W*rk Meeting - This year's achievements & 5 year personal development plan discussion

[ghandi]

W*rk Meeting - This year's achievements & 5 year personal development plan discussion

Yesterday I met with the b*ss to discuss this year's achievements & 5 my year personal development plan. In preparation for the meeting I emailed my boss the following.

Achievement 1
blah, blah, blah...

Achievement 2
blah, blah, blah...

Achievement 3
blah, blah, blah...

5 year personal development plan
Sabbatical - Sailing in the Bahamas

Boss asked me what I was going to do after the sabbatical. I told the b*ss I was not sure, but I plan to figure that out during the sabbatical i.e, ER...

 

[target2019]

Boss asked me what I was going to do after the sabbatical. I told the b*ss I was not sure, but I plan to figure that out during the sabbatical i.e, ER...

I so do not miss that load of horse pooh...
I may have another boss at some point, but there will not be a review.

 

[MRG]

Most manager's hate those as much as their employees do.

How long is your sabatical? Enjoy.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337 using Early Retirement Forum mobile app

 

[Meadbh]

When I was in a career path where I was doing well and felt relatively secure, I used performance reviews to state my personal goals, e.g. "Within 1 year I will be using my XYZ skills in a leadership capacity"; "Within 2 years my income will be at least $X"; "Within 3 years I will be financially independent", etc. Of course I did outline some of the things I knew they wanted and needed. But I was not taken for granted in that job.

In these performance reviews employers are looking for "buy-in" to the corporate vision, mission and strategy. They need to understand that employees have vision, mission and strategy too. As for the XYZ skills, I told them quite clearly: "Use it or lose it". They used it.

 

[SumDay]

I am ~1100 days until retirement, and these yearly reviews give me great angst. About 2 years ago I flatly stated I have no desire for growth, development of new skills, etc., basically: I like my job now, let me do it well and leave me alone. Still got a small raise and really nice bonus, so I think I'll try it again this year. My boss is 20 years younger than me, so I think it's a tough concept to grasp.

 

[travelover]

My biggest laugh was my final performance review just a few weeks before hundreds of us were leaving with early out offers. Yea, right, sure - improve this, improve that, six sigma, blah, blah, blah.........

 

[GalaxyBoy]

I am ~1100 days until retirement, and these yearly reviews give me great angst. About 2 years ago I flatly stated I have no desire for growth, development of new skills, etc., basically: I like my job now, let me do it well and leave me alone. Still got a small raise and really nice bonus, so I think I'll try it again this year. My boss is 20 years younger than me, so I think it's a tough concept to grasp.

+1

This is worth re-posting a link to:

"Bull****" Is One Word, "Performance Review" Two

 

[RockyMtn]

I always thought that giving and getting reviews was a colossal waste of time!

 

[W2R]

I so do not miss that load of horse pooh...

Me either! No more of that baloney. I must admit that I don't miss it one bit. I felt like I was being treated as a child, when asked to submit achievements or complete a five year plan. It's a not-so-subtle put down for an extremely competent person excelling at work in every way, to have to stop doing anything productive and instead spend time self-justifying in this way, IMO.

I am in my 6th year of retirement now, and STILL haven't left the "honeymoon period". Each and every morning when I awaken I am simply so overjoyed to think that I do not need to head off to work. I know that some have a difficult adjustment period but for me retirement has been a dream come true.

 

[Ronstar]

I don't miss it either. I always had to do proforma income projections on purchases, and had to do an extensive transition plan document about 2 years before I retired. I hated paperwork - time cards, helping bookkeeper with billing, meeting agendas, minutes,project plans, etc

 

[MRG]

Given our goals were due after the merit increase was decided, everyone knew they were a useless exercise. For entry level people there could be value in helping them see the bigger picture.

I became totaly fed up with the merit raise process. Managers were given a buget and guidelines, compensation or the VP would sometimes ask for explanations, but it was thought the people working closest to the employee knew their value the best.

