Tap - yep.  sometimes I have tried to "not do" those things that no one else will do and see what happens.

I always end up doing them out of frustration when no one else picks up the hint that they're not getting done.
 
 
...and then those things are way behind getting done and I'm late doing them! 

I think I was the one at the bottom of the tree cleaning up. Imagine the view from down there

Great rant, Beag... I wish I had come up with this one.

I am unfortunate to have the same situation, but blessed to have a manager who realizes it's all a crock, values my niche expertise, knows full well that I'm a bit crazy and would like very much not to see me retire.  So, this year (2011) I decided to veer a bit further off the beaten path with my objectives, and I swear to you that the following is a copy and paste of my objective #6-

Get excessed with a good severance package?????? :-) Seriously, I'm out of

objectives... wait, I know- live up to the TRI trust principles. That will work, right?

My objectives were approved by my manager (bless his heart) as written.  BTW- TRI is my company's stock symbol.

So, while the whole process is ridiculous, I am a really lucky guy to have Bill as my manager.

spacey

Tap


I think I was the one at the bottom of the tree cleaning up. Imagine the view from down there

The good side to that is...the tree is only so tall and when one is climbing it may be good to know...
it goes something like...up and out. Low and to the side may be a very good place for the long haul.

Of course that view is why we all think that the people above us are as......  Well, you know.

Beagle

philz


Great rant, Beag... I wish I had come up with this one.

I am unfortunate to have the same situation, but blessed to have a manager who realizes it's all a crock, values my niche expertise, knows full well that I'm a bit crazy and would like very much not to see me retire.  So, this year (2011) I decided to veer a bit further off the beaten path with my objectives, and I swear to you that the following is a copy and paste of my objective #6-

Get excessed with a good severance package?????? :-) Seriously, I'm out of

objectives... wait, I know- live up to the TRI trust principles. That will work, right?

My objectives were approved by my manager (bless his heart) as written.  BTW- TRI is my company's stock symbol.

So, while the whole process is ridiculous, I am a really lucky guy to have Bill as my manager.

Bayou Bill???

Naw, I'm not that lucky.  We'd be jammin' all the time.

Beagle

spacey


Beagle if it's the same for us, it goes something like;

You spend hours on the computer doing your monthly safety test.
You spend hours doing a lesson about ethics. (because your company did something
illegal and the courts made them incorporate it)
Then you spend time trying to think of BS to put in the little boxes
explaining yourself.
And you try to get this out of the way so you can go help everybody
else that have lost their passwords or don't know where to go and sign-in
or help them complete all of them because.....well....they're lucky to find
their way to work and you don't want them to lose their jobs...especially
since your doing the job of the last three that were run off.

Then when it's all done you can sit back until next month when you
have to do it all again.

I know why are country doesn't have a national health care system.
If we did everybody would quit their jobs!

are you sure you don't work for the same company I do?
 
but don't forget to add:  Diversity Training.  just as mandatory as "ethics" is.

Why, Brother Beagle, didn't you know that there is more than one gender, we're not all a product of the same ethnosocioeconomic matrix, but noticing that someone is different from you is the one greatest sin against humankind?  <pause for a good retch>


Those "write your own eval" things are considered pretty sexy right now across the board - I think they're based on some social engineering theory about giving people "ownership" in what they do in the hopes they'll be more productive.

Yep... people have attempted to indoctrinate me. 



Mostly it just made me more cynical.

You may think I am mad but there is another way to look at it. Firstly you should be in the job you love and absolutely love. If you are not, you are simply in the wrong job. That is big problem for some. If you are in a job you do not like you only have yourself to blame for that situation. You can change it.

These performance evaluations/ predictions should be something you do for yourself in life anyway and in a way when a boss gets you to do them they can be viewed as something you should be doing for yourself. And not just job performance but everything in life performance.

Have you got a plan. Where do you see yourself in a year, five years from now. Are you getting there, are you achieving it? You can. The power to do anything is all within your own mind. You just have to change your thinking and it will happen.

Read the book 'The Power of the Subconscious Mind' by Joseph Murphy and not only read it but put all the stuff in that book into practice. Let's suppose you are happy in your job but maybe not meeting your performance objectives. And performance objectives should come from within yourself, not your boss. Your boss should not even have to do it. It is simply a hint to do it yourself. With the right programming of your mind you can achieve and go well beyond anything you ever dreamed of. You just have to believe it and start.

While you are sending negative messages to yourself and programming your subconscious mind the wrong way, it will never happen for you and you will go nowhere. Your subconscious mind does not argue with you. It accepts whatever you tell it and think to be true and it will make that exist in your outer world.

If you imagine yourself and visualise yourself doing what the ultimate thing is for you everyday and think about it everyday it will happen. And that can be doing our own thing and being paid lots for it or being very successful in your job.

You are what you think all day long.

Jeff, thanks for the words of encouragement, but that's really the farthest thing from what this rant is about.  I love my job!  I went back to school after I got married and had an immediate family and endured 6 years to finish (part time for the first 2) and finally got my BSEE and have been working at the same location since graduation.  I was 36 when I graduated college.  My employer comensates me well for my job and I am satisfied with the tasks I have been given and I feel I have done them well.

this is not about me being disgruntled with my job at all.  recording my own performance objectives and evaluating them is only 1 small aspect of my job.  it takes about 2 hours out of my ~2000 hours that I work each year to do., so that's only .1% of my time each year.  big deal.

it's the whole principal of the REASON I am required to perform this.  I think it's a way for management to show that they have checked off a task on their agendas so THEY can say they have met THEIR objectives.  and the icing on the cake is that none of them will ever read my objectives or evaluations.  that really makes this task completely inane.  if it's not read by anyone except my immediate manager and HE doesn't need to read it to know how to evaluate my raises or benefits then what value does it add to my job?  absolutely none.  that's my point.  and I am afraid you missed it.

yes, I can look at it like a positive thing - a way to offer affirmations to myself.  but I don't need a form on a computer somewhere that no one else will read to affirm myself!  I could just as easily write affirmations down in a notebook that I use every day at work and get much more benefit from it than I do from these ridiculous performance objectives.

