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Performance Appraisal
April is performance appraisal season for the public service and, every year, many will ask why.
“Why did I not get a good performance grade?”
“Why was I not promoted?”
“Why was so-and-so promoted and not me?”
In their efforts to justify what happened, the inevitable bogyman will appear. The system is flawed. My boss is biased. So-and-so was a bootlicker. These are all common refrains. Unfortunately, in none of these justifications is it ever our own fault.
While I will not claim that the appraisal system is perfect and bosses are not human (and hence not subject to bias and favoritism), I however believe that such externalization is not helpful. This is because externalizing the “problem” puts the solution — and the responsibility for solving it — on something or someone else. When you do that, you become a helpless victim.
So, I urge those who did not do as well as you think you deserve, to spend a day or two to lick your wounds (as you are only human) and then reflect on what you need to do next year. If you think someone undeserving got the promotion or ranked better: (a) suspend judgment and consider the possibility that you may not be as good as you think you are…
