I just had my PDS discussion and I knew it was going to be devoid of substance and a total waste of time. It was. What I didn’t know was that my wife would inadvertently overhear the discussion.
Not only did my supervisor confuse me with another person in our group, he actually asked me to beef up my work on a project I stopped working on a few months ago.
During the discussion, I asked for clarification on a couple things, and he got so flustered, he changed the subject (after I rephrased the question multiple times in the hopes of getting an answer).
Finally, he asked me what I thought of my ranking, and I said, “I don’t really think about ranking anymore.” I guess he either never listened to the many conversations we’ve had about ranking or he loves a good awkward moment, because he asked the wrong person.
I proceeded to tell him all the flaws in the way we handle employee assessments and development. My favorite thing to do is quote statistics and studies that show you can’t simultaneously have a functional environment of collaboration and innovation AND a ranking system like ours.
After about 3 minutes, he had enough and cut me off, saying we are out of time. In reality, we were only 15 minutes into an hour time slot for my discussion.
The best part was after I hung up, my wife said, “That was really effed up. Is he really a supervisor?”
I have mentioned it’s a toxic workplace for years, but there’s nothing like having an outsider give you a new perspective.
It is effed up. I’m glad I’m retiring in 2 months.