Beagle


Jeff, thanks for the words of encouragement, but that's really the farthest thing from what this rant is about.  I love my job!  I went back to school after I got married and had an immediate family and endured 6 years to finish (part time for the first 2) and finally got my BSEE and have been working at the same location since graduation.  I was 36 when I graduated college.  My employer comensates me well for my job and I am satisfied with the tasks I have been given and I feel I have done them well.

this is not about me being disgruntled with my job at all.  recording my own performance objectives and evaluating them is only 1 small aspect of my job.  it takes about 2 hours out of my ~2000 hours that I work each year to do., so that's only .1% of my time each year.  big deal.

it's the whole principal of the REASON I am required to perform this.  I think it's a way for management to show that they have checked off a task on their agendas so THEY can say they have met THEIR objectives.  and the icing on the cake is that none of them will ever read my objectives or evaluations.  that really makes this task completely inane.  if it's not read by anyone except my immediate manager and HE doesn't need to read it to know how to evaluate my raises or benefits then what value does it add to my job?  absolutely none.  that's my point.  and I am afraid you missed it.

yes, I can look at it like a positive thing - a way to offer affirmations to myself.  but I don't need a form on a computer somewhere that no one else will read to affirm myself!  I could just as easily write affirmations down in a notebook that I use every day at work and get much more benefit from it than I do from these ridiculous performance objectives.

Amen, brother Beagle... well put.

Jeff Evans


You are what you think all day long.

Hmm... Not sure about that one.  For example, I am NOT a tall, slim, yet shapely brunette with long hair and good looks who's easy going with a sense of humor (and I'm talking about the type that's a PhD with the glasses and the pony tail)!
 
 

Jonbouy

craigb

Jeff Evans


You are what you think all day long.

Hmm... Not sure about that one.  For example, I am NOT a tall, slim, yet shapely brunette with long hair and good looks who's easy going with a sense of humor (and I'm talking about the type that's a PhD with the glasses and the pony tail)!

I think about the exact same thing all day too.

I didn't want to mention it before in case it was just me.

just to clarify - you think about Craigb all day long being a tall slim, yet shapely brunette with long hair and and easy going sense of humor?
 
JB we need to talk about your prioities.......and (gulp) about your fantasies. 

It could easily seem like I have a bad attitude towards large corporations. I don't.
I have only an opinion based on the one I've worked for for twenty + years...happily.
Here is another example of work place crazy....and how employees are insulted.

I can't say exactly how many employees went to the classes but it was over 500.
The class was one eight hour day and each class had about 20 people attending.
This instrument has a one page instruction sheet in multiple languages about installing the
battery and holding it.



How many of those people attending that class would even need a vibration pen ?
If every person in the maint. and electrical departments only went to the class it would have
still been a waste to send them to a class. It takes 30 seconds to read the page and
how to use it. If those technicians can't do that then the company has been laying off the wrong
people while these were at the class.
Imagine how much the company spent on bringing that instructor in, the cost of the tool and
the production time of the employees.
And one must realize that now the employee may be well behind in their job duties and
it could take many hours or overtime for them to recover and hopefully not be ragged on by their
supervisor while doing so.

My opinion is that is just crazy but I went to the classes and I learned about the pen and about the
low probability of two people getting the same reading ( as it is pressure sensitive) and that I didn't
need one. All in the time that I enjoyed the provided breakfast and coffee. Then I spent the rest of
the day trying to stay awake while listening to a guy explain a one short paragraph on using the pen.

If I took the time to post here everything like this that goes on....folks here would track me down and
try to break my arms and fingers......or worse. ( and there is always the possibility that the instructor
is a member here. LOL  and is still laughing about how much money he made due to the fool at my
company that hired him)

Oh...No I did not take vibration readings of my PC, desk or chair. I did put it back in the box and try
to sell it.....but everybody already had one. Yes the company bought them for everybody.
No it doesn't make me hate my job Jeff. It does make me question the actions of others that I may
have to answer to and it sure can get testy working under somebody that proves to be a fool.

I apologize for the length of my posts, so this is the last. I also apologize for any in management
that I may have offended with my opinions but you may need to realize there are many ways to
achieve a 3.4 deviation  ( defects in a million) without the BS and insulting the employees.

yes, I can look at it like a positive thing - a way to offer affirmations to myself. but I don't need a form on a computer somewhere that no one else will read to affirm myself! I could just as easily write affirmations down in a notebook that I use every day at work and get much more benefit from it than I do from these ridiculous performance objectives.

 
Yeah, for me, it's the translation of positive and healthy goal setting and personal affirmation in to a stodgy bureaucratic process one is compelled to undertake with people one possibly doesn't trust / like.
 
Did none of these folk read Brave New World? Anytime a system becomes more important than the goal it was designed to serve you have a mechanism for oppression (regardless of how friendly it is or how right minded it's intention is). 
 
I understand the principal but find the practice to be lacking in this arena and I know very few people who find it to be done well and work right for them (when provided by an employer).
 
Child

Tap DENNIS: What I object to is you automatically treat me like an inferior! ARTHUR: Well, I AM king... DENNIS: Oh king, eh, very nice. An' how'd you get that, eh? By exploitin' the workers -- by 'angin' on to outdated imperialist dogma which perpetuates the economic an' social differences in our society! If there's ever going to be any progress--

Just cos some watery bint lobbed 'er scimitar at yer.........