The Fatal Flaws of the Performance Review

Cue the scary music.  No one looks forward to them, not the boss and not the employee.  So are they even needed?  Here’s some articles that suggest giving the performance review the heave-ho… Wall Street Journal, Forbes-Kruse, Forbes-Lawler, Nelson Motivation.  While I think there’s definitely a place for the performance review in today’s Corporate America, I also think it has some fatal flaws too.

Key Ingredients and Chewed Remains

We’ve all seen the motivational/inspirational postings on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.  Or if you go old school, there’s always the motivational posters hung in the conference rooms and common areas.  Feeling motivated yet?  Doubt it.  While there’s an endless number of extrinsic motivating factors in today’s world, I contend the vast majority of them are just white noise.  None of them motivate/inspire you to actually take action.  Why?  My experience is that motivation generally comes from within.  The motivational postings may give you a warm and fuzzy for a few seconds or look nice on a wall, but that’s about it.  The demotivation posters, on the other hand, are hilarious.  Art meets Dilbert.  So what’s left?  Plenty.  Instead of coming at it from a motivational standpoint, let’s try the self-awareness angle.

What's the Top Priority in Your Job?

Adam Grant has a pretty good post on LinkedIn regarding The #1 Feature of a Meaningless Job.  Spoiler alert, his answer is meaningful work.  As if you couldn't have guessed that from the headline.  There are many other good articles linked to Mr. Grant's article, so definitely worth the read.

Humor: The Office Fridge

The office fridge can be a battleground.  Approach at your own risk.  It’s certainly been a source of angst for many office workers over the years.  While most people have a name tag on their office door or cube, you’ll never find their office fridge name displayed anywhere.  Here’s a listing and definitions of those office fridge names to help you out.

It's Not My Job!

Have you ever been asked at work to complete a task you felt could only fall in the ‘perform other duties as assigned’ category of your job description?  Or perhaps you perceive there are others in the organization far better equipped to perform said task?  Or maybe there are others that should be performing the task, but aren’t, and now you have to pick up their slack?  Diagnosis:  ‘It's Not My Job’ syndrome.  Course of treatment:  Bite the bullet and do it.  Or read on.

Work-Life Abundance?

Jennie Wong has a great article that looks at work-life balance from a different angle.  I’ve had many previous posts regarding this topic including Work-Life Balance Advice, Work-Life Balance Choices, and We Work Too Much.  But Ms. Wong’s article hits on a point I’ve long feared may be true.  To many people, work-life balance has become polite code for working less.  And so work becomes the bad guy. 

Start Your New Job Right

So you landed your new job.  Great.  Now what?  Just like new parents have to immediately flip the switch from pregnancy-focused to parenting-focused, so do the legions of people who land a new job.  The job seeker becomes the newbie.  So how do you start your new job right?  Scott McDowell, Hannah Morgan, and Katharine Brooks make some good points in these articles.  As Pianaman routinely cuts to the chase, here are my crystal ball offerings: