Annual Performance Review

[Romer]

This time of year was always the racking and stacking of employees against quotas that they said were only guidelines. Right. Giving the reviews to employees in Feb and the hardest ones were for those you thought earned a higher rating but were knocked down due to the racking and stacking process against your objections.

As far as retirement, we are good financially, have planned 3 trips for next year, grandkids are awesome and both still in good health

Most importantly we are on the right side of the grass. We recently went to a funeral and I walked over to see were the plots we bought were. I told my wife to take a picture as I laid down so I could post it with the caption ;"still on the right side of the grass". She was not pleased and refused saying it was highly inappropriate. Oh well

 

[Lsbcal]

This time of year was always the racking and stacking of employees against quotas that they said were only guidelines. Right. Giving the reviews to employees in Feb and the hardest ones were for those you thought earned a higher rating but were knocked down due to the racking and stacking process against your objections.

As far as retirement, we are good financially, have planned 3 trips for next year, grandkids are awesome and both still in good health

Most importantly we are on the right side of the grass. We recently went to a funeral and I walked over to see were the plots we bought were. I told my wife to take a picture as I laid down so I could post it with the caption ;"still on the right side of the grass". She was not pleased and refused saying it was highly inappropriate. Oh well

All kinds of thoughts came to me when I read the quote. Like: What? Oh I see. Hmmm...could be the sunny side or the top side or does grass grow down too? Also .... one could be dead and still on the right side of the grass (in an urn for instance, or sprinkled about in a favorite place). Clearly you married a wife with good sense.

 

[PokeNTexas]

I much prefer the Airing of Grievances followed by Feats of Strength.

 

[Walt34]

Most importantly we are on the right side of the grass. We recently went to a funeral and I walked over to see were the plots we bought were. I told my wife to take a picture as I laid down so I could post it with the caption ;"still on the right side of the grass". She was not pleased and refused saying it was highly inappropriate. Oh well

That sounds like DW's sister, or at least her cousin. DW would be horrified if I were to suggest such a thing. I kind of like the idea so next time I'll bring a camera, a tripod, and a remote control for the shutter. She won't have to know.

 

[GhostofTomJoad]

Up a fraction from previous all-time high, which was at the end of '21 and early-early in '22. It was all downhill from there, until November of this year! (31 Dec. '23 today. Sunday.)

 

[HenryD]

I'm due for an employee review next month; after 15 years as a 1099. It's an odd feeling as my last one (different corp) was mid-career. This time I decided to answer the "where do you want to be in 5 years?" prep question semi-honestly: "doing basically the same thing or retired". My date is 12/31/25. It's not like they don't know where my head is at; it's a small company. I think I'm going to just have to answer "retired" next year, and maybe use that as the time to give them a firm date.

 

[The Cosmic Avenger]

I am in the office today to see a long-time coworker and friend, and I just said to them that I might retire just before my next review just to avoid having to do another one!

 

[Koolau]

I am in the office today to see a long-time coworker and friend, and I just said to them that I might retire just before my next review just to avoid having to do another one!

Heh, heh, that wasn't my actual reason for retiring early, but it was a fringe benefit of the date I chose. Megacorp had just come out with new and improved (for Megacorp) guidelines on salary vs. performance. No idea where I would have fallen, but, in essence, they were taking away the bonus of the bottom x% of performers. Unlikely I would have been in "X" but I just didn't like the idea of it.

But, as told before, I just didn't want the new assignment I'd been handed and quit the next week. Sweet - though YMMV.

 

[snappytom]

This time of year was always the racking and stacking of employees against quotas that they said were only guidelines. Right. Giving the reviews to employees in Feb and the hardest ones were for those you thought earned a higher rating but were knocked down due to the racking and stacking process against your objections.

.....................

Been retired now for 18 months. As a manager I did reviews at mega corp (IT) for 20 years and absolutely hated it. Nobody wants a bad review but with forced distributions (rank 1, 2, 3 spread across 20% 70% 10% of the population) somebody was always going under the wheels of the bus.

It was a lot easier if someone was truly deserving a low ranking and you had the data to support it.
For a while the managers had the ability to trade rankings as long as the distribution held across the division, that made for some interesting meetings and deals.

I was always glad when it was done but immediately dreaded the next cycle. Thankfully I do not think about it much anymore.

 

[Texas Proud]

I always hated that you had to rate someone 'bad'... The times I was a manager i only had a couple of people who were not doing the job I wanted them to do... one was a temp and he came on just before me going on vacation... when I got back I was overwhelmed with comments from everybody else... I said I need to see for myself... it took two days but then told the guy before noon that he needed to leave now... but I would pay him for the full day... I did not keep people who could not do the job...

 

[CO-guy]

I am in the office today to see a long-time coworker and friend, and I just said to them that I might retire just before my next review just to avoid having to do another one!

During my final two years at the "Dumpster Fire" I refused to participate in the annual review process. My new manager was someone that I had previously complained about to Dumpster Fire Management (DFM). When the review reminders went out, I forwarded it to DFM with a short, polite message that I wouldn't be participating. It took DFM several months to respond, several more weeks to meet with me to hear my concern, and then several more months for DFM to meet with HR and legal to figure out what to do. By that point, the year was over and so I sent a second short, polite message along the lines of, "hopefully you'll figure out a solution for next year." IIRC, that next year DFM was going to try to find another manager to review my performance, but the conversation shifted when I resigned.

One of my close friends has to complete around 20-25 of them every six months. He just has ChatGPT write them.

 

[Bryan Barnfellow]

I always hated fighting with the VP Finance about things like awarding a staff member a 4.12% raise vs. 4.20% raise, based on completed performance reviews. I don't miss those days!

 

[CO-guy]

I always hated fighting with the VP Finance about things like awarding a staff member a 4.12% raise vs. 4.20% raise, based on completed performance reviews. I don't miss those days!

And therein lies the reason I didn't bother submitting a performance review. In over 15 years at the Dumpster Fire, raises (performance based or otherwise) were provided less than half of the time. Even when they were provided, they were always below any recommended COLA. So a range 0.0%-2.0% with a median raise of 0.0% for almost two decades.

 

[MichaelB]

This thread title gives me the willies.

 

[REWahoo]

This thread title gives me the willies.

I've only read the thread title and your post, which is already more time than I want to spend on this subject!