Performance Review

Squirmy told me the other day my current employee review is due and it was going to be written by Potatohead. I wasn't too happy about that tidbit of news. Obviously that would be Potatohead's last hurrah, his final opportunity to screw with me and sabotage any hope of getting a merit raise this year. I asked Squirmy if he might be able to pull some strings and write up a review for me instead, but he said he couldn't do it. I bet he could, he just didn't want to. He squirmed his way right out of that one.

I sat down with Potatohead this afternoon and got it overwith. My departure from his line was anything but pleasant. As usual, he had some words for me and I had a few for him. It felt good though, he was powerless to do anything about it. Potatohead thrust a packet of paperwork into my hands and gave me a few minutes to read it over before saying anything. Fearing the worst I carefully scrutinzed his comments. Some of them were actually kind of funny. Like this one, "Work in a team environment without disruptive conflicts. Be a positive influence and demonstrate this with visible cooperation, tolerance, and provide technical leadership." What a joke. Practically every time Potatohead walked the shop floor he was just wandering around looking to start a fight with someone. His concept of "visible cooperation" means nothing more than being a total kiss ass to him. I can't tolerate incompetence like his, and every time I tried to assist others with technical knowledge Potatohead got all up in it and slapped me down for it. Whatever. He continued, "Become more active in line meetings presenting his ideas on ways to improve productivity, quality, and training." Yeah, well, I hate meetings. And any time I did open my mouth to suggest something that wasn't in line with what Potatohead wanted, I was wrong. So I stopped trying and kept my yap shut.

As I continued reading on in my evaluation, I almost fell out of my chair. Potatohead gave me an excellent performance rating. I couldn't believe it and I'm still laughing about it. Somehow I have a feeling that if I hadn't gone to upper management to discuss my personal sitaution with this guy, my evaluation would have come out much differently. I mean, there's no way Potatohead could be objective or honest enough to put aside his personal dislike for me and give me an unbiased review. Right?

Factory Peasant is a strong assembler who is able to perform all the assembly processes for the Classic instrument line. He has many years of experience, here at Bill and Dave's company, that he draws on to do his job. Factory Peasant has a logical thought process that he combines with his mechanical ability to build a quality instrument. He handled all the Manufacturing Special Tests (MSTs) for the area. This required him to work closely with the 95 technicians and engineers. Factory Peasant was always thorough and accurate in his work. During this last year the assembly team was asked to expand their role. They took on the pre-testing of boards and duplexer sub-assemblies. Factory Peasant was able to quickly learn these test procedures which helped free up the technicians.

Factory Peasant has a good commitment to quality and his work reflects his ability. He will take the time and make the extra effort to insure that his work is correct and built to standards. For example, he discovered that a process was not being followed by a peer which had the potential to cause quality problems. He identified the issue and retrained the individual. One of Factory Peasant's strengths is his work output. He has the ability to work above standard times and to quickly learn new assembly skills. During slow periods he has been asked to help other production lines with their build schedules. Factory Peasant learns tasks quickly and is sought after by the other teams. In fact, he is often requested by name when the other lines need help.

Factory Peasant is a very smart individual who makes good decisions during the course of his shift. On swing shift there isn't much support available from typical support groups for the line, i.e. engineering, component test, material coordinators, etc. This requires him to make many judgement calls as problems arise to keep production moving.

Well shit. That was pretty good. He did manage to get in a couple digs on me though in the next sections of my evaluation.

Factory Peasant generally works well with his peers. His strong opinion on what should be done has come across as judgemental to his peers and interfered with his relationship with his peers. I have received feedback and observed his attitude. Take the "interpersonal relationship" class here at Bill and Dave's. This will help you recognize that there are many types of people with varying degrees of ability. It is up to you to learn how to work with these people in a non-judgemental manner and to create a environment that is safe for everybody.

Unfortunately we have employees here that for whatever reasons don't follow written or verbal instructions well and end up wrecking stuff right and left. When you catch things like that happening, it's always best to stop everything and investigate down to the root cause of how the problem started. If you find that it's a simple case of operator error then you have to give feedback to the person in a careful, professional manner that doesn't make them feel belittled or singled out. In many cases no matter what you do these people won't deal with it, and try to get out of facing their workmanship issues by turning on the tears and/or running to management. That's what I've run into here more often than not. And when a supervisor gets involved it doesn't matter how delicately you approached the problem individual because you are now the issue. It's frustrating to say the least. I think I'll skip the relationship class. And what's with that "safe environment" crap? I don't walk through the front doors to the building every afternoon with sticks of dynamite strapped to my chest. Sheesh.

Potatohead's final opinion of me came in my review's Performance Summary section, which he attempted to use in an effort to explain away his poor behavior on the line. Essentially he blamed our area for the predominantly low morale, rather than on himself for the way he treated people. Of course he also slipped in some veiled criticisms, but I let it go. There was nothing more he could do to me now. I took that power away from him by leaving his product line.

During the last couple of years this line has gone through many management changes. Some of the moves have been sudden which has lead to confusion within the team. A natural response is one of apathy and negativity. When I took over the line I tried to engage Factory Peasant several times in conversations and in business tasks that I felt would help him in his development. According to feedback I received from his previous manager Factory Peasant was well thought of and was looking for a 92 level position. I was turned down by Factory Peasant when I tried to offer him some additional tasks. His reasoning was that those tasks were not directly related to building instruments and were a waste of time.

Factory Peasant has recently been transferred to another line due to business needs. Just prior to the move I felt that Factory Peasant and I were making improvement in our working relationship. I would encourage him to take on his new job with a positive attitude and to get involved in as much of the business end as he is able to. Factory Peasant is an individual who has alot to offer Bill and Dave's company.

Overall, I didn't do too badly. This should be the last time I ever have to deal with Potatohead. I can forget about him, and get back to work. Things around here at long last will be enjoyable again. That's what really matters.