Royal Travels News

Seek more work in time, avoid bad review

Reviews are a way of life in the present day corporate set up. Like it or hate it, there is no escape. If one can take a careful look at it, the performance evaluation system does more good to the employee than it does to the company.

Every aspect of performance is divided into KRAs and each of it is given points or weight. The more you achieve, the more points you gain and consequently on the total score you are given a raise.

Though there can be a debate on the evaluation system, saying it may be arbitrary on the part of the manager and not totally justified, nevertheless the PMS has been accepted with some variations in organisations of all sizes.

Most of the employees in an organisation look forward to this periodic ritual eagerly. This is a time to showcase one's contribution to the team's performance and organisation's success.

Every review will point to high, average and low performers. Each category gets what the management thinks it deserves in terms of the bounty.

While the first two categories may remain satisfied with the appraisals, there will be those who feel that they have done all possible but the review has been unfair.

When anyone faces this problem, the agony one undergoes is understandable. There is a sense of humiliation. People feel belittled and let down among peers. There will be a rising of bitterness and that leads to the adopting of various methods to defend one's prestige that one perceives is lost.

Take the case of Mr G. For the last four years, from day one he got exceptional reviews, which led to hefty hikes. He was counted among the star performers and won appreciation at many meetings.

In the fifth year just after the downturn, the review reflected that Mr. G was slacking and basking in his old glory. As the company hit a low spot in the overall performance in the market, the reviews were fine-tuned to analyse each employee's contribution to achieving company goals.

The review found that though Mr. G's team lost a major contract more than a year ago, he was valued as a high performer and still got top ratings so that he may be motivated to take on additional responsibility and contribute more in areas where the company had ongoing projects.

If a project is put on hold or is completely shelved, the employee must immediately ask his manager what the repercussions will be. He must make it clear to the manager that because of the fact, he will be left with so much time on hand and he is willing to take up other tasks. He can even request the manager to loan him to another department, where there is a shortage or resources.

Alternately the employee can initiate skill-sharing programmes that would help train the junior members in the team to upgrade their skills.

It was also found out in the review that Mr. G did not accept training for upgrading his skill sets, which would help him to take up other critical tasks in the project. The excuse he gave was that he did not have time for that as he was doing an important assignment.

As the review was negative the management immediately took measures to load Mr. G with additional tasks. He was asked to share a part of the project work from another of the teams to fill gaps in his time sheets. He was told to find time to upgrade his skills so that he could undertake other roles.

Mr. G could not stand this reordering of his role, tasks, assignments and responsibilities. He did not want to share work in different teams. Faced with no option, he put in his papers.

Bad reviews cannot be avoided all through in one's career. But after it one should learn lessons from what went wrong, the steps to take in future to avoid such bad rating.

One golden rule to follow when you have more time and less work, make it a point to pester your manager to give you more work. Managers will not calculate your time and work details on a weekly basis once you perform your allotted tasks.

Only during the review this may be held against you. So be bold ask for more work in time!

K.V. Rajasekher

Royal Travels News