More than a living

If you work in the corporate world, you’re likely starting to feel a little prickly sensation on the back of your neck. And that’s because, after reading that headline up there, you’re beginning to think about the ominous–not to mention foreboding–”annual performance review.”
As an employee, you’re now beginning to scramble. Trying to remind your managers […]

Mike Rogoway of the Oregonian writes today about the employee evaluation process at Intel, a Portland area employer of some 16,000 in the area alone. These evaluations, or Focals, drive reward and punishment at the area employer. Bonuses to probation, depending on your performance in recent months.
Rick Brumble, a former business analyst at Intel who […]

Here is a new “performance review hard luck story” for the files, courtesy of JoJo’s World:
During my stay here for 2.5 months, my supervisor kept on changing. My leave approval and performance assessment is done by different bosses and the boss who I report to on daily work was not the one who gave me […]

As I was doing a little Kumquat research, I just happened to stumble upon this article, entitled “How to write a better performance review.”
It’s nearly a decade old.
The problem? It still smells as fresh as a daisy in terms of its guidance. Many of the tips still aren’t part and parcel of training people to […]

Any time is a good time for feedback. So, Amy, Toby, and Rick were wondering how you felt about our performance.
Any input is great, but you can also feel free to drop that feedback into these buckets:

The Good
What are we doing well?
The Bad
What could we be doing better?
The Ugly
Where are we really screwing up?

Positives, negatives, […]

Firing an employee is a sensitive thing. You don’t actually hear about a lot of people getting fired these days — layoffs, “RIFs” and other corporate double-speak for letting people go is more typical. Actually firing a person is (in my experience anyway) pretty rare and usually only done in serious circumstances.
Well, except at Apple.
An […]

I love flying. If only because it let’s me catch up on all the reading I’ve been meaning to do.
As per Amy’s “Assholes 101” post, I’ve been stuck trying to finish The No Asshole Rule: Building a Civilized Workplace and Surviving One That Isn’t by Bob Sutton.
Last time I was talking to her about it, […]

Everybody loves positive feedback.
But, sometimes, positive isn’t necessarily honest. Or it’s honest, by simply dodging the real issues.
Q: How did I do on my project?
A: Have you been working out? You look great!
Lifehacker points us (”Learn the truth about yourself by conducting an online survey“) to one potential answer: an insightful post by Roman Rytov, […]

If I’ve said it once, I’ve said it a million times: You need to be reading David Maister’s blog. It always gets me thinking. And, quite often, he hits on a topic that causes the folks here to descend upon his site like vultures. Only nice vultures. If there is such a thing. What’s an […]

In terms of performance reviews, would you prefer:

More reviews of your performance with more qualitative feedback?
More reviews of your performance with more quantitative feedback?
Any performance review with honest critical feedback, constructive or otherwise?
All of the above?
None of the above?

P.S. If anyone picks 5, I will cry. I’m not ashamed.