you root around keep your head down staying busy at your work

                                                     then invariably

corporate finds it necessary your performance is judged(by people who arent necessarily the best to say how effective youve been but its part of their job description as your superior(careful!) that they assess your work)    

he missed the days that if you werent doing your job you lost your job no splitting hairs in regards to what you were

or werent doing

              you knew they knew  everything was hands-on   

there were no point-systems or values attached to your how you did your work

once a year you got a raise  at the very least in accord with the cost-of-living index  and if only that then as an employee you could decide should I stay or should I go 

you determined your value

if you were willing to risk your personal evaluation of your worth

Times change

            he was making fortyone percent less than on his last job after being unemployed for three years

he walked into work early as was his regiment and was promptly greeted by the assistant manager who told him that when he did punch-in to please come to the rear office where they could discuss his yearly evaluation 

he said he hadnt worked for the company for a year

the assistant manager replied evaluations were always performed at this time of the year 

okay

he punched in missing the old-fashioned time clocks clatter as he missed the old-fashioned one-arm bandits in casinos  the only physicality required now was to be able to push a button with a single finger  he couldnt wait for the time when the machine read your mind(or it was insinuated it did  --  take what you get!)

the review would likely take ten fifteen minutes

he was on the clock so he supposed what did he care                                                                   

but as he moved to the rear of the business he fronted product making it more visible and sharply aligning it  a feign some might think  he didnt  to suggest the company cared for its appearance  he did 

he had an enduring habit of reminding his employers that while hed be an excellent reflection on the company to the public the company was obliged to be a reflection on him

if he saw anything on the companys face that showed him in a bad light reflected poorly on him they could count on the fact  a barefaced fact  that hed be the first person in their face demanding its correction

employment was a two-way street

a condition of his employment

his assistant manager didnt stand when he entered the rear office or shake his hand

he tried not to hold that against him

he was a different breed  an assistant manager in name only 

the manager was a manager in name only 

Corporate finagled everything from afar  managed inventory advertising touting a down-home local sensibility for the business brand but ill-representing local product

their overarching managerial structure was spread too thin the responsibilities and assigned regions were too large too large geographically for one man(or woman  --  though there were no women)

his management team did exactly what they were told

he told his manager that he preferred to stand when he offered him a chair

Cant imagine this will take too long I havent been here long enough to truly evidence my capabilities nor reflect your talent being founded in me

he agreed there was little time to truly assess him but they were required to submit an evaluation of his performance

On with it then he said

from a personnel folder with his name on it his manager produced several computer-generated pages that were broken by boldface headings with a matrix under them

he groaned

Not KPIs

Excuse me

KPIs  Key performance indicators

No  KPMs  Key performance matrices

A rose is a rose is a rose or by any other name it would smell as sweet

Shakespeare  Romeo and Juliet

Im not following

I suppose it isnt necessary you do                                                                                                        

I have an aversion to human resource indices statistical measurements though I would readily admit any attempt to quantify qualify us also creates work and jobs

An attempt to validate worth

If worth has to be validated

I think you can understand appreciate it is necessary

he smiled

Frankly we havent time to digress

Someone somewhere down the line sold this bill-of-goods so far-flung entities could ascertain their employees anonymous performance

Youd admit the talleys well discuss are subjective

Subjective

As to objective

I dont follow

Its manipulation  I fantasize a pyramid of puppets and puppets above pulling puppet-strings of underlings

A tantalizing crazy cats cradle  Though it is impossibly vertical  Another conception might be a house-of-cards watching for its inevitable collapse or for it to be consumed and shuffled in among other decks

Okay  Maybe we can get started

Fine by me

later . . .

        I dont want to put too fine a point on it but if the scale I am referred against is from one-point-zero to five-point-zero and no one has ever been rated above four-point-zero it should top out at four-point-zero because virtually no one will ever be better than eighty percent  

Accordingly to my school experience seventyeight to eightythree percent was a C

And thats important why

It ought to be important to you One of the KPMs which blows my mind that it even exists  virtually commonsense  any employee who cant follow it ought not to be able to hold their job

Which KPM

Availability and Punctuality  First I disagree the two should be conjoined We  we employees  dont set our availability yourself management assigns us our schedules  Second if ones not punctual cant be counted on to meet their obligation they shouldnt be employed by the company

Finally the fine point I want to point out is this 

If on the companys one to five point scale  and you have professed I am always early to work which you insist is much-appreciated  and I have never been late  how is it possible am I rated three-point-five 

By your own assessment by my log-ins matrix my attendance and promptness Im perfect

Im not even given four-point-zero which you have say is the highest possible rate one can achieve    

Eighty percent according to corporates scale

I cant imagine no one has ever taken issue with that proposition

You must recognise  dont you

Im diminished

Despite perfect attendance

maybe I should have taken the chair he offered at the beginning of the interview 

standing up above him looking down on him might have seemed as if I staged it  --  not that I knew what he was going to say  --  or adversarial

he briefly made eye contact then asked what I expected him to do

I told him I expected hed note my file  make an addendumb(thats how I saw it in my eyes as I said it) and if he was unsure at the end with his wording  I hadnt minced my words it shouldnt be hard to recount them  I would sincerely appreciate him sharing it with me before he closed the book on it

he said he was confident

Good  I said

            Because I know where you live

1515,  Monday,  4  4. 16

 1259,  Saturday,  30  4. 16

while you read play Fred Friths Gravity: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ARXsaNN2Os