That’s pretty much what I took out of my yearly review. She’s efficient and does great work, but she didn’t smile while she did it. I feel like I’m back in grade school with high grades in my subjects, but a C in Conduct with the note “Apathetic and indifferent” as an explanation.
We’re allowed to make comments on our assessment and I’m considering taking that option this year.
I do not dispute the assessment, although I feel that 2009 was filled with mixed messages as far as corporate direction in general was concerned. The year was trying and a lot was asked of everyone.
2009 saw the following changes for my team from 2008:
* 33% increase in team output (workload)
* 60% decrease in headcount
* 18% improvement in accuracyThose positive numbers came at the cost of time that would have been spent previously giving attention to individual (teams & employees). The majority of our increased workload was not planned work and instead came as urgent, last minute requests. My best work is done when I am allowed to strategically plan what is expected across my team. When the only available forecast is that our next request will come to my team with an already past due date, it is hard to generate the extra-extra effort needed to smile while at the same time trying to make up for someone else’s lateness. It is difficult to be asked to work harder for the bottom line, only to deliver as requested and be judged negatively for putting results in front of a soft personal approach.