Am I Above Average or Not?

Not everyone can be above average, or else that would be average. But most people tend to think that they are. Have you ever had to fill out a self evaluation? Has there ever been a more flawed measure of performance? I mean, whenever I have to fill out one of these ridiculous tests, I'm always battling between bragging and incompetence. If you grade yourself high, it feels like bragging which may be what your employer wants. Maybe they're looking for confidence. However, you don't want to seem too cocky. If you grade yourself too low than they'll question your ability to perform you job. Maybe your boss will say, "We were going to give you a raise, but if you don't think you deserve it, than maybe we need to reevaluate." It seems ludicrous to me. In the end, the only opinion that really matters is the one of the person who signs your paycheck. They will grade you however they want to because they are the boss and you are the lower man or woman on the totem pole.

All this evaluation reminds me of a teacher I had in college. He had no tests and no formal grading scale. You wrote papers but never knew how you scored. He gave surprise quizzes, but you never found out the results. And class participation was also included in your grade. You were absolutely clueless until grades came out what your position in the class really was. Anyway, this teacher told us, we had a final exam coming up and since there were no tests, we would't be having a final. We would, however, be meeting from 8-10 am that day as he had more material he'd like to cover. 8 am to a college kid is torture in and of itself, but on a day where there was no justifiable reason to even be there was almost unbearable. If you didn't show for the final, he informed us, you would get an automatic incomplete for the semester. At the end of his "teaching final," he gave out the teacher assessments for the class. I for one was not in the best of moods when I graded his assessment. In the end it wouldn't matter because he had tenure. What an arrogant jerk!

Evaluations in any form when you think your opinion matters and it really doesn't is such a joke and should be outlawed.