Then my last year as a manager I put in their numbers, but a surprise committee of the director and his trusted friends adjusted the compensation. I had the privilege of giving one guy the director didn't like a 25 cent monthly raise, no crap $3.00 a year! Luckily for me he really took it well, we just laughed together. He had a good year, but got hosed. Funny he retired 1.5 years later, age 55.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337 using Early Retirement Forum mobile app

 

[Dash man]

I felt sorry for my last manager, because everything was so automated that he still had to meet with me to give my review a week before I retired. On my last day I turned in my laptop and was pretty much done when he called and said we had forgotten to complete the goals section. It was an option to waive the goals, but that box still had to be checked before the system would show my annual review complete. I could tell he felt bad having to ask me to do this, so I tried to use another employee's laptop to log in and complete the online form, but they had already deactivated my account. One of his mandated goals is to complete all reviews by a certain date, and I never did find out if he figured out a way to get that box checked in my record.

 

[jabbahop]

I will be letting my boss know I am retiring @ my upcoming review this week. I am really looking forward to the feedback, see if I get a small raise, a bonus, and goals for next year. Then I say "thank you - I am retiring"

 

[travelover]

I will be letting my boss know I am retiring @ my upcoming review this week. I am really looking forward to the feedback, see if I get a small raise, a bonus, and goals for next year. Then I say "thank you - I am retiring"

I think the consensus here is to to be nice and don't burn any bridges, no matter how tempted you might be. It is amazing how fast you quit caring once you walk out that door.

 

[38Chevy454]

I have the same problem, corp BS where the high level goals flow down through the levels and my performance summary is supposed to support those. Well, as we all know, s#!t rolls downhill, and that is how I feel about my goals supporting the higher level corp goals. The only good thing is I am now able to just let it go and not get worked up about it. Just need to survive approx OMY - then freedom awaits.

 

[foxfirev5]

I rarely have contact with my boss, so the annual review is kind of a catchall. The last few years there has been no chance of a raise due to being at the "top of the range". Some small talk, you're doing a good job, highly valued etc and it's over in 10 minutes. The personal development and career path sections have gone blank as well. Next months review could be interesting as I've been pushing issues and speaking out far more than even I thought possible. Everybody knows I'm ready to go, so even these moments are failing to humor me.

Perhaps this will be the year I'll get the pewter handshake and be shown the door. However the window of opportunity is closing since I believe I would need to be placed on an improvement plan before firing. Alas, there goes any chance of a severance package.

In any event this will be my last chance at an annual review.

 

[MRG]

I think the consensus here is to to be nice and don't burn any bridges, no matter how tempted you might be. It is amazing how fast you quit caring once you walk out that door.

+1
Technically I could have resigned to myself, as my manager was out and I was his stand in. I chose to sit with our VP instead. Never raised any bs, just retiring because I don't need to work any longer. He was surprised, asked how we acomplished FI. I did ask about how termination worked due to retirement, he didn't know as nobody had ever retired in his area before.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337 using Early Retirement Forum mobile app

 

[Beldar]

However the window of opportunity is closing since I believe I would need to be placed on an improvement plan before firing. Alas, there goes any chance of a severance package.

In any event this will be my last chance at an annual review.

A co-conspirator & I at work are in the same situation. We both take care to conceal our RE intentions for this year in fear of the backlash, yet worship (to no avail) the Aqua-Buddha for divine intervention in the form of a PIP (Personal Improvement Plan) which can be sabotaged to our severance package delight.

But we're both historically strong performers so any slacking off would be seen to be what it is. Plus, at least for me, it would be unethical (yes, I do have ethics).

So, one last performance review, an exercise in futility.

_B

 

[Walt34]

We did have at least one guy who on the line "What are your plans for next year?" wrote "Retire!" But in that place it would not bring any repercussions to do that.

