Today I've been asked to evaluate two interns who have been working in our department since the beginning of the year. These girls are both going to Executive Assistant school (yes people, such a thing does exist!) and for the past 11 months they've been working 3 days in our office and 2 days attending classes.
When they arrived they were each assigned a manager (one of the mini Heads) and a mentor (me). My job was basically to "show them the works" and to back them up when they were in school or when they felt overloaded. I've never really seen myself as their boss actually, more like the person that they can turn to for help when they don't know who else to ask. But now I'm asked to Evaluate them and that poses certain problems for me.
First of all, as I said, I don't consider myself their boss... I don't consider myself a boss period so how on earth am I supposed to know what needs to be evaluated??!!!
Second, how demanding or strict am I expected to be? I mean, they are interns learning to be assistants for heavens sake! It's not like the bank will loose millions of euros if they're repeatdly late for work or if they take too many coffee brakes (both pretty recurrent lately) right? ...
But on the other hand, what if they're hired at the end of their internship based on my evaluation and they turn out to be slackers or bad employees? How responsable should I feel about this?
And third, what is your basis to evaluate a person anyway? I mean, should I use myself as an example? I am after all an assistant myself.... But if so, in what way? I make tons of mistakes all the time so how fair can it be to expect the other person to be perfect? And what about the opposite? How can you grade someone else for not living up to your own personal idea of what a job well done means?
Having had my own yearly evaluation with my boss recently I know how delicate this process can be. Both praise and recrimination have to be given with precaution and the right words must be chosen carfully. How am I to know where is the limit?
I suppose there's no right or wrong way..... I guess I might as well pucker up and do it and whatever may come will come.
In any case, if there's something this experience has taught me is that I will probably never make it to manager! LOL
- F
6 comments:
I think you should be proud and that they asked you to do it.
I think you should be completely honest, and in areas where they both need improvement, let them know their shortcomings in a positive way. It's ok if they make mistakes, but you also have to learn from it and not repeat the same mistake over and over again. And if they take 50 coffee breaks in a day, someone has to tell them it's not ok to do that.
I remember having evaluations done on me and honestly, they didn't tell me anything I didn't already know. However, I did need a kick in the ass for the things I knew I was slacking on.
Like being late. I'm just not very good at being on time. Especially if it's for work. Who wants to get up for THAT!
I don't envy you your job, that sounds hard! Evaluations at any company in any position are always difficult...and the worst is when they make you evaluate yourself!
Do you write that you're the most amazing employee ever and lie through your teeth? Or are your brutally honest about your flaws and risk not getting that raise???
What a dilemma :)
finalement qu'est que t'as décidé?Faire