Do you ever find yourself driving in silence? Like for a long time? I have a nearly 2 hour commute each way to and from work and there are many (many) days I find myself a good 50 minutes into my ride home when I realize I am driving in silence.
I think I do this mostly on the days when I spend a lot of time thinking. You see because some days in my job I just go from meeting to meeting to meeting, with barely a minute to pee or eat (I generally eat my meals in meetings and arrive late to a meeting so I can pee) with no real Brain power being used. But then there are days like today, where I sit in front of my computer, sequestered in my office, really focused on completing a task or a list of tasks.
We are in the "Interim Performance Appraisal" period and as a manger I need to write a performance appraisal for each of my employees. I am not a manager that writes one review and then changes it from He to she or him to her. I write my staff's reviews in first person, I write them directly to them. It is really important to me that the people that work for me know that I see what they are doing, that even though I am not right on top of them I recognize their strengths and weaknesses.
Most of the managers I work with (my own boss included) do not feel this way. I can not tell you how many times in the past 3 weeks I have heard "It's just the interim, just list a few bullets and be done". This irks me to no end.
It is my job as a manager to evaluate the performance of these people and to coach and mentor them to make improvements and build their career. A few bullets will not do that.
Anyway, my post was about driving in silence. Do you ever find yourself doing that? Do you ever intentionally turn off the music so you can listen to your thoughts?
3 comments:
When i used to work and had a particularly shitty day, i'd have to drive home in silence because I couldnt handle any additional stimulation. It was those days that I wished I had more than a 2 mile drive to work.
The evaluations- isn't the point of them to build on your strengths and improve your weaknesses? And to know what they are? I'd want you for a boss. If they aren't taking the time to *really* do them, why bother at all?
I am with "Ginger". When I worked a job that actually took thinking (my current job I don't think I pray that I am not going to snap) I would find a lot of times I turned the radio off.
And the reviews, I 100% agree, I would rather have one that they point out what I am doing wrong in detail so I can improve. How are you supposed to know your weak areas if they are not pointed out?
I personally prefer the radio off, and as silent as possible in the car, but, i am alone in that in this house so if anyone is with me, it's on...but if i'm alone, it goes off...it's like ahhhhh...
and yeah, really, a thorough report is really more then bullets! I'm glad you care enough to give the bulleters the what's what and are helping your employees as much as you can, regardless of their performance...
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