Evaluations

I'm beginning the process of evaluating the staff I supervise. I always hate this time of year.

I don't hate giving feedback. I don't even hate giving negative feedback (though positive feels so much better). What I hate is how disconnected our evaluative process is from the actual work we do and how well we do it. The SRDP form makes very little sense because it isn't tied at all to the job description and expectations. And most managers don't take advantage of the opportunity they have to really give employees feedback that is useful and can help make the upcoming year successful for everyone anyway. It's a chore to be done, a necessary evil. If we didn't do evaluations, how would we know who deserves more money? Not that the raises are actually well connected to the score employees get on their SRDP, but it's the illusion that counts, right?

This year we have the extra bonus of knowing that there will be no salary increase. Not that PSU's wonderful habit of giving employees a small percentage increase every year is really enough to spur workers to do excellent work. Since the exceptional don't get much more than the average, it isn't a motivator, but knowing that there is no raise at all this year has made a lot of people question why we even have to do it.  The evaluation itself isn't valuable on its own. Feedback isn't what the process is good for. All that matters is the raise that comes in July, and by that time, people have long since forgotten the things their supervisors said to them about their work.

It's really not a surprise to me that for most staff, the SRDP is useless.