Appraisal Time

I hate appraisal time. Not just about me getting appraised. But also about me appraising or giving input to appraise others. The “system” sometimes (or often times) fail to capture pertinent performance markers. The system wants to work on indices, scales, bell curves. But reality is a lot more complex. Appraisal is complex, I suppose, so someone had to design a system in an attempt to simplify things. In the system, imperfection is okay, just so long as it makes the process simple.

I am reminded of a certain course feedback that I had to complete. The feedback form asked to rank various items. Things like venue, facilities, teaching aids. They were all fine. Things about the instructor, like, his presentation skills, ability to engage the class, his knowledge of the subject matter, etc. Basically, I scored everything above average. Those were the honest answers to the questions asked. But… I felt the course failed. The feedback form did not capture the most important question: Was the instructor able to achieve the objective of the course? Did the instructor cover relevant materials?

You see, he was off-topic no less than 80% of the time. I felt almost like I attended the wrong class. I felt the need to reflect my disappointment, but the designers of the course feedback form obviously didn’t think about all the right questions to ask. (I know, there is the “any other comments” box to write my long-winded complaint… but that’s besides the point.)

That’s how it is with staff appraisals. To make comparisons simple, you ask lots of objective questions. They are measured on scales and with indices. The scoring could still end up being subjective. But, never mind that, because my beef with the system is that sometimes the most important detail slips through and has nowhere to go except the “any other comments” box.