The Degradation of Evaluations

I sit in my workstation watching the procession unfold. He came in this morning and gave me a piece of paper letting me know I got a bonus and a raise. He didn't discuss my evaluation, or why he wrote those nasty things but the monetary compensation was enough to make me bow my head and agree to talk about it at some unforeseen time in the future. He gave the good news to those with promotions and the terrible news to those who got nothing. I heard the protests of a coworker on the low end, he shouldn't have complained like he did, I see him sneak out at 4:30 when the rest of us wouldn't dare think to leave before six without good reason. It was almost too much listening to the whiney protests of a forty something year old man. The idiot shivers, (that unshakeable uneasiness one feels while watching another make a complete ass of themselves) crept up my spine and stayed with me through most of the day. There were others who received bad news but like consummate professionals they never revealed their hands, simply nodding at the decision and quietly returning to their desks to call their wives with news that perhaps the holiday credit cards won't be paid off as soon as they thought. He then turned the grunt work over to his second in command, a nice enough guy, a new hire who has yet to learn everyone's name. He put on his coat and waltzed out of the office with the promise of a phone call to check up on things.

So I sit and I watch. I watch as each coworker walks down the corridor towards the office where they will be told how much they are worth in cold hard dollars to this company. I watch them hesitate before opening the sliding shower like door and sitting down to have their next year's worth of work tallied up into a neat little figure. I watch as the poor messenger stammers and shifts in his seat, obviously uncomfortable with his position in this situation. He can't let these people know why they were given what they were given, he didn't make the figures up. Simply a messenger there to deliver the bad news, like the mailman who delivers the poor report card to the parents of the naughty children.

In fact I am amazed at how much this process reminds me of school. Parent/teacher conferences to be exact. Except this time there are no students. The office consensus is that bonuses were too low and many people were denied the things they were promised when they were hired. I feel for them, my school approval still sits on his desk unsigned, collecting dust and draining me of my sanity.

"He said it would be pro-rated!" One woman complains to me. She writes him an email and the swift response from human resources is a denial; reread your engagement letter, there isn't any stipulation about bonuses. My boss may be an accountant but he should have been a salesman, he has sold each of us a good line when hiring us and once that period of appreciation passes you realize why everyone walks around with their head down.

I watch them leave the fear and anticipation that was so viable in their faces replaced now with resignation. They make the trudge back to their workstations pausing briefly by a coworkers station to let them know that the torch has been passed and another gets to take the long walk down the corridor.