Performance saga

Performance ....the word defines itself, is an important aspect of everybody's life whether its a school going child, a mother, a technician, a barber or even an engine. But what I am going to talk about here is the performance of a professional in a professional environment which we normally call as a office or for some people it may be a hotel or a petrol pump. So, I will call it workplace for the sake of convenience.

Measuring professional performance has always been a difficult task for managers and supervisors of any industry or services ,specially, when it has to be non-biased.

A corporate workplace is like a jungle where we find people as fierce like a lion and as cunning as a fox, then there are elephants who move around fearing nobody and have their separate space.
But when it comes to performance time or rather say the appraisal time all these wild animals become as gentle and hardworking as ants that anybody who has been remotely associated with the corporate world can imagine!!

Then the question arises in the mind of a manager " How to rate my reportees, they all seems to be good". But the problem is that, he has a limited supply of goodies for them. So what to do now ??
Now comes the most interesting part of this saga..and guess what ?? yeah its "unprofessionalism".

So, many thoughts, previous history of ratings and even personal relations now become a criteria for rating employees. "How many times did you smile at me in the last year" may now become the most relevant question for somebody's appraisal. "Doesn't matter if he could not achieve the targets", Ummmm....wait a bit " Were the targets given at the first time?" huh!! .
I will see to it that he does proper job next time but he has worked hard and had been nice to me...
By now the manager is clear about his decision based on the perfect blend of imaginary targets and ever-volatile personal relations.

But whats going on in the minds of employees of that manager who are going to be rated ?????????

A: " I have been working so hard all round the year. I did this , that ...blah blah...." "I should be rewarded properly or else I would have no choice but to leave this organisation."
B: " Yeah !! I have been projecting my work so well that manager must be happy by now and give me the top grades..he has no choice whatsoever."
C :"Its been long since I have worked on a thing which could really uncover my talent and I have told this to manager also...what he may be thinking..."
D: "I know that all this affairs are so secret and fair that nobody can influence it whatsoever, the god will do justice with me, after all I have been fair to all."

The traditional and professional methods of measuring performance cannot survive and are looked upon as over idealistic ways to tackle the task of appraisals which require a great deal of human touch and non-professionalism.

As wisely said by somebody " time and tide waits for none". The time for final declaration of results were about to come . The employees were awaiting like small children wait for sweets to be distributed. Workplace environment also senses the change and acts accordingly ..becomes the most happening place in the world in one moment and there prevails the silence of the sea in another moment.

Feelings of joy, anger, fear often mixed with an aroma of selfishness and hate mix in the oxygen and all living beings whether living or dead ( dead men working) are affected by its presence.
The time which was long awaited comes near and the productivity index falls like it has been stepped upon by angad( Hindu mythology character with firmest foot on earth).

Even the mutest of the guys in workplace now start socialising and there is a sense of unity among employees which sees company management in an enemy role.

Managers are looked upon as messiah and employees leave no stone unturned to see that they belong to valuable but unsatisfied lot.

As the D day approaches, rumours take the front seat of every vehicle and completely take over the cerebrum part of brain. Expectancy reaches its highest and even anxiety gets excited.

How to say ?? The results were out and it was decided in a so called high level meeting that there would be no increase in salaries this year and hope that all employees would keep their faith in the company management as before and strive for working hard even than before.

Employees were dissatisfied as always, even if hike was 50 % the state of minds would have been same but it was just the cycle of performance saga which runs every year which made them feel bad for some time. This cycle makes some to resign and see some new entries as well at the end.

What doesn't change is the saga and its legacy.....