The monkey is dead

In my previous post I mentioned that I had delivered a rather harrowing appraisal...well, just as I have to deliver appraisals I had to receive one as well.

To provide a little context. A few years back I went through what can only be called the most miserable time of my career possible. Two years in a row I had bosses leave one month short of appraisal time so for two years in a row I was being assessed by people who didn't know me from jack. Our appraisal process follows the mighty Bell curve. Just as there are a small number of top performers in the business there are expected to be a small number of poor performers. These people are typically managed out. I work in a service area - we provide training support to multiple functional areas, all of whom have to fight for our resources. We are limited by room availability and trainer availability. All of those things combined resulted in me receiving appraisals that were very damaging to my career prospects within our business. Were they warranted... absolutely not. I do not see myself as a top performer - in my company that means making sacrifices that I am choosing not to make at this point in my life. Do I work hard and always look out for the best interests of all stakeholders? Yes.

So... after those two brutal years along comes my current boss. After six months of observation she basically said that she couldn't see why I would have been rated so low and gave me a solid rating last year. This year the monkey had been taken off my back. I didn't have the need to always protect myself and I just did my thing. Fast forward to yesterday. I received a glowing report - yes I was Bell curved but not to anything negative - and I received a bonus. This is significant because bonuses were rather scant this year...my team was hit hard.

So I think it's time to say that the monkey is well and truly dead. Rest in peace monkey - may you stay dead and buried!