The Appraisal of Life

It's that time of the year where most people who are the employees of an organisation need to do this exercise at least once every year. I am no exception. Yes... it's December and most companies close their financial year by end of December. Hence, those who are in charged of the performance and rewards are now busy with staff appraisal to justify their work performance, which eventually will affect the staff's salary increment or bonus.

I am never a fan of this kind of system. However elaborated your justification is to show how you are indispensable or an asset to the company, it all boils down to certain figures or ratings that are used by the company to see if you really are eligible for that extra compensation.

I have always been in companies that did not have a standard practice of compensating the staff with annual bonus. So, this is something  new to me. What I notice is that those who are in the companies that practice this annual bonus as part of their competitive rewards scheme would not take it well if they feel that they are not being given as what they expect to get. In other words, they think it is given, or it's the company's obligation to give them all this annual salary increment or bonus. When they don't get those, this is when I see some of the hell doors break open.

What they don't realise is that it is at the company's discretion that they actually get those bonuses, where the fine print always says "subject to the company's financial performance, and individual employees' work performance". If they are labelled as 'below threshold', in which God's universe would the company is obligated to award them with the annual bonus.

The funny thing about all these people is that the talk about their "work performance" and the subject of "bonus" only comes out when it is time for them to be appraised. Whatever happens in January to November? Have you done your reality check with your bosses if you actually meet their expectations at all?

Oh well... I hope I'm not going to be affected by these people. I haven't been given bonuses for God knows how long. So this year, if I really do get that kind of rewards, that really is a "bonus" for me :)

ieja