When 2013 hits in a few months, I will have worked in Law for 30 years. It’s kind of hard to wrap my brain around a non-career career. If I remember right, I started temping at Betts Patterson & Mines on January 3rd or 4th of 1983. Just coming off my job as a mall Santa at Aurora Village Mall. This was going to be, well, different. That’s for sure.
Over those nearly 30 years, I have had evaluations and given evaluations. They’ve been called different things: “Performance Evaluation, Annual Review, 30, 60, 90 day Evaluations, etc.” and these do a few things. They force the Supervisor to see if the person is on-board, engaged, using their talents to the fullest and look forward to the future, and they force the employee to wrap their brain around what they accomplished the last year. It’s also a great way to cut dead weight if the person just isn’t working out (30, 60, 90 day reviews are used for this). I mean, really, if you don’t have a handle on this person within 90 days – and then they screw up? Something’s wrong.
As the years have gone by, I’ve grown to hate evaluations – but they were a necessary evil – like flu shots. Every year you had to have one. And each place I worked, set them up differently. Some were sprung on you in one day: “Here’s your evaluation, read it over, tell me what you think – now let me tell you what I think...” And some were handed to you a week or so in advance to, at least, give you some talking points to respond with. But there’s something decidedly off-putting about evaluations. It’s kind of a dog-and-pony show that mainly does the number one thing it HAS to do – and that’s cover the company’s ass. It’s the first, really, of the long line of paper-trails that a company has to have in case there’s a dispute down the line. I’m not saying they can’t be positive or, even, fun – but there’s a dynamic there that just doesn’t happen in everyday life. You don’t say to neighbor: “Hey, dude, remember, tomorrow night we’re going to go over how you’re mowing your lawn and the future of your cedar shingles.” You don’t say to your wife: “Here’s my thoughts on the last year – where you excelled and, well, where you could improve. Give these a read and let me see your comments on Saturday after I clean the barbecue grill.”
Now, of course, if you’ve been part of an Annual Evaluation, you know that there’s really two parts. Part 1 is that you need to come up with how YOU feel you’ve done. This is awkward because you don’t want to put what you really want to put: I’M AWESOME!!! and have to kind of self-evaluate with an objective eye which you can’t do anyway. Sure, maybe you do know that you’re typing could be better and you spend a little too much time on the J. Crew website – but you’re not going to tell your immediate supervisor that. And this is broken down in a scoring system of, Needs Improvement, Meets Expectations, Exceeds Expectations. Every law firm I worked for had different titling and scoring, but it broke down, usually, to those three.
Part 2 is the part where your supervisor actually does the overall scoring with THEIR opinion if you NI, ME or EE. And then there are options to type up notes and details as to why the grade is what it is. This can then be used to break down what you get for a raise or, at Heller, what your holiday bonus even was.
Now, I don’t want to say that these are ALL BAD. It can be a great liberating experience. It’s also a way to judge where the employee is at this point in their employment and where they want to go and how you can help them get there. So when I gave evaluations, I tried to make sure that they were a collaborative experience. Where things can go horribly wrong is when the supervisor gives you a ME and you think, above everything, that you EE. Well, if you do, you better have the details to back that up.
At Heller I went from giving evaluations (and getting evaluated) to just getting evaluated when I got out-sourced and demoted. Prior to that demotion, I had good and bad experiences. Probably the worst was when I was given no head start as to what my evaluation said, was brought into a room, forced to speed-read it while my boss stared at me and then had to come up with my arguments on the spot. That was NOT a pleasant experience.
When I had to give evaluations I made sure there was only one rule to abide by and that was this: NO SURPRISES. When you’re evaluating someone, they should not be blindsided by some issue you had with them 6 months ago. I’ve talked to Secretary after Secretary who were stunned when their attorney sprung on them something they did a few months prior – and didn’t talk to them about at the time. Nothing undercuts an evaluation quicker then to think that this person who is evaluating you has been holding some grudge/anger/resentment/frustration for the past few months.
The other aspect of evaluations I had to think about was the type of employees I had. I had a good mix of what I refer to as “transitional employees” and “long-timers.” TE’s are people who are working with you for only a short while until they get married, or have a kid, or go to school or go on to their ultimate career goals. LT’s are people who have “been there-done that” and are happy to be in this job. It may not be a career, but they’re not looking to next year to move up to that coveted Paralegal position, or ready to jump to that concert tour they’ve been practicing for. They’re there and they’re, most likely, going to stay there. You have to approach them differently.
When I landed at my current job, I was told, straight up, that they did not do annual evaluations and I can’t tell you how elated I was. Basically I was told: “If we don’t like the job you’re doing, we’ll tell you. If we like the job you’re doing, you won’t hear anything.” So, okay. Finally, I’m being treated like the adult I am. Expected to do a job, do it, get paid, go home. Cool.
Then I noticed something.... After working here over four years there was this nagging little feeling like I was still “new” that I hadn’t made the job my own. Certainly, out of the long time staff, I’m still just out of diapers, but there was an aspect of the job, a perception in my mind, that I had just landed in the file room – even though I had completely made it my own.
I tried to shake the feeling, the understanding, the weirdness of it. Why was it, after four years, I felt like the “newbie?” And I think the honest answer is that, after nearly 30 years and dozens of all types of evaluations, I’ve never had one here. I’m not complaining, mind you, but maybe I need that: “You need to improve here, you exceed here, you’re okay there.” Maybe I need to see it in writing. Maybe I need to have that awkward conversation and show them what I feel I’ve done and accomplished since sitting my butt in my chair. Or...maybe I can just relax and enjoy the non-evaluation ride.
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