Help me survive an appraisal at work

July 12, 2007 3:06 AM

Tomorrow I have my annual appraisal with the deputy head of the department at the Uni. where I work. This is not my first time, as I been in this job for several years, but this time I am looking for advice on how to make this into a meaningful and useful meeting instead of the usual box-ticking exercise. Also, what is the best way to answer the standard questions they ask such as: "What were your most significant achievements since the last interview?"

Other questions I have to answer ahead of the meeting are: "What aspect of the job gave you the most satisfaction since the last interview?" and "What has caused you most difficulty?"
My main problem is that I know from past experience that whatever is said in the appraisal has very little effect on the year ahead, all these targets and objectives seem very meaningless to me at the moment. So it is hard to shake off a cynical and negative approach to the whole thing, but at the same time I definitely don't want to come across in the appraisal as someone negative and uncooperative. So how can I muster a positive outlook and make the most of the opportunity?
Thanks fellow appraisees / appraisers. Yours truly, Slimeline

posted by slimeline to work & money (3 comments total)

How specific are the targets? Are they quite general or do they call for you to do specific thiongs by specific points in time? Would having specific things be more or less useful to you?

Before the meeting spend some time working out what you want from the next year - which you should have some idea of anyway - relate these to the questions you already know are coming, that way perhaps you can use the targets to spur you on and make sure you take action where you know you need to.
posted by biffa at 3:36 AM on July 12, 2007

I usually grab the "What are you looking forward to do in the oncoming year" questions from the previous year as the "What I did in the last year" answers in the current year (assuming you did them of course). Then for the oncoming year questions I just have a look at my todo list and consider if any of those are part of a larger project, other aspects of the project (I have project plans actually, but I'm not sure if you do).

From that you should now be able to go back and figure out what was hard, easy, what you're looking forward to, etc., as well as what you missed in the exercise above.

As for the meaningless stuff - this is a chicken/egg problem. It's meaningless to you because that's how you're taking it. If you hold yourself to this stuff and really get interested in it then it'll be much more meaningful, and the upswing for this is folks will notice this easily and you'll climb the latter as a result.
posted by jwells at 5:12 AM on July 12, 2007

Jwells - I suspect you meant "climb the ladder", unless you actually meant slimeline should climb the "folks" :-) which make some sense too.

Slimeline, I'm as cynical as you about these appriasals, but this is your best chance to make some positive changes - although results may be imperceptibly small. Maybe suggest one improvement for the workplace and one improvement for your job. Make the suggestions small and easily attainable - that will make your boss feel useful too. If it works, revel in small victories.

In the past, I have worked for companies where the culture was extremely good, and it was a red flag if the formal appraisals were not short and sweet and ritualized. The true feedback was supposed to be continuous and go both ways and if someone was "saving up" for the appraisal, that was a signal that the culture wasn't as open as it should be.
posted by mediaddict at 11:38 AM on July 13, 2007