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

The Pot of Gold at the End of the Rainbow

Several months ago I was really unhappy with my work, the people around me at work and especially those who were supposed to be my immediate down liners. The root of my unhappiness? Pretty simple... they did not share the sense of urgency, accountability, the need to strive for the best in delivering results, etc. These people were like the government servants in the era of 80s (sorry that I have to use such analogy).

But what Hubby said was true. He is my king of logic after all :P He said all those things would pass and whoever survive the tide would be the winner. True enough, last Friday, my boss (I have pronounced him to be my Mentor - he didn't know this of course :)) called me for a career chat. We talked about how he made a career suicide with his ultimate boss at the Group level, and how he was content with where he was at the moment. But he acknowledged that I was ambitious and worked hard to get where I wanted to be. I did ask him how fast I could climb up the corporate ladder in the organisation after only being there for 6 months :))

And what he conveyed that day was really something that I would remember for the rest of my life. He said that I had been earmarked for being his successor. He was requested by his ultimate boss to head somewhere else, and that the CEO of the company had requested for me to take over from him. His exact words were "I would be really upset if you leave the company". Another recognition that made me really feel proud of myself was the fact that the ultimate boss at the Group level had told my boss to take me with him when he leaves next year.

I was so on the cloud nine after that conversation that I didn't give a damn that my big event later that evening didn't go that well (there was a shortage of food for dinner planned for 1000 ++ pax).

I realised that all these boiled down to one thing - if you're honestly working hard to get what you want, insyaallah, God will show you the way and opportunity will prevail itself. I am thankful (alhamdulillah) to God for this and pray that my rezeki will always be guarded by Him.

Amin.

ieja