A good life lesson for me is “You will not ever really be happy in a job where your effectiveness can be measured on a piece of paper.”
Or, for that matter, a whiteboard.
At FalStaff we have what we oh-so-affectionately call “The Whiteboard of Shame.” As near as I can tell, it was devised by George Welton shortly before I got here. There used to be a point system whereby a certain kind of legal contract would be worth X points, a payroll report worth a different amount. They said when I got here that the board wasn’t reflective of a whole lot so that I shouldn’t worry about it.
Posting a “score” for everyone to see and telling you not to worry about it does not work. At all.
What’s kind of odd is that a long time ago, we were asked what system we thought would be fairest to “grade” us. We all agreed one in a kind of unanimity that is difficult to match. Our recommendation was ignored and when we had complaints about what was instituted, we were even lectured by then-QA guy (and now unemployed slob) Teddy Forbes for not having been helpful during the deliberations. There have been two points that I almost walked straight out that door and that was one of them.
It’s gone through a few incarnations since. Amazingly, I think each system has been worse than the previous. The current system, correct pages completed and accuracy percentage, is probably the worst. You can literally spend all day on a form that’s one page in size and if you get a single comma wrong, you would literally be better off having done nothing all day. Your point total does not go up, but your accuracy goes down.
All the while they’re telling you that it doesn’t matter. And in a sense, it doesn’t. It was originally instituted for employee bonuses. The bonuses never really materialized, but the relic carries on.
Wow. It never ceases to amaze me the idiocy of management and their ways to evaluate employees. It’s Business 101 in how to motivate people. You must be a very patient person…
Comment by Becky — May 19, 2005 @ 1:42 pm
We have an odd love/hate relationship with that thing. They took it down for a while and I think we secretly missed it. There is actually a pretty solid work ethic around here and it was all we had to see how we were doing. The job can get pretty frustrating sometimes when you’re spending three days trying to replicate a state income tax form for Connecticut and it feels like you’re getting nothing done. The board at least reminds you that you are getting something. It would just be a lot nicer if it was, you know, remotely accurate.
Ironically, the official name for it is the Accuracy Board.
Comment by trumwill — May 19, 2005 @ 2:06 pm