I was asked to stop by and visit Patricia. Apparently, she had fallen behind in her managerial responsibilities to conduct performance reviews with her team members.

“Why the long face?” I asked.

“You were sent by the enemy,” she joked.

“Yes, and the enemy wants to know why you are resisting the performance appraisals for your team members.”

Patricia paused and slid a form across her desk. “They got this off of some website. We’re supposed to use it as the basis for these performance appraisals. Seems like a big waste of time.”

“How so?”

“Three reasons,” she replied.

• The form doesn’t specifically apply to the task assignments my team works on.
• It asks me to rate things on a scale from (1-5). But it leaves me in the dark as to what a (2) means. Or a (4).
• I have to write down some comment on any rating that is not a (3). It’s easier just to rate everything a (3), but what’s the point?
• I know if I show this to my team member, it’s just going to start an argument.
• The instructions tell me to think about situations from the entire past year and describe them in this little box. Things don’t fit in the box.

“That’s five things,” I observed.

“Sorry, I just got carried away.”