Appraisals, performance reviews, call them what you like, everyone has an opinion on whether they are worthwhile or not. Brought into companies as part of the investors in people scheme which seems to have been created to give employees a warm fuzzy feeling that their welfare is important, the appraisal is either friend or foe. I probably had my first review back in the dim and distant late eighties, early nineties and I failed to find them useful then. They were few and far between and seemed like a tick in the box affair and to my mind nothing has changed since apart from them being more prolific now than ever. For those people who have a career path in mind and want to plot progress and need training and perhaps mentoring and support to get there then they certainly have value. But I'm one of a number of people who just want to do their job with the minimum of fuss, and collect their monthly pay check. How can generating objectives and training for the sake of filling these things in really help me to do my job better? Trouble is they seem to be here to stay so unless I wanna get all stressed out about it then I'm gonna have to bite the bullet and accept that they are part of my working environment. Not an easy task for the non believer in me ;-)
Wednesday 15 February 2012
All work and no play
... makes Jack a dull boy as the saying goes. Julia had the day off uni yesterday as her lecturer is ill. Wish I was given the odd day off work for free! Seems like all I do lately is get up, go to work, come home, then dinner, bed and start all over again the next day. Talk about feeling as though one were on a treadmill. Apart from about 8 months when Julia was first born I've been at work and probably like most people I'm sick of the monotony. I find myself longing for the future days of retirement when time will truly be my own, or looking back at the best of my CTS days when work was more bearable and I at least felt like one of the team. Working in a big company sometimes feels as though you've got lost in the noise. Yes there's anonymity to a degree but equally no sense of belonging, of being part of something. Think I should look at persuading someone to pay me to stay home, now that really would be a job worth having!
Sunday 5 February 2012
Snow, crap, snow!
After about 5" snow falling last night I'm hoping against hope that it doesn't hang around all week as the aircon at work has now suffered a major failure :-( It's being fixed as of tomorrow which is better than I expected as thought they would be still getting quotes in, but it'll take 4-5 weeks apparently so not the best thing when it's freezing cold outside and snow everywhere. Stayed in the warm today as I'll have to brave it tomorrow, if I'm lucky enough the bus might still be running, if not it'll be shankies pony all the way with my trekking poles and wellies :-( much to the amusement of the security guards who'll no doubt take the mickey when they see me tomorrow! Couldn't be asked to go out and take photos so snapped a few from the bedroom window and the backdoor, the kids have been sledging all day over the fields though secretly I think the adults had the most fun ;-) them and the dogs enjoying their daily walk in the snow. Some little westie type had to practically leap across the snow as it was up to his little legs bless him! Pity I can't swing a duvet week next week, be good not to be under pressure to get in, I hate worrying about falling over, might have to see what time the bus runs back again assuming that it's running at all into the estate. Definitely should have invested in the spike snow shoes that you see everywhere. At this rate I can't wait for summer to come!