Fair Appraisal

Act as if we’re new employees in good company. Since the first sight in the office, our eyes are pampered with beautiful company mottos. Be Innovative, be productive, quality is number one, result oriented and many pretty words is glued around the building. At first, we feel on fire. We should work hard to fit what company wants us to be. At the end of the day, the management can tell to the world that “See, they are our employees. They are very innovative, productive….”

Then there comes a day when you see the truth that I illustrated you in the previous post.

How do you feel? How do you respond it?

You may be the one who thinks “Oh, my result is not good enough, I should work harder”. But besides you, I bet there are many who think “So, it’s not important to achieve the target? From now on, I don’t need to work hard or create something perfectly, because at the end, the management will calibrate my works. So let’s work slowly and hope the management will appraise me good”

The second might be the general thought of employees. It happens not only in one company.

In the employee point of view, we want the company to be fair to us. If we work hard, give us a good credit. If there are people who do not do well, give them bad credit. Fair is as simple as that.

If there is fairness, it triggers us to work so we will get the result we want. Who doesn’t want to get good result? If result seems overrated, let’s change the question, who doesn’t want much money? Big chunk of bonuses?

If the company wants us to be innovative, we will innovate. If the company wants us to be productive, we will. We will work on it. But, please be fair. Give us good when we do good.

Appraised by the calibration

Your target is defined in the beginning. You will get “Very Good” point when you achieve certain target, get “poor” when you don’t achieve.

At the end, you achieve the defined target. You should get “Very Good” point.

But, the company tells you there’s a policy which called as “balancing” or “calibrating” whatsoever.

With many considerations, the “Very Good” you achieved is calibrated and become “Good” only.

After that, are you still trying to work hard for the company?

Your performance is appraised by “the calibration” not the work.