 

[jcretire77]

An employee and myself talk quite openly that we have a year or less to go. I think that we are both hoping to be let go (severance). He's a great employee and does a ton that would take me twice as long to do, so I want to go first!

As a supervisor I think that the yearly performance reviews are a waste of everyone's time. We are all senior, exempt system admins who know our jobs. We have to come up with yearly performance and development goals. I like SumDay's response, I'm happy where I am . . . leave me alone.

 

[grasshopper]

I had to tell the powers that be a little early that I was on the way out, when they offered me a "new and better" position in the company. Since it was only 1 month before I was going to give them 2 months notice if I was asked to pack it up no biggie. Turns out I was on board another month longer because of a COBRA gotya.

 

[davemartin88]

I don't miss giving reviews or getting them. My main issue was the "forced" distributions of ratings you had to meet as part of the process. My last review was only about a week before I retired/took a package. I did make sure my boss was in the loop early enough not to "waste" a high rating on me that he could give to someone staying so they could get a better raise, etc. He used my offer in my review as an example of how I was willing to help others, lol.

 

[Totoro]

I always thought that giving and getting reviews was a colossal waste of time!

It depends.

If you want to improve and learn, and the person giving the review actually is qualified and wants to help you, then such a system is really valuable. Sadly, those conditions are rarely all satisfied ..

I had my share of reviews, and some of them really changed my life for the better over the longer run. Some of them were indeed a colossal waste of time!

 

[scrabbler1]

I never thought much of performance reviews. I remember back in the early 1990s, I didn't get a promotion to supervisor I really wanted one year. I got Shang-haied on the performance review. A year later, I finally got the promotion and all the things they said the year before I wasn't doing (or doing badly) suddenly disappeared even though I wasn't really doing anything any differently. It reminded me of that old magician's trick of putting something in his closed hand, then saying he'll make it disappear. Then, without showing you that is has disappeared, will say, "Now, for my next trick, I will make the item return to my hand." He then opens his hand and shows you the same item (which never left, of course).


I didn't mind as much giving performance reviews, especially for newer employees whose first few years were the key, formative ones. But it was the constant wordsmithing or re-editing of them by my superiors which drove me crazy (and one time was part of the aforementioned Shang-hai in my own review).


When I switched to working part-time, I was very glad to have performance reviews removed from my workload, though. And when I reduced my weekly hours worked from 20 to 12 in my final 17 months, I didn't even get a performance review which was just fine. I was working on only 1 main project so what was the point? They just told me my raise and bonus and that was it. Took me 23 years to finally get my ideal performance review LOL!

 

[CRLLS]

I so do not miss this BS at all! In a good working relationship between boss and employee, they are constantly in touch with each other and they both know throughout the year how they are both doing and where improvements need to be made. It doesn't take a annual document to know where you stand. Annual reviews are way to far apart to be constructive in any way. The review documents are just a method of identifying the "Bottom 10" for Corporate downsizing time.


I once had a boss who was a great guy. In our reviews, we were graded 1-5 in about 20 different categories, technical ability, timeliness of projects, how we worked with others both in and outside our dept's , how we managed our reports etc, the usual corporate BS. I got a bunch of 5's and a few 4's. I played the good employee and asked how I might improve the 4's into 5's in the upcoming year. He said he had to give a few 4's so his boss knew he was doing his job. There was no specific thing to improve. So I said why not just write that down. We both just laughed.


I had another boss who was about 2 months delinquent on performing his review on me. Late reviews were normal for the company, But 2 months was really late. During that delay, some HR brain-fart decided the company would go thru reverse reviews. Where some of the reports reviewed their bosses. These had to be returned by a certain date. I never completed mine. My boss was being pressured to have his reports complete their reviews on him. He came to me and asked why I hadn't completed mine yet and told me to complete it by Friday. I told him that I would turn mine in when he completed his review on me. I'm not sure how long it was after that I got my review, something like 3 weeks. Then he got HIS!