increases average 3%.

The problems with this system are numerous and probably detrimental to the company. The first problem is obviously that the employees are in competition with each other. Within a company that relies upon collaboration and team work, having employees compete for a raise cannot be good for working relations or morale. The second problem with this system is that it encourages safe goals. If an employee wants a good performance review at the end of the year, they are likely to make their normal behavior an above average benchmark. Safe goals are bad for the company, as no one is encouraged to take risks and stretch themselves, resulting in a middle-of-the-road, unexciting company. Lastly, this system penalizes the honest. If an employee goes into a performance review with an honest evaluation of themselves they should not only argue in places where it is to their benefit, but also places where it is in their detriment. It makes a mockery of the whole system for an employee to receive a high evaluation where they don’t deserve it, while not helping the company identify opportunities for improvement.

I had my performance review this week and couldn’t stand for inflated marks where I didn’t deserve them. There were times when I argued my boss up some points, but there were also times when I argued for a lower score. This obviously took him by surprise, but it doesn’t help the company and it doesn’t help me to have inflated scores. On the other hand, it likely hurt me in the long run, with my compensation increase being lower than it should be. I’m torn by my actions, because although I know they were right, I also know that they were stupid from a business perspective. If being business savvy and being honest conflict, is being business savvy worthwhile?

butter

I bought butter at the grocery store today, wondering where the last butter I had bought went. Then I came home and started to roast a squash. Note to self: the oven is not a good place to soften your butter. Especially if you are going to forget about it for 2 weeks.

Oops.

Loyalty

My Boss came into my office at 12:45 to tell me to meet him in his office at 1. When I asked him what it was about, his response was a mumbled "nothing you need to prepare for." The next 15 minutes were useless as my mind swam with the horrible possibilities.

When I trudged into his office 15 minutes later, another of the engineers was already there. As I sat down, more people came in, but small talk quickly fell dead. There was an obvious pall in the room. Once everyone had arrived, my boss asked someone to shut the door, then began, "I wanted you to hear this from me first..."

That's how the announcement from my last boss started when he quit with 24 hours notice. Unfortunately this one ended with the elimination of 40% of my department. The people being laid off each had more than 3o years with the company. They were loyal to the company, then eliminated not based on performance, but for headcount reduction. The room was silent and awkward.

Somehow I made it back to my office and sat staring at the wall for several minutes. I had already offered to leave the plant when they did the first round of layoffs in June, but I'm not part of headcount. Today's announcement has made me question the company and where it's going. It's eliminating perfectly good workers. Other good workers are leaving because they don't think it will be around in 10 years. They cut the pension plan and outsource more and more manufacturing on a daily basis. Things don't look good and I can't wait to leave.