This post has me thinking about how complicated evaluations (giving and receiving) are. There are several issues.
1)the expectation that everyone is “above average”. Since when is being told you’re doing your job as expected a bad thing? The culture of awarding average performance is pervasive and leads to this challenge.
The result is that we all want evaluations that are at least 4/5 (myself included) and are hurt by anything less. We were taught that a “c”’ is a bad grade and we view “meets expectations” with that lens.
This does put managers in a tough position. How do you evaluate someone who is doing their job but not stretching beyond the job description? The key is how the message is delivered— as others have shared, find language to motivate rather than instilling despair.
2) For generations, the evaluation system has been tough. Ideally managers and employees are engaged in continuous feedback. In reality, too many employees are hit upside the head by unexpected poor or meh evaluations. Their boss never indicated an issue. This shouldn’t happen but feedback that something needs to improve is always hard to give so managers erroneously avoid it until it’s evaluation time . In my experience you can couch it In a “complement sandwich” but honestly all the employee will hear is the areas for improvement.
I do wish that evaluations weren’t necessary, but they are, particularly in large organizations. When well done they are useful to the employee. They help make decisions on pay increases and promotions. And, sadly they are necessary when managing an employee with poor performance (it does happen).
This post didn’t supply enough detail on the conversation itself to know how the OP delivered the message. I hope it was with empathy and specifics of what exceeding expectations would look like.
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