After 16 months out of work and 16 months into my new job, I finally got a performance review. You know, those employee-crushing exercises in management power plays in which you are told nothing you did is good enough and impossibly high goals are set for next year. What a joy!
Fortunately, I’m happy to report, my most recent review was quite good, glowing even. Hey, after my brutal layoff and some nasty, nitpicking performance evaluations in the past, I’ll take it. The opposite is too unpleasant to think about.
I even got a raise…2.5%. Not much, but anything helps at this point. I can’t keep dipping into my savings every month.
Nevertheless, as my best friend would say, “So the fuck what.”
I’m no longer naïve enough to believe doing a good job will save my position when cutbacks come. Right now, I know at my company, the All White Males Club is evaluating the entire organization. Who knows what positions they will decide to hack? Will they keep the good workers or save their cronies?
I will say this again, in today’s workplace doing a good job is no guarantee you will keep your job. Unfair? Yes, but that’s the way it is.
That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t continue to do good work. In my new job, I’ve worked my formerly unemployed butt off, been helpful to co-workers, kept my mouth shut and haven’t make any major mistakes. I came close to getting reamed out once, but it didn’t happen because I happened to be working on what the manager wanted. Whew!
Yet, if they decide to eliminate my position, it won’t matter one iota.
Which brings me to the subject of an upcoming post: Loyalty—A One Way Street.
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