Personal evaluations

[james.eustace]

It's that time of year here at the office and probably in alot of other offices as well, time for the dreaded personal eval. What is everyones outlook on these? What I mean do you think that in areas you excel in you should give yourself the highest mark possible or maybe just under since there is always room for improvement? As far as looking at things from a managers point of view since, I know there are a few of you out there. How do you view someone that gives themselves highest marks? Do you as managers ever feel anyone should get say a 5 on a scale of 1-5?

[Sammie]

It's that time of year here at the office and probably in alot of other offices as well, time for the dreaded personal eval. What is everyones outlook on these? What I mean do you think that in areas you excel in you should give yourself the highest mark possible or maybe just under since there is always room for improvement? As far as looking at things from a managers point of view since, I know there are a few of you out there. How do you view someone that gives themselves highest marks? Do you as managers ever feel anyone should get say a 5 on a scale of 1-5?

I personally believe noone can achieve the highest rating....because there is always room for improvement in any case. if you are the highest rating in everything, you probably need to move up in jobs. IMHO

[Opie]

Hi James,

Please note I have *moved* this thread from the Coffee Without CAD (http://forums.augi.com/forumdisplay.php?f=45) forum to this one as I believe it would be better served here.

Thanks,

Richard
Forum Moderator

[Augi Doggie]

I would say "yes" a 5 is acceptable, if you're rating different aspects of their performance. i.e. timeliness of work. But you had better be very sure that they qualify for it.

In the one in a million chance they get an "overall" 5, there would need to be a promotion or large raise and/or bonus to go with it.

[Maverick91]

It's that time of year here at the office and probably in alot of other offices as well, time for the dreaded personal eval. What is everyones outlook on these? What I mean do you think that in areas you excel in you should give yourself the highest mark possible or maybe just under since there is always room for improvement? As far as looking at things from a managers point of view since, I know there are a few of you out there. How do you view someone that gives themselves highest marks? Do you as managers ever feel anyone should get say a 5 on a scale of 1-5?We don't do personal evaluations on ourselves. We get an email each year with a list of managers, and we're asked to pick three that we'd like to have evaluate us and our performance over the past year. I always try to pick one from another office just to keep things fair.

[Brian Myers]

At my job we have the same revue system. I've been told that nobody should get a 5! Actually you can, (I've gotten them for "work ethic") but they should be really rare.

If your employee gives himself too many 5's you should have them go back and re-review themselves and explain that 5 is one step below "God Like". If they still give themselves too many 5's then it's time to bring them back down to earth with your own revue of them.

[Ammon]

It's that time of year here at the office and probably in alot of other offices as well, time for the dreaded personal eval. What is everyones outlook on these? What I mean do you think that in areas you excel in you should give yourself the highest mark possible or maybe just under since there is always room for improvement? As far as looking at things from a managers point of view since, I know there are a few of you out there. How do you view someone that gives themselves highest marks? Do you as managers ever feel anyone should get say a 5 on a scale of 1-5?I think that if they didn't think anyone was capable of scoring a 5 it wouldn't be on the evaluation. Sure, there is always room for improvement, but that is not the point of an evaluation. 5 is excellent, not perfect, unless I am mistaken. Excellence is relative. It is a comparative evaluative term. How do you compare to your peers? How do you compare to what is expected? If you truly feel that you deserve to give yourself a 5, then do it, but don't do it if it's just for the accolades, if you're not really up to that level of performance. If you do, excellence will be expected when you may not be capable of delivering it. The key is honesty with yourself about your abilities and contribution to the company.

[Wanderer]

I think that if they didn't think anyone was capable of scoring a 5 it wouldn't be on the evaluation. Sure, there is always room for improvement, but that is not the point of an evaluation. 5 is excellent, not perfect, unless I am mistaken. Excellence is relative. It is a comparative evaluative term. How do you compare to your peers? How do you compare to what is expected? If you truly feel that you deserve to give yourself a 5, then do it, but don't do it if it's just for the accolades, if you're not really up to that level of performance. If you do, excellence will be expected when you may not be capable of delivering it. The key is honesty with yourself about your abilities and contribution to the company.~nods~ I agree with that.
I hate the personal eval... we've only been doing them for 2 or 3 years and it's taken some getting used to. The first year one person in my dept put all 5's... the next year one of the requirements was to put an explanation/justification for anything above median. I've given myself a couple of five's, my boss has occasionally even given them to me, but, yeah, very rare... typically it's a 3 or a 4 for most things.