Performance Appraisal - The corporate dilemma.

It was late in the night and I was about to go to bed when she called me up and told - "My manager ditched me at this year too. After a full year of hard work, staying late in the office I was made the scape goat. He might not have considered me during the moderation as am looked upon as a silent girl."

She was a good friend of mine in a reputed MNC, working with the same for the past 3 years. I could feel the desperation in her voice, the feeling of getting a year wasted with out the fruits of hard work.

Employees feel dejected, some of them feel their existence being questioned, few feel themselves being treated badly devoid of respect and some decides to quit when the appraisal ratings are out - hoping to get a better job and more respect. But the hard fact is this process remains more or less the same everywhere.

"Luck helped me again and Thanks to my manager. I got promoted. Join me for the party" - This was a reaction from my another friend. I could feel a huge difference in their voices. When the end results meet the expectations the outlook itself differs.

These two incidents clearly shows the difficulty faced by managers in the process of performance appraisals in the companies. As the corporate world turning to be more performance based 'everything' (be it promotions, pay packages, variable pays and bonuses..even onsite assignments) and when every one is rated relatively with their peer, the sheer pressure developed within the employees and managers when the results are announced are huge and most of the times it is unpredictable.

What is the role of the manager here?

As a manager needs to rate his sub-ordinates based on their performances, and divide them into different baskets depending upon the norms and policies laid out by the company, the job turns more tragic in case he needs to meet every ones expectations. The restrictions put forward by the organisation limiting the number of promotions and the distribution of ratings in mere percentage terms, makes the job more tough and critical. How to justify the act of appraisal, how to keep the morale of the workforce high and the attrition rates low? These questions always pose a headache to the managers.

Employees can also address this problem with few factors in mind.

• Never consider the quantity of work done is proportional to the chance of getting promoted or the chance of getting a better rating. That seldom happens.

• As the industry analysts suggests the work counts only 30-40% for the chance of getting a better rating. The rest depends on how you projects yourself to the wider community and the exposure you receive.

• Continuous improvement is the key. Functional domain knowledge along with technical skills adds upon your chances.

• Grab every chance you get to express your skills and experience.



• Build networks at all levels of the organisation. Who knows in what ways a help will come.

And for managers -

• Managers need to get more connected with the employees. Provide a clear picture on the expectations and the objectives.
  


• Show genuine interest in the improvement of the career of employees. This will make them feel more connected with the team and the organisation.

• Strike a balance in the behaviour towards an employee. Be a good friend, a mentor and a better supervisor.

Companies opting to be more transparent in the appraisal process are trying to extend the help to the employees to a great extend. As this process can't be made completely objective and the subjectivity leaves the option of lesser clarity this confusion is tend to continue. Anyway, the dilemma faced by the managers and the employees continues.

My first trek from DoMS - to TADA (16/08/09)

The journey to Tada started on 16th of August with 3 bikes (2 Pulsars and a Discover) and 6 trekkers (3 from the batch of 2010 and 2 from the batch of 2011) . Way behind our schedule (as the plan was to start at 5:30 Am) we started from the IIT Campus from Taramani gate at 7:00 Am. Its really hard to wake up early morning for a trek that too on a Sunday; still every one was sure that the trip is going to be an exciting one.

Now to know more about TADA, the original name for TADA falls is Ubbalamadugu falls, we came to know this through the sign boards on the way. This place is in the border of Andhra Pradesh and Tamilnadu. Its in Nellore district. You can take NH-5 from Chennai and drive for about 85 kilometers to reach Tada. Just before you enter the town Tada, you hit the Kalahasti Road going west off NH-5.


About 15 Kms before hitting the Kalahasti road, we stopped for our breakfast. We packed bottles of water and lots of fruits for our lunch as getting food near the falls is difficult. Thiru (an experienced trekker as he claims and a very rash driver) was really helping the people who are falling behind on the road through the process called Sweeping (Kinda vocab from trekking dictionary that i learned on the way).

After reaching the TADA village, we had to travel for another 20 minutes to reach Ubbalamadugu Falls check post and from there the road condition started deteriorating. We stopped for clicking some photos (as Vyas turned to be our official photographer for the trip and he did a wonderful job) posing with our bikes. We had to pay 20/- rupees per bike for the entry into the falls and another 50/- for each camera.


Before reaching the parking lot, Vyas misadventure with Balaji's bike toppled both of them down into a big mud pool. We parked the bikes and clicked few photos before starting the trek at 12. Instead of following the trail created by the others, we decided to make our own way forward. We followed the water stream, which was so clear that we could see the rocks and fishes inside and crossing all the way through the slippery rocks. This place was very rich in diverse flora and fauna with lots of colorful butterflies and colorful insects of different size.

As soon as we reached the streams, everyone jumped into water as it was less deep with lot of fishes. Vino discovered a natural way of foot manicure using fishes as there were plenty and were tickling our feet. Soon the rain started which added a new dimension of pleasure to our trip. The rocks turned more slippery and hence dangerous but still the mood of the nature was so exciting.

Then we resumed our trekking, to meet with a Shiva temple on the way. It was from here that the terrain was fully rocky, boulders and had to jump from one big rock to another. Every now and then, we came across small water streams between the rocks. Then came another beautiful water stream between the boulders. We spend nearly an hour over there.

Then came the most challenging part of this trek. We had to climb a big and vertical rock which has some support at few places. Thanks to few more people who joined us in our trek who were helping us to climb this vertical rock. A few were helped to climb, and the rest were pulled up the rock on its smooth and slippery surface.

After climbing the last vertical rock, we walked some distance to find a beautiful pool between the 2 vertical mountain ridges and that exactly is the origin of the falls. The water was very clear and freezing too. The pool was very deep, and definitely it would be around than 40 feet.

Our star swimmer Vyas managed to reach the middle of the pool where he could find a small rock to hold. Balaji was eager to swim but all of us advised not to take any risk with limited knowledge in swimming. The others including me, Thiru, Vino and Visu stayed at the shallow end of the pool. It was the time to snap photos.

We came down and started unpacking our lunch. All the fruits were in jelly form because of our rough handling of the bags. After finishing the lunch by 4, we started our way down. We had to face the same challenge again, but this time it was climbing down the vertical rock. Climbing down was much easier than climbing up. We reached the parking lot at 6 Pm and started.




TADA is the beautiful place, but spoilt by some enthusiastic alcoholics who had broken their beer bottles and filled the place with lots of broken glass pieces all over. So make sure you trek this place with your eyes wide open, so that you don’t step on some glass pieces.





It was 10 Pm when we reached DoMS. Everyone was tired but the enjoyment and fun we had was unlimited. It was a real biking experience and a good spirit showed throughout the trip by everyone made the trip a memorable one.