Monday, November 01, 2010

End of Year Performance Review - raaaaggggghhhhttttt....

So it's time to submit my end-of-the-year Performance Review. Ugh. This time, to add insult to injury, there's a new question, no doubt thought up by some Harvard educated MBA: Where do you see yourself in 1-3 years? I have to make up some suitable BS to answer this inane question, and I will, but what I really want to say is this:

Listen, you dweeby bean counter, I've been a permanent employee now for almost 4 years. In that time, although my caseload has increased by almost 50%, I've never submitted a single late report (this is a big deal at the company where I work). Furthermore, I've taken on many additional responsibilities since I started, some of which have been assigned to me, others that I've initiated, e.g., I created a training manual, complete with screen shots, that's now used internationally to train new employees on our pharma database, and I'm expected to keep it current. Yet I haven't received a raise or a promotion, or even an overall EE (exceeds expectations - word is that management doesn't like anyone to receive that rating, because an employee receiving that rating might expect some sort of financial reward, e.g., a raise or promotion). And so I'm still working at the same grade at which I was hired, as are those employees hired at the same time as me whose idea of work is pretty much to show up for 8 hours a day, period. Furthermore, in spite of my putting time and effort, twice a year, into writing these performance reviews, I have yet to have a one-on-one or to receive any sort of feedback on the work I'm doing from anyone who's supervised me. I'd say writing these is sort of like pennies down a well, except that I know someone reads them, because we get them back to redo if what we've written falls short of the rah-rah spirit with which they're supposed to be filled...so once again, I'm writing and submitting mine, but oh, what a colossal waste of time.

4 comments:

pam said...

Awww, this sucks! But I happen to know how well you can write, whether what you really mean, or full of hidden meaning...You will rock it. And...soon...new job?

Lisa :-] said...

This company sounds like a simply insane place to work. Interesting that one writes one's own performance review...?

emmapeelDallas said...

Thanks, Pam. I ended up writing a short, succinct note incorporating the first part of my rant...then I slipped into "and I now realize that although I like what I'm doing, it's a dead end, and accordingly, my short term, 1-year-goal is to find a position where it's realistic to anticipate a raise and promotion after working hard, or, barring that, I could continue doing what I'm doing, happily, minus the 100 plus miles commute each day...I have no idea how that will be received. But Mike is a good influence on me; he keeps telling me it's time to leave Dallas, and I realize I'd love to leave Dallas...

Lisa, yes, we write our own performance reviews and in theory, they're reviewed and we're given feedback...it's just that in the almost 4 years I've been doing this, the feedback part has never happened. It's beyond frustrating.

Melissa said...

So not fair....and I'd loooove to see you submit it to them! They've got it coming to them!

So good to have a little time to catch up on you!

Oops I read your comment just now after writing the above...BRAVO FOR YOU!