30th Sep 2006
Ms. Theologian Evaluates Herself
Dear Ms. Theologian,
It’s time for annual performance reviews and self evaluations and it’s making me feel completely inadequate. All I can think about is the negatives and what a horrible manager I am. It doesn’t help that the corporate language involves war metaphors and quite frankly is full of unmitigated bullshit. That just makes me feel like it’s all pointless anyway, giving an honest eval, that is.
I guess my question is, what can I take out of this spiritually, and how can I get to a place where I can give an honest assessment of my work and others?
Signed,
Not sure what “Develop bench strength in 6 key practice areas” even means
Dear Not Sure,
First, Ms. Theologian isn’t sure what bench strength is. She has found whenever she asks what a term like Bench Strength means she gets her butt kicked by an amorphous answer and a Aren’t You Kinda Dumb look.
Second, self-evaluation and evaluation by others can be a valuable process. However, self-evaluation and evaluation by others in a corporate structure where your career and raise depend on it is not as valuable. It’s a game, especially when your evaluations control raises and there’s only a certain amount of money to go around.
Here is the secret to surviving the process and not having your soul eaten by a corporation: act with compassion and grace toward others AND toward yourself while evaluating. I think if you can behave this way, you will feel as if you will survive the workplace spiritually.
–Ms. Theologian
If you would like to write to Ms. Theologian, send your question about a work related problem to ms dot theologian at gmail dot com
