Work self-appraisal form -help!

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buggi

Bird Saviour
Location
Solihull
Option A, fecking quit and get a job you do like for a company you might want to work for.

Option B, fill the form, they're easy. Find the company charter, principles, motto, ethics or some HR company profile. Read it and ensure you use all the key words in answering the questions. Our includes accountability, sustainability, respect and integrity. And then when answering the questions play the company buzz word game. If the question asks where you want to be in 5 years, you can answer... Continuing to provide sustainable support and remaining accountable for the work I am asked to complete. Or if it asks about achieving goals.....I have consistently delivered support through mutual respect of my peers. And if you get a question and low points in the year......I have faced some difficult challenges this year and while failing to meet stretch targets I have continued to endeavour to deliver my work with integrity and accountability. Always mention what you learnt after failures, HR love that sh!t.

And don't forget to pepper the form with some actual examples, names, dates, projects, tasks and you should be good. The other day I got email thanking me for a quick response to a question and bang, that goes into the form somewhere.
I've got a sneaky suspicion you work at the same place I do LOL
 

BrumJim

Forum Stalwart (won't take the hint and leave...)
Is there a web page where you can crib stock answers to self-assessment forms?

Its a pity that a process designed to encourage and enthuse staff so often does the exact opposite. You can either play the straightest bat possible, and give the blandest most non-committal answers until they give up asking, or be honest, and see what improvements that they can make. I suggest that you don't go in first, and find out what other people's experience is, and then decide how to play it.

I've found my annual appraisal to be the heartening, positive, and very useful. But the following days are the lowest days of the year. And I have a boss in a million. Who is leaving at the end of the month.
 
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tyred

tyred

Legendary Member
Location
Ireland
I feel a bit more positive this morning but still wish it and the new boss would just disappear and leave me in peace!

Thanks to everyone one who contributed and I have been able to use a lot of what I've read in this thread.

With regards to whether or not I would be entitled to redundancy payments or they they can wipe out my previous history, it was part of the new contract that I signed that clearly stated that my previous employment history doesn't count for anything and I am a new employee. At the time I was basically told sign it or have no job so I signed it as I didn't feel I had another option at that point in time. A guy I know who does work at management level (for an entirely different organisation) insisted that they couldn't do this and I should see a solicitor but surely now that I signed that contract, I've signed away any rights that I might have had? I've just always been hopeless with legal matters which I guess is something that our lords and masters like to use to their advantage where they can.
 

BrumJim

Forum Stalwart (won't take the hint and leave...)
In UK law, you can't sign your rights away.

So, for example, you go on a tree-tops experience, and sign a form to say that you accept full responsibility, and one of the ropes breaks, you fall and break a limb. Can you still claim? Yes. They only get you to sign the form to dissuade you from taking legal action. The only thing you can sign away is personal responsibility, so if you sign to say that you are going to follow instructions and the accident is caused by you deliberately disobeying them, then you are going to be in trouble.

I guess the same is here. They are trying to persuade you that you don't have rights to redundancy, when in fact they do. Nothing more than corporate bullying.
 

PK99

Legendary Member
Location
SW19
I feel a bit more positive this morning but still wish it and the new boss would just disappear and leave me in peace!

Thanks to everyone one who contributed and I have been able to use a lot of what I've read in this thread.

With regards to whether or not I would be entitled to redundancy payments or they they can wipe out my previous history, it was part of the new contract that I signed that clearly stated that my previous employment history doesn't count for anything and I am a new employee. At the time I was basically told sign it or have no job so I signed it as I didn't feel I had another option at that point in time. A guy I know who does work at management level (for an entirely different organisation) insisted that they couldn't do this and I should see a solicitor but surely now that I signed that contract, I've signed away any rights that I might have had? I've just always been hopeless with legal matters which I guess is something that our lords and masters like to use to their advantage where they can.

http://www.nidirect.gov.uk/transfers-of-employment-contracts

http://www.citizensinformation.ie/e...racts_of_employment/transfer_of_business.html
 

col

Legendary Member
Get advice, you have all history and rights of previous employers, it rolls on.
 

mybike

Grumblin at Garmin on the Granny Gear
With regards to whether or not I would be entitled to redundancy payments or they they can wipe out my previous history, it was part of the new contract that I signed that clearly stated that my previous employment history doesn't count for anything and I am a new employee. At the time I was basically told sign it or have no job so I signed it as I didn't feel I had another option at that point in time. A guy I know who does work at management level (for an entirely different organisation) insisted that they couldn't do this and I should see a solicitor but surely now that I signed that contract, I've signed away any rights that I might have had? I've just always been hopeless with legal matters which I guess is something that our lords and masters like to use to their advantage where they can.


