Help me with my employee self-evaluation?

In My Humble Opinion
1

Hi, dopers. I’ve been at my job for a year now, and it’s time for my annual evaluation. My manager, The Cheese, gave me a form to fill out and return so that he’ll have something to go on for our face-to-face meeting regarding my job performance this year. I dutifully filled it out and returned it. A few days later, he gave it back to me! and said, “Give it more reflection, please. It will serve you in the long run.”

Okay. I originally answered the questions as they were asked, was direct and honest, without giving too much away. Now, I’ve given them more thought and have come up with more truthful answers. The problem is, I’m afraid that with this new version I might self-evaluate myself out of a job. So, I’m looking for suggestions as to how I can be more tactful and make a good impression, while still being honest.

I don’t want to bore you more than absolutely necessary, so here’s the nutshell:

(Preface: I know things are tough all over and I’m very lucky to have a job at all. Please don’t let this sound like I’m ungrateful for what I have.)

I work for a company that does contract work for the government. The company manufactures protective gear for the military, such as ballistic vests and such. I run a sewing machine in the production department…not my regular line of work, but it’s a job. Just a job, a $10 an hour, dead-end, not going to lead to anything, nowhere to grow with the company type of job.

Before this gets too long to read, here is a transcript of the form I’m to fill out with my original answers and what I’d really like to say.

  1. My most successful job accomplishments since last performance period are:

I’ve developed a very discerning eye for my work. (On reflection, what I’d like to have added: My pass rate is 100%. I don’t submit an item for inspection unless I’m confident in it. But you’d never know that, because until you handed me this evaluation you hadn’t even spoken to me in probably 3 months, much less know the quality of my work or even what I work on each day.)

  1. My least successful job accomplishments:

I’ve yet to learn how to operate machines D and E. (What I want to add, but can’t: Not through unwillingness or inability, but because team leader, Jr. Cheeseburger, only gives new opportunities and interesting jobs to his cronies. The rest of us are just supposed to shut up and do what we’re told.)

  1. My key strengths are:

Hard work and high productivity. (What I’d like to say: I’m the most productive team member you’ve got. I out-produce everyone in the group by 20-300%, depending on the employee and on the items we’re working on, but you don’t know that because none of us are given goals or are held accountable for anything on a daily basis.)

  1. My weakest areas are:

None. I am strong in all areas of my work. (I can hardly say: I don’t kiss ass and I don’t call attention to myself, so you can’t even know what a great job I’m doing, and I will never get ahead in this company. With this in mind, I sometimes find it difficult to give 100% everyday, but I do it anyway because I have some pride. Oh, and also, my categorical refusal to get involved in the petty douchebaggery, in-fighting and back-biting that goes on around here probably appears from a distance to be disinterest in my job or this company, but that’s…well, okay, that’s actually kind of borderline.)

  1. Actions I will take to improve my performance:

Whatever I’m told to. (I’ve got nothing to add to this one.)

So, friends, any advice on how to tell the truth, but phrased in such a way that I don’t sound as jerkish as I have in this post? All suggestions serious and non-serious will be welcome and appreciated. Thanks in advance

2

Gad and Asher but I hate self evaluations. I always want to take the 5th when asked to talk about your own weaknesses or ‘need improvement’ areas.

Since it’s your first year also mention the phrase “steep learning curve”, since everything you know about the company and your job was in this year.

Again, mention that the past year was a steep learning curve, whether in that term or not, when mentioning why you haven’t learned how to do this. Also qualify it: “I haven’t learned how to operate machines D & E as well as I have machines A, B & C”, and of course add in that this is a goal for the coming year. And rather than say “Junior Cheese is a butthead who likes toadies” perhaps mention it’s because “my opportunity to learn and his/her opportunity to teach have not yet been synchronous”.

Then by all means say it. Self-evaluation, like a cover letter or resume, is the absolute last place for modesty, especially since you’re asked your weaknesses. You don’t have to be cocky about it, but just work it in that

“Hard work and high productivity as evidenced by xyz 300%.”

The trick to weakest areas is to give some bullshit that is actually a strength but sounds like a weakness: I’m a perfectionist, I don’t delegate to others as much as I should because I prefer to do it myself, I care too much, independence, etc…

For the douchebaggery refusal and lack of blatant self promotion perhaps “An indepence along with work ethic prevents me from communicating my accomplishments” (though with something else thrown in so it doesn’t sound too arrogant) or “being naturally independent and being an experience rather than instruction motivated learner and familiar as I am with the workload of supervisors my natural inclination is not to ask for assistance until it is absolute necessity”.

