Where did the time go?

I know I'm not exactly twink-age, but I could have sworn that Alzheimer's was a "later-in-life" disease! I kept thinking I posted a week ago and needed to catch-up, but it's February 10th now! What happened?

Actually, I have been working looooooong hours of late and come home too exhausted to think. I was recently given the opportunity to work in a local field office (I currently work at a Teleservice Center), but, being a supervisor, I have LOTS of things to close out before I can head over there. Granted, I will be returning in four months, and someone else will take over in my absence, but I don't like leaving loose ends! I am trying to write all of my mid-term appraisals (even though they aren't technically due until mid-March) and give them before I go! Nothing like trying to find synonyms for "You should not ACT like a government employee" to get the adrenaline flowing! Go figure!

Anyways, I still intend to do something insightful and magical, but I have to find the time! Since I haven't had comments, I am not sure if folks are reading or not, but I like to think that I can catch a chuckle every now and then!

How YOU doing?

Next week I get to start giving my annual performance appraisals to my 18 employees. As much as I love the thought of making them sweat, this is actually not that much fun for me. I do like getting with folks and having a nice chat, but I have discovered that most government employees aren't going to change a thing about what they do unless some adverse action is at play. Good employees will continue to perform well; bad employees will use all of their leave and complain about why they aren't getting promoted.

This will be my sixth go at this event. I think I'm prepared and that my points will all be valid. I talk with folks all the time throughout the year, so nothing should be a surprise. Yet, it inevitably happens that someone will think they are much better than I gave them credit for, and the discussion gets ugly. We have a new appraisal system where folks must get outstanding in at least 2 of the 4 elements in order to be eligible for an award. Before, you just had to be in the top 20-30% of a unit in order to get an award (and that criteria was VERY subjective). This should be interesting as I only have 3 folks who will be considered based on the new system.

We shall soon see how this goes over!