By the sound of it you were threatened with consequences if you didn't do as they required which under common law would raise a question over whether you freely assented. A solicitor would be able to advise.
 

Fab Foodie

hanging-on in quiet desperation ...
Location
Kirton, Devon.
They are a pain .... in fact this year after years of useless corporate development plans and appraisals I've not even bothered to submit one this year, feck-'em. Either I'm doing a decent job or I'm not. My customers report that I do a damn good job for them, so that's good enough for me.

I go with honesty. You just have to temper how you say it not what you say. So if the question is where do you want to be in 5 years, reply honestly- If you have no ambition to do anything other than what you're doing now then say so in a positive way (I actually got my current job based on this because the company knew there were no real foreseeable routes for progression so I was just what they wanted). Many companies appreciate having good, reliable capable and non-ambitious people. It's what makes organisations tick-along and often such people are worth their weight in gold ... and are unfortunately under-rewarded too.. If there are aspects you struggle with, say them somehow in a positive light. Who knows, others might have the same issues. I don't think you should be afraid. If they don't want you, you'll be out anyhow. If they want you then they will take your positive 'issues' seriously.
I don't agree with 'telling them what they want to hear' that changes nothing for anybody.
 

BrumJim

Forum Stalwart (won't take the hint and leave...)
They don't sound like the kind of company where honesty is what they want.

Give them nothing. Bland meaningless crap, and 3/5 in everything. Brick wall everything, and force them to read between the lines, but don't give them anything to read.

(probably crap advice)
 

w00hoo_kent

One of the 64K
I'm getting a feel that it's a small company (if you're face to facing with the big boss) but it might be worth telling HR you've never had to go through this process before and asking if they have any documentation or training set up to help you. If only to make them squirm a bit. I've never seen anything happen as a result of our appraisals and I've had two and a half decades of them here so we also write bland stuff and just send it in to be filed. You might find that talking to the boss gives you a chance to work out if he cares about what is happening in the company. You've mentioned that there are changes for the worse, if that's in productivity, then you might want to ask what the aim of some of the changes are (always wise before outright criticising them in case he's brought them in personally) and point out if they aren't working providing you are comfortable that they aren't his personal ideas. If he doesn't seem to care, just 'smile and wave' until he goes away. Agree with him and be non-committal.
 
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tyred

tyred

Legendary Member
Location
Ireland
It is a small company and we don't really have a HR department.

I have made an appointment to speak to Citizens Advice on Friday. I'm probably over-thinking the consequences of this appraisal nonsense and I intend to find a different job anyway but I want to know what my position is, specifically if they do want rid of me, I'd like the redundancy money I feel I should be entitled to in the circumstances (but I guess every dismissed employee feels he/she is entitled to something).
 

Pat "5mph"

A kilogrammicaly challenged woman
Moderator
Location
Glasgow
I think you're jumping to conclusions: this appraisal stuff does not mean they want ride of you at all, it's just another management strategy to broadly get to know the workforce they have acquired at changeover.
 

mr_cellophane

Legendary Member
Location
Essex
When I got TUPE'd the first time, they told us that we only kept our existing conditions for 2 years. That was BS and 7 years later we still had them. When I moved around and worked with others who had been TUPE'd in from different companies, they believed what they had been told and had lost valuable benefits.
A couple of years later I was working at another company and they were telling people who were TUPE'd in that it was only for 2 years. Seems to be something employers try to get away with.
 

mybike

Grumblin at Garmin on the Granny Gear
When I got TUPE'd the first time, they told us that we only kept our existing conditions for 2 years. That was BS and 7 years later we still had them. When I moved around and worked with others who had been TUPE'd in from different companies, they believed what they had been told and had lost valuable benefits.
A couple of years later I was working at another company and they were telling people who were TUPE'd in that it was only for 2 years. Seems to be something employers try to get away with.

The level of confusion among the workforce certainly works in the companies favour. I remember the confusion I experienced, being moved back & forth between a UK & EU organisation.
 

annedonnelly

Girl from the North Country
I think you're jumping to conclusions: this appraisal stuff does not mean they want ride of you at all, it's just another management strategy to broadly get to know the workforce they have acquired at changeover.
I think it's more likely someone has read a "management" book or, worse, employed a consultant who's told them at great expense to do this.

It's probably nothing to worry about but we all get stressed by silly little things sometimes.
 
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