To find Work Appraisals excruciating

My manager is so lazy and useless that she doesn't do them, thank god. Never even had a 1-1 and this is in the MOD!

I'm 55, I'm counting down to retirement and there is nowhere to progress to anyway, FFS.

Civil Service ones are absolutely the worst.

Well, this.

Please learn, people.

OP you are my idol. You are totally spot on - I bloody hate appraisals. Just tell me if I’m doing a shit job, I don’t need to be praised otherwise. I wanna work then clock off. The end.

Although if appraisals didn’t exist we wouldn’t have this absolute beauty of a scene

We have monthly 121's along with annual and half yearly formal appraisals.
On my 121's my manager said I usually go over to the train station, get a coffee (take it in turns to pay) and sit on a platform and chat about work, life etc.
I really don't like the formal appraisals, it feels forced and unnatural, I go to work and do my best, I don't want any training, I'm not interested in progressing (late 50's) both of us find it a waste of time

As a manager I hate doing them as well but do try to make them as constructive as possible. Ours are linked.to bonus and I feel so bad when people are marked.as achieving and don't get anything even though they are doing their job as expected 🙃

Totally agree. My previous manager was great. I never used to fill in the forms (neither did he 👏). We disposed of the appraisal nonsense in about 3 minutes and spent the rest of the time chatting.

Unfortunately the current manager is rather more process driven. What I really want to say is that I've done a better than average job in the last year (fairly true) and my career objective is to carry on doing so until retirement (a few years away but getting ever closer 😁) without getting made redundant.

I sadly have seen them used as part of a process to remove a weaker performer but tbh even there there is often no rhyme or reason as to why one person is deemed for the cut vs another, i believe often its personality really. If the boss doesn't like you you're out.

always give yourself a glowing review because then the manager has to argue it down in the actual meeting and focus on getting them to remove anything remotely negative from the form. Never mention anything negative about yourself

All true. There's basically a way to write them and a sort of rubber skinned, hyper confident mentality you have to have, where you only really vaguely acknowledge a negative if the way its documented is almost positive

So if you are bad at managing deadlines/don't deliver, you turn it round to having a strong desire to help/lead/take things on, and weakly concede you perhaps have a tendency to "demand too much of yourself".

Many of the most senior people i know are fabulous at writing these in a way that is extremely difficult to counter with a genuine performance concern.

I hate being both sides of the equation. Fortunately, I've had some really great managers who know it is all bullshit and so we work through it together. I've always tried to do this with my teams too, but it doesn't stop it all being bullshit.

I share your feelings op

It feels like a huge waste of all our time. We fabricate these goals, get told they must be "stretch" goals, that are not our "day to day responsibilities".

Half the time they relate to vanity projects that management subsequently axe due to cost etc.

I spend loads of time coaxing similar out of my team as well.

One time i had a bit of a good year, the shit hit the fan on a few unexpected things and i stepped up, as a result i got the "exceptional" rating. When i got the letter about my annual bonus it had made an absolutely miserly difference. A few hundred pounds after tax for months and months of long hours, stress, working while on holiday, cancelling a weekend away.

I swore never to do it again, it gave me grey hair and high blood pressure basically for nothing.

I used to be quite skilled at deflecting and turning the conversation so my managers spent the session ranting about their own jobs.

Now I work somewhere that it's entirely up to us. We can have that sort of chat with management at whatever frequency we like, which can be never.

Yes. I would just leave and work for yourself. It really is the pits. So is pretending you care about the company you work for. It’s exhausting.

Hate it deeply. And hated doing them when I managed people, they're just so pointless. Busy work for people who don't have enough to do.

If I'm not doing my job properly, tell me right away so I can fix it. If I am... that's great. No further action needed. Why do we need to write some bollocks about it just to tick boxes?

We have 'continuous improvement'... 🤮

They are pure shit.

I firmly believe that, if I have a manager, it is that person’s job to check up on me, to observe what I’m doing well or otherwise. It is not my job.

I agree its very important. I also always involve co workers on any decisions that have to be made re their specific roles.

asking people what works best for them is my modus operandi. Because of this I get an amazing amount of support.

Dont get me wrong, there have been many learning curves along the way.

I had mine last month. Got myself in a right tizz about it as in last year's I ended up a sobbing mess due to some personal issues and a couple of years of crap.

This year's was better, but still pointless. I refused to fill in the form until the day before as I can't be arsed with all the reflective bollocks. Just pay me fairly, let me do my job and speak to me informally if there are any issues.

Good to hear this!
A manager should be aware of stuff happening at all times, not once or twice a year!

I feel this too.
It's as though they were invented to give managers a reason to be.

Once I didn't have a manager the a year and just managed myself. Bliss!

I loathe them.

Get AI to write them, always give yourself a glowing review because then the manager has to argue it down in the actual meeting and focus on getting them to remove anything remotely negative from the form. Never mention anything negative about yourself. As soon as they start speaking, turn it round into a feedback session of improvements to how your manager manages, just to run up the clock.

I don't mind the monthly 'catch ups' with my manager, they're quite informal. Mid and end of year reviews are a pain though. We're required to evidence how we've been meeting/exceeding targets in order to be rated for bonus/pay review, but they decide the ratings weeks before the actual meeting and before the documents are submitted. It's just a tick box exercise.

Hmm. I'm a senior manager. I hate appraisals with a deep, committed passion. Mainly because of the paperwork and the need to summon up management-speak.

But. There does have to be a moment when we agree what the point and purpose of the role is for a visible period ahead. Agree that in roles which don't change much this can be brief!

The bit I like isn't the assessment of objectives and all that crap, it's the conversation about 'how was that for you? What do you think we should do next?' The human bit. In busy roles its really hard to make an hour to reflect and chat. I'd like the whole thing shifted to that (and less form-filling).

You're a woman after my own heart. I find them pointless. I just want to say "listen I'm only here for the money and don't want to progress in this role. If you have an issue you should tell me when it comes up and this whole thing is a waste of time."

But then I know colleagues who LOVE them and put tons of effort into theirs.

Are you in the civil service by any chance. I was for many years and they love all the waffle of this type of thing. Make a simple thing into a mind numbing long winded process.
My old department went through phases of various schemes like 'investors in people' - spent hours producing evidence for scheme assessors to get a plaque on the wall. Lost the will to live 🙄🙄

I told my LM I didn't want any development goals as I see myself as fully developed at 60.
That wasn't an acceptable answer 😂