This is where you address what you’ve said previously: I’m going to learn the D&E machines, use the TPS report cover sheets, and communicate my accomplishments til you’re sick of me.

3

Sampiro seems to have it pretty much right. In the modern world after a job interview or a performance appraisal you should feel a little sick and be able to taste vomit in your mouth. A slight sense of shame doesn’t hurt either.

4

Sure. It’s spelled A-W-E-S-O-M-E-T-A-S-T-I-C.

5

Accentuate the positive and eliminate the negative. It sounds fine to me. You want the raise and you need to show why you are entitled to it so lay it on thick and heavy. This is not a time to be humble.

6

I hate when bosses do this. It is THERE job to evalute you. He’s taking the easy way out.

I would give myself only high marks and leave out any negatives. Especially if pay isn’t tied to review. If pay and raise is tied to a review H/R and the bosses will find negatives to avoid giving you the max raise. So why make it easier for them.

Don’t be a wise guy about it, but don’t give them any negative ammunition to fire.

7

Does spelling count?

8

Jeese, you guys must either work for morons or think you do.

Do you guys really think that anyone is fooled by self-agrandizing, one-sided self-evaluations? I mean as a manager, I SEE your work every day. We know who are the top performers and who is just skating by. You aren’t going to fool anyone but perhaps the stupidest manager.

I had one employee turn in one of these evaulations talking himself up with stupid “my greatest strength is I am awsome at everything” rhetoric. I made him rewrite it. All that shows me is that this particular employee has no sense of reality about his performance.

When you are asked to write about your weaknesses, write about legitimate weakness. But you want to describe them as things you want to be better at and steps you are taking to improve.

For example, this one idiot employee I described basically sucks at checking his work. It’s rife with errors and mistakes and those mistakes get passed on down the line. So he should write something like “I would like to improve my quality assurance skills and I am doing XY and Z to get better at it.”

That isn’t how companies work.

Typically departments are given a budget for raises based on a number of factors, including the success of the business, the department, and the overall economy.

In most companies, employees are then ranked next to their peers somehow. They might be placed in A, B, C buckets, ranked individually on a scale or all employees in a group might be ranked highest to lowest. This might be done by a department head, a consensus of management or a neutral committee.

Raises, bonuses and promotions are typically decided by the review team. But they are never guaranteed and they don’t really have to make up excuses.

9

You don’t put a colon after a form of the verb ‘to be’, of which ‘are’ is one.

If you can back this up, put it in!

‘There’s so much more to learn! I’d like to become more effective by learning how to operate machines D & E. Could you please have a word with Jr Cheeseburger?’

Waffle. Quantify it if you can.

If you have the statistics, say, ‘I outperform the team average by X.’

Lack of knowledge of machines D & E. Can you recast this as eagerness for more knowledge and responsibility? What about exposure to other areas of the company?

Learn more!

10

Thanks all for your posts and suggestions. I appreciate and will consider all the advice I get because I’ve been in a bit of a fret over this thing since The Cheese handed it back to me. Initially, I wanted to stick by the answers I gave the first time around because they’re true and phrased politely (or at least minimally, huh?), but he’s not one to be argued with.

The easiest thing would be to just tell him what he wants to hear, listen to what he wants to say about it, hopefully receive my 2.5% raise, and stay out of his hair until next year. Too bad I don’t know what he wants to hear and , even if I did, maybe I take the words self evaluation too literally.

I’d like to back up for him the assertions I could make about my percentages. Unfortunately, there’s nothing on paper that I can point to. Like I said, no goals have been dictated and none of are held accountable for our numbers.

I am in constant communication with QA. To the point that they recognize my work when it gets to them. Maybe I can use that. QA certainly has paperwork to submit daily. It probably doesn’t record who does what, but who knows?

Anyway, keep the suggestions coming, folks.

11

If you already know then why do you need self evaluations?

12

Mostly they are just a formal mechanism to provide people with feedback and coaching. Assuming you work in a place that actually takes them seriously, of course.

13

That’s just the point. Many managers don’t see their employees work every day. Managers often have other priorities, and if things are going well, they won’t pay attention. Which isn’t a bad thing, except at performance review time.

I was on a team looking to improve our review process at a place I used to work, and we did surveys and ran focus groups. The number one complaint was managers writing reviews ignoring significant parts of someone’s job. This was not from them being stupid - this was a top research facility. We had employees write their accomplishments, and we forced these to be available to all managers doing reviews.

