Next Door Neighbors by Pat Sandy for January 15, 2024

GOOOOOOOOOOOOOAL!!!!!!!!

Goals for football and soccer aren’t all that rare this time of year!

College professors have to write ‘self assessments’ every year. Some of them don’t have much to write.

I always hated review time. What did you do? MY JOB! That isn’t good enough!

We had an interim Police Chief who believed in management by objective. I had just been promoted to Sergeant and he, during a supervisor’s meeting, demanded goals be set, to in his words, establish a “minimum performance standard,” Which was all fine and good until I pointed out to him that such goals could be considered quotas and that would be illegal, but he incorporated the things into the policy and procedures manual.

So I set a minimum performance standard for my shift at 1 citation, 1 arrest, etc. per year, which insulated me and my shift from lawsuits and accusations over quotas. That way I could honestly say on the stand that I did have a quota in accordance with Department policy. He threatened me with demotion. I told him he was the Chief and I served as a Sergeant at his pleasure, but that I would consider all my options were I demoted. No threats to sue or anything else, just that I would consider all my options.

What I discovered was that my squads worked hard, made the lawful arrests, enforced traffic laws and in general did better far and above the other shifts/squads. Those other officers, with some notable exceptions, took a minimum performance standard as an excuse not to perform above the standard.

That chief didn’t last long, about 6 months, and someone with a lot more sense became the Chief and did away with the ridiculousness

I worked for a company where you had to apply for your own job every year.

I hate when that happens …..

My last couple of years before retiring were a real challenge. Except the last one when I just wrote to retire as my goal!

Seriously, as far as I can tell HR weighs them, scans them and puts them into write-only storage.

I could accomplish more goals if I didn’t have to waste time writing about goals.

While I was “employed” I received a summary each year of my performance over the last year – when my supervisor sat me down (interrupting the work flow, by the way) my FIRST question to him was, " Have Idone ANYTHING in the past year that would get me reprimanded or fired?"

After I was told (every time) that I hadn’t, I stopped listening.

My supervisors were almost ALWAYS college graduates that had no real grasp of the job that I performed (it was technical and electronic in nature) so they couldn’t measure WHAT I did – just how I did it.

My company routinely assigned recent college graduates to my group as sort of an “acid test” of their ability to deal with adversity (I guess) – we called them “Jet Jobs” because they were invariably on the fast track to promotion.

When ANYONE evaluates another’s performance, the criteria of that evaluation must be very closely scrutinized, and appropriate weight must be assigned…

How about, don’t kill you and end up in prison. Is that a good enough goal?

When I worked in a corporate setting I told my boss that my goal was to keep her boss off her back. Later as a school bus driver I told the boss that my goal was to be there on time, not skip any stops, not leave stops early and not take work home with me.