Wednesday 6 September, 2006

Appraisal, Increment and Job of Receptionist

I was confirmed into TCS last week with a not so bad rating (this actually means outstanding… but I don’t want to blow my own horn you see…). There was a formal evaluation of my deeds (or misdeeds) in TCS by my ML which turned out to be not so bad :-D. Most of the people I know were unhappy about their evaluation and some more research made me realize that this is a very common thing in the IT industry: ‘People not being happy with their appraisals’. The very thing was enough to put me into my favorite contemplating mood. According to me current evaluation practices are a complete failure (take my case for example ;-)). Reasons of failure are:
• Most of us are miles away from the reality and perceive ourselves to be what we want to be rather than what we are.
• We have this perception that animals belonging to the “Boss” category are here to damage our career and can do no good to us. True as this may be to an extent; this is not the truth always.
• Then again there are some unavoidable stupid practices like curve fitting, etc.

I personally think that the task of valuation of human resource in any organization should be strictly quantitative and should follow quantitative performance measurement rather than subjective appraisals. Old fashioned as it may sound, I think it is the only solution to making us realize about our shortcomings.

My company policy document says that my confirmation also lets me enjoy a salary increment and access to a host of company facilities (I am yet to know these facilities though). Jubilant I have already spent a considerable future income last week to celebrate my confirmation. On my hit list this time, were:

A cool 5.1 MP Sony Cybershot DCS W5 Digicam



A sleek HS-11W Bluetooth Headset from Nokia



More on these beauties in the posts to come…

After my confirmation, increment and valuation by seniors I could not keep myself from floating my resume on a few job sites just to find out my real worth in the job market. The results were shocking… After a few call centre job offers, today my CV was short listed for the job of a receptionist.



Conclusion: I am not in any hurry to change my job just now…