Appraisals - Whose GPain is it ?

Every year millions of employees are appraised on the basis of “performance” and their leadership skills to enable them to plan whether their new holiday destination will be within the geographical confines of their dwellings or if they can go ahead with the new I- phone available in the market or whether their child will attend the latest fad of living skills.

One common thread which binds all appraisee is the wide eyed astonishment visible on their faces on the new weapons which the HR manager, through the appraiser, launches year after year to significantly downgrade his/her future plans.

In the industry doing your routine job even if done as per requirement does not necessarily mean winning the hearts of the Janus faced appraiser. Reaching your objectives “imposed upon” with mutual understanding is just not enough. One has to walk the extra mile. On raising questions as to what is the distance one has to cover to walk the extra mile the repartee would be “the differentiation angle in a highly meritocratic organisation where achieving once objectives is nothing but hygiene is anyways expected from one and all.

Lateral thinking, going the extra mile, differentiation, merit, organizational values, leadership skills, innovation are some of the weapons of mass disappointment which the appraisee is constantly bludgeoned with during the normally less than 30 minutes interrogation. The one hour interrogation also called appraisal or feedback sessions usually end up only after acceptance of the appraisee that he has been actually screwing up for the past 365 days. In some organisations this is a monthly or a half yearly ritual overseen by a sweet looking but a cold hear-ted HR manager who would always know you by your name and desk number but will turn down every offer of an explanation politely but sternly. The frequency does nothing to reduce the magnitude of disappointment of the downgraded future.

The rhetoric regarding transparency and objectivity in determining the relative performance is subject to conditions which are in fine prints. For the naïve person who takes the dictionary meaning as being true and on occasion when he/she raises  concerns on the deviation from the rhetoric, the appraisee would be politely and sternly told to look at the bigger picture which is written in the fine prints.

Being both the victim and propagator of the WMD some insights into the other side of the story is equally interesting. It has been the biggest bane for appraisers to explain chronic lack of performance to those who are clearly differentiated in terms of lack of performance. 

One who has proved himself/herself to be a usual performer is easy to manage and acceptance of the appraisers’ feedback irrespective of being positive or negative is easily absorbed without any reflux.

The skill among the appraisers is to justify the chronic defaulters who are so apt at the skills of appraisal that one can expect difficult questions revolving around policy, compliance's, objective settings or the lack of it, lack of regular constructive feedbacks leading to ignorance of what is expected as some of the counter strike weapon.

If the appraiser is one of those creatures who is in an empathetic bent of mind he/she might just allow the appraisee to take over the role of appraiser and resort to management bashing for all the ills which the appraisee is currently facing due to no fault of his/hers.

For the thick skinned experienced appraiser the respite is in terms of using the WMD -vague terms like innovation, going the extra mile , leadership skills, expectations vs objectives which somehow cannot be quantified by both the appraiser and appraisee.

The battle then reduces to who budges first. In the food chain, as the appraiser is above the appraisee, and knowing very well that pushing ones luck too far is seldom wise -specially when the person sitting next to you is justified and/ or is only momentarily blinded by the counter attacks- with a regret and sympathy towards the appraiser the session is closed.  

Next comes the post appraisal environmental impact.

The appraiser gets an indifferent glance from the performers whose expectations and rewards are more or less matched. He/she gets an adoring glance from those whose expectations-which are factors of low self- worth, low self-esteem, as well as luck - are well below the rewards. The most unnerving glance can be expected from those who are proclaimed offenders and the glance says we understand that you understand but we will still make you understand that you do not understand so that you can make the management understand what you think that you understand but actually do not understand and hence let the confusion prevail. Thus ends the year round cycle and the normalcy is returned only after a heavy dose of spirit (both the motivational variety and the alcoholic once) during the start of the new cycle of targets and war cries.  

Disclaimer: The author has a pregnant imagination and the above is in no way reflective of either the appraisals done by him or done on him. He claims indemnity from any such claims from both his appraisers as well as appraisees who have suffered or have made him suffer (in the same sequence) .