I had originally wanted to post and share a few of the photos that I had taken on 30 April 05 (last Saturday), but I could not access the photos easily because they were not stored on this machine that I am now using to blog. Anyway, maybe it is intended for the photos to be seen on another day?
So I shall think of something to share. Today, I was appraised by my supervisor. This is the annual appraisal. Since the content of the appraisal is meant to be confidential, my apologies that it would not be shared here.
Well, after having gone through it for my second time in this current office, I would like to ask aloud: What kind of appraisal would be a good and fair measurement of one's performance?
In my opinion, appraisals are avenues to provide staff with feedback about their performance. While it should be as objective as possible, I reckon that it should also have its flexible side.
A good appraisal, in the opinion of myself, should allow rooms for encouraging feedback to be given. It should also provide avenues to give due recognition to efforts put in by staff, irregardless whether their work objectives have been totally met.
It seems that life is so unpredictable in itself, that any achievement of one's goal is worth a celebration. At the same time, due recognition should be given to people who make the attempts to try, even if they have failed to reach the goal fully because they have missed by a little. I guess people tend to thrive from encouragement and recognition.
In addition, a good appraisal should also provide the avenues to provide feedback on the areas needing improvement. While we need to know what we have done right, it helps to also know how we could do better.
A good appraisal should measure one's performances reasonably and constructive. To illustrate with an example: it means that we cannot expect a receptionist to know how to troubleshoot a software problem even though part of his/ her work involves the use of the computer. Such expectations would only be reasonable if the company is willing to invest the time and money to train the receptionist in software troubleshooting.
I have no idea. I must have been in search of a comprehensive tool that would measure our performance, and give us feedback constructively.
Truly, can we really honestly measure a person fully? We have all kinds of measurements out there, but none seems to comprehensively measure a person full worth. We have IQ test but it only measures the intelligence quotient of a person.
Maybe this is a good thing that there is no one single measurement that measures a person fully. This simply supports the idea that we can be so worthwhile ourselves that we "are powerful beyond measure". (Please allow me to quote from the words of Marianne Williamson.)
Meantime, I suppose I could acknowledge limitations in all measurements out there in the physical world. If some measurements seem to be inaccurate in reflecting our true performances and worth, it is a suggestion that we need to bring this inaccuracy to attention. But at the end of the day, maybe it is how we each define ourselves that is most important?
Just some thinking aloud. It is not that I received a very bad appraisal, but yours truly just needed to express my ideas about measurements.
3 comments:
i used to work in a statutary board, ie. to say there are hundreds, if not, thousands of staff in my dept alone. a real-life experience i had, my appraisal officer, who worked closely with me, did a "good" one on me, the director right on top did an "ok" one, i deemed it unfair, went to the appraisal officer, who thought so too, got back to the director, who then understood, and changed his decision on the "ok".
btw, i am a nice person! haha. thought i should say that!
the point is, appraisals can be sometimes not constructive, when allowed the chance! ;p
sorry i meandered. i think it is difficult to have a comprehensive assessment. firstly, it is a "human" who does the appraisals, and he comes with emotions. which means there will an element of inaccuracy because of his own fluctuating emotions at the moment of assessment.
it also cannot be handled by a robot, because you need emotions to assess a person!
sorry for messing this blog. i am a human!
Hi Mistipurple, thanks for sharing.
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