|
|
|
|
WebGoddessCathy |
|
|
|
||||||
|
> site feed |
|
|
<-- my life, by webgoddesscathy --> :: Saturday, October 01, 2005 :: It's been a great day at my parents' farm. I came home for my mom's birthday. I slept in. Dad made breakfast and we ate out in the sunshine. My dad and I were talking financials when Marlene (Heather's mom) drove up the driveway to surprise my mom. We talked and worked on our quilt and then went to Dairy Queen for a Georgia Mud Fudge Blizzards. I made my mom a banana butterscotch cheesecake and took her out for a seafood dinner. Then dad brought out the loot for her: new quilting paraphenalia. You know you're a nerd when that excites you. We're already planning our next quilt. And tomorrow? Back to Toronto to have dinner with Mr. Cathy and then go to the David Gray concert. I can't wait! :: Cathy 8:59 PM [+] :: 0 comments :: Thursday, September 29, 2005 :: Sometimes the most simple things take forever. Like my St. Maarten timeshare page. I have been meaning to do that page FOREVER. And for some reason, it kept getting put off. Too many other things to do, of course. But when I got down to it, it only took me an hour. However, I would like to point out that there are about seven hundred other things I didn't do in that hour that still remain on my list: Because sometimes you've just got to do that thing that isn't getting done. BAM! :: Cathy 7:15 PM [+] :: 0 comments :: Monday, September 26, 2005 :: Ohmygosh, I feel sick. I think I nearly passed out at work today. One minute, I felt totally normal, writing an email at my desk, having just eaten my favourite lunch: BBQ pork noodle soup at Congee Star. The next minute, the room swam and I nearly fell over. Weird. And now I just feel really crappy. Maybe I'm getting sick. Unfortunately, I can't stay home as I have a big launch party to go to and I have no sick days left, apparently. Not sure how that happened, as I believed that I had only been away twice all year. However, I'm sure my boss tracked it VERY carefully. :: Cathy 7:21 PM [+] :: 1 comments :: Sunday, September 25, 2005 :: I am super emotional today. Alex and I had such a nice weekend together and I'm sitting here thinking how sad I am that I'll only see him again on Wednesday and even then he'll be playing at Healey's and I won't have much opportunity to talk to him. Maybe my brother's engagement is making me all relationship-crazy. But, no. It's not just that. Someone told me last night that when Alex looks at me his whole body changes - softens - and he gets this funny half-smile, no matter whether he's sitting beside me or across the bar. He'll hate that I'm writing this. He thinks I make him out to sound like a wuss. I think I make him out to sound in love with me. And I'm OK with that. :: Cathy 6:16 PM [+] :: 1 comments Things that make for a great weekend: What makes it crappy: :: Cathy 3:00 PM [+] :: 0 comments Thanks to "anonymous" commenter, who sent me the Joel-on-Software post, which talks about the negative effect that performance reviews have on, well, performance. And I wonder: if it's been proven many times over that "...people who expect to receive a reward for completing a task or for doing that task successfully simply do not perform as well as those who expect no reward at all.." (Harvard Business Review Sept/Oct 93), then why do we keep the review system? I don't understand how that's possible, actually, since I think that if I have a reward at the end, I usually try harder. I mean, that obviously depends on whether I place any value on the reward offered, of course. But if I thought: damn, if I do this right, I'll have an extra week of vacation, I'd definitely work harder at it. I mean, sure, I work pretty hard on almost everything. But sometimes there are things that have to take a higher priority and the thing that would get me a reward would surely become the highest priority, wouldn't it? I'd be stupid NOT to prioritize it. So I don't understand that Harvard stat. I have a hard time believing it. Maybe it's because managers generally reward behaviours/tasks that their employees don't like doing or aren't good at. And maybe employees DON'T get rewarded for the things they actually LIKE doing and therefore, do a better job at? Skewed statistic, anyway. And I don't agree that performance reviews are ALWAYS bad. Some sort of review system is necessary to keep people on track; to help them understand what's important to the boss or their company and to help the boss/company understand what's important to the employee. Both sides tend to lose sight of this if it isn't refreshed in their memories every once in a while. It can give them renewed vigour in their pursuits of their goals. But I certainly don't think that a once-a-year meeting is exactly the best format for this system. I think people need to have consistent monitoring and be told when they do something if it's not on the right track. Don't tell me six months later, when all I can do is look back on it and cringe. Performance enhancement should be ongoing and never a surprise at the end of the year. You should know exactly what was expected of you and whether or not you achieved it before you even go in that room. Your boss should know what it was/is that the employee wanted to achieve and the reward that they were shooting for and it should not be a hard decision as to whether they get that agreed reward. I don't understand how, with all of the books out there on the subject, reviews can be so far off the mark from what they're supposed to be! Doesn't everyone know by now that objectives are supposed to be: 1. specific 2. measurable 3. achievable 4. relevent or realistic (depending on which book you read) 5. time-based And doesn't everyone know that these objectives are supposed to be reviewed frequently and possibly changed if necessary? If it were actually done this way, maybe reviews actually WOULD have a positive effect instead of being that dreaded meeting when employers and employees end up in a battle (ahem - I mean, "negotiation") and someone always ends up feeling cheated. :: Cathy 2:33 PM [+] :: 0 comments
|
|
|
|
|
||||||
|
 |
|
||||||||||||
