My supervisor finally gave me the yearly review. That’s good, considering it should have been done six months ago.
But the supervisors are busy, so that’s okay. Plus, as long as I still have a job, I figure I’m doing my job well enough.
Like they say, “pay me enough not to quit, and I’ll do just enough to not get fired.”
I was given high marks for “interpersonal interaction.” The review comments said “interacts well with customers and patients, and is always professional.”
I guess calling people stupid and ignoring people with anxiety attacks is doing things right.
Or my review was mixed up one belonging to someone else.
I think I’ll try hard this year to do even better, and get even higher marks for my next review.
I’ll give that 6 weeks. Tops.
You wrote this one a little lightly but really, evaluations are a big deal and they’re taken quite too casually by both those who administer them and those who receive them. Having been a manager at varying levels for close onto 30 years, I have found that most supervisors/managers are simply put into the job because they do their job well – or if not well at least manage to kiss the rear ends of the decisions makers with some finesse.
But as Fournies points out, managing workers is as different from being a worker in a particular business as flying a plane is from being a flight attendant. And the fact is that most managers are never actually trained in management, nor do they even understand the need. Company CEO’s send these people to little management classes in order to establish a resume in case of lawsuits but often these courses do not provide much real management training.
My late father was a manager for many years for a major corporation, had a degree in management and was at one time a college professor teaching management classes, so I grew up hearing management principle discussed as applied to all sorts of things from schoolwork to Boy Scouts. My degree includes a significant management component.
But back to evaluations. Evaluations are throwaways – just a nuisance – for most supervisors/managers and for employees. But if there is a lawsuit, if there is an “employee action” brought, or God forbid a criminal action, then that nuisance may become very important. How many times have you heard that a worker was fired for something that had allegedly been going on for a while, only to assert in an action that he had good evaluations the entire time.
An example: in our evaluation process where I work now, the classifications include “Exceeds Expectations.” What does this mean? Every year, I am marked “Exceeds Expectations” in all categories. What does this mean? First of all, I never change anything about what I do and how I do it with respect to how I conduct myself and do my job. Does she actually never expects that of me after all these years? She knows exactly what I am going to do. So I’m not exceeding anything.
Or does it mean that I’m exceeding the expectations she has for paramedics in general? If so, her expectations are low because I simply do my job, show up on time, obey the rules and follow the policies of the organization. Does that mean that she doesn’t expect people to do the same? Perhaps that’s why most people at our organization don’t do those things – it’s not expected of them.
One of the real problems is that supervisors often do not supervise, at least in EMS. They’re not around when we do what we do. So they can only evaluation based on impressions and a desire not to engage in conflict. CCC indicates some surprise at his high marks for “interpersonal interaction.” That’s because he knows how he is in certain situations – and we do too because he’s told us about it here – and doesn’t think that he is quite the paragon that his supervisor has declared him to be.
Here’s the main point: in the future, if he is called to task for a bad interpersonal interaction, he can point to his evaluation and say, “Yes, but this was just that one time, and usually I’m really good with that. See my evaluation.”
Perhaps the bar is set a little low at your job, and you, by doing what you do, exceed the expectations of management there? But you alluded to that already.
You are otherwise right. I have gone days without seeing a supervisor at work. The rare occasion when I do see one is when I need to replace critically low supplies, and even then it is usually a supply technician that I see. What is sad is that anyone could do that supervisor’s job. Really. You could change the name, title, whatever you want, and nothing would change.
Apologies for the typos above. I awoke early this morning and the caffeine has not yet taken effect. But you get the points, I’m sure.