In this case, the OP said that his/her manager hadn’t spoken to him/her in 3 months. Still think the manager is up on what is going on?

I’ve never seen a review form so braindead as to ask for weakest areas and not areas of improvement. Performance review is supposed to be a way of getting people to be more effective, not to punish them. If they ask for weakest areas, they should expect non-answers.

14

I agree with Quartz that the learning the new machine part should be put positively. I don’t know the politics of your job, so I don’t know how it could be phrased to get your boss to go to bat for you. Making it an objective with no support is not going to help.

What happens after the review? Does your boss meet with you to go over it and give you feedback face to face? That’s where the value comes in.

How do you get rated? Do they have some sort of band system, or do you just get raises? Review is hard on managers also, and it is easier for them to just tell everyone they’re doing fine. Which doesn’t necessarily protect people from being fired.

The best piece of advice I’ve gotten on this is that no one should be surprised by their review. If there is a problem, the manager should be working on it through the entire year. If they are doing great, the manager should say so every once in a while. Seldom happens, but it should.

15

Part of the evaluation process is, of course, to give employees goals to achieve and to give appropriate feedback on their work. NOBODY does a job perfectly, there are always places an employee can improve - and you can also give positive feedback and rewards on their strong points.

An important part of the evaluation process is getting the employee’s “buy-in” on the process. It’s much more effective (and smart) to get the employee to agree with the “areas for improvement”. As Doctor Phil says, “You can’t fix what you don’t acknowledge” - it’s important to make sure that the employee is aware of strengths AND weaknesses in order to create maximum efficiency. The employee is more likely to make an effort to reach the goal (with support from the employer) if they have clearly-defined goals they agree with. It is to the employee’s advantage to set realistic yet challenging goals to achieve by the next evaluation period, so that the employee can then argue for an increase in salary/benefits - you now have substantive evidence that you have been working hard to improve your value to the company.

Also, if the employee has not reached those goals (or at least made a recognizable effort towards them) by the end of the goal period, then the employer can say “Well, you set this goal for yourself and did not make it” instead of “I gave you this goal and you blew it” - the employee can’t say it was an unfair or unrealistic goal, because they themselves set it. Good employees who reach their goals can be rewarded and recognized, and substandard employees can be weeded out and the employer now has documentation that the work is substandard, even though the employer gave the employee the chance to improve. Even in an “at will” employment situation, employers are very vulnerable to expensive “unlawful termination” lawsuits, so they must document these situations very carefully to protect themselves.

Ideally, the “performance evaluation” process should be separated in time from the “compensation evaluation” discussion. Unfortunately, IME most companies tie raises to performance evaluations.

16

I think that’s just **rucciface’s ** translation of the review form. His biggest area for improvement is obvious. It’s his attitude. His entire OP reeks of the arrogance, bitterness and entitlement of the disgruntled employee.

To be successful, it takes more than just being an efficient biological component of the assembly line. You also need to develop relationships with your coworkers and supervisors so if an opportunity for advancement presents itself, your managers see you as a potential candidate. You should seek out opportunities to make your company work more efficiently, not just wait to be told what to think.

But people like rucciface don’t see it that way. They don’t like their job and it’s the company’s fault. Anyone who does make an effort is “kissing ass” or otherwise the recipient of some sort of favoritism.

17

I disagree. Kissing ass and favoritism are a great way to get ahead. I have seen people who work harder and better than their peers get shut out of promotions, and screwed over for raises. Their crime? They are not part of the “In” group. Maybe they don’t drink. Maybe they are Latino or Black. Maybe they are fat. Maybe the other workers don’t like them because they feel they are raising the bar.

18

Yeah, I hate those judgmental embittered types who make up their mind with very limited information and based on their own prejudices and the belief that if there’s a problem in the place it’s another person’s fault.

19

I think you’re being a little hard on the above posts. This is for a sewing machine job. A great deal of reflection isn’t necessary. The kind of boss that asks for reflection by an employee who sews set patterns, is the kind of boss that is himself out of touch with reality.
Unless, of course, I’m missing something.

Best wishes,
hh

20

Kissing ass and favoritism are indeed great career advancement techniques. Sadly, there is an art to it, and just telling the boss that he’s the greatest thing since sliced bread will just aggravate him. Learn the secrets, and you fly. Fail to learn, and you will have a career strikingly similar to mine.

Best wishes,
hh