Performance Evaluations, Rating Scales, and Fraud
By Michelle Malay Carter on September 15, 2008
Here is yet another real-life example of how performance evaluations can be a sham and?often do more harm than good.
The Background
My overqualified friend began a new job as a paralegal within a corporate law department several months ago.? Her manager was new to the corporate law environment as well, having come from a law firm.? We’ll call him Lawrence (get it?).
Oh, the Naivety – Welcome to Corporate Life
Lawrence diligently completed my friend’s 3 month review.??After reading?the meaning behind each rating, he rated each line item of my friend’s performance a 5 on a scale of 1-5 with?5 being the highest.
I’m OK.? You’re OK.? Let’s fix the system.
Next, the HR department diligently reviewed the evaluation and returned it to Lawrence, informing him that he would have to change the ratings because no one gets a review like this.
HR – Human Restrictions Department?
So, rather than having a conversation with Lawrence to determine whether the ratings were indeed legitimate, they instead essentially insisted that Lawrence commit fraud and skew his ratings to accommodate an unwritten rule in the system.
Remember, Lawrence is an attorney.? I suspect he’s come to this same conclusion.? I don’t suspect he’ll pursue this to the point where he’ll bite the hand that feeds him.?
Check Your Charater at the Door Please
This is just one more example of how we ask employees to “check their character at the door” in order to keep the peace within?our dysfunctional (and, in this case, illegal) workplace systems.? I’m OK.? You’re OK.? Let’s fix the system.?
Conflicts of Interest Abound
Why do we make our employees choose?? Why must they come home at night feeling like prostitutes?? Day after day, employees contort themselves to fit into broken systems, and they come home to their families damaged.? The answer to employee engagement is not free dry cleaning; it’s requisitely designed systems.
Have you ever been expected to check your character at the door to fit into a system?
Photo Credit:? Eric Skiff
Filed Under Accountability, Corporate Values, Employee Engagement, Executive Leadership, Managerial Leadership, Organization Design, Requisite Organization, Talent Management
Comments
3 Responses to “Performance Evaluations, Rating Scales, and Fraud”
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Great post. When I’ve managed other employees, I’ve had the same experience and have often referred to HR as “Human Roadblocks.” As for asking me to check my character at the door, I once worked for a woman who put her own character in a bus terminal locker in a (doomed) attempt to hold onto her own job. On the way home from an employee conference a month or so before I was laid off, she asked me to spy on a co-worker who also (as she knew) happened to be a friend of mine. I was so shocked I didn’t know what to say. I guess she thought that everyone was like her.
Hi Robyn,
Thanks for the comment. Yes, too often HR spends their time enforcing broken systems rather than questioning the systems’ integrity and efficacy. This kind of behavior just shoots HR’s reputation in the foot.
Wow, a request for spying! Did you ask for a magnifying glass, a Sherlock Holmes hat and a pipe to go with that?
Did she offer to pay you for performance? More dirt = more pay?
Perhaps your being laid off from this organization was a blessing in disguise.
Thanks for stopping by and sharing your story.
Regards,
Michelle
[…] last week’s post, Performance Evaluations, Rating Scales and Fraud, I discussed a manager who had a performance review returned to him from HR. He was told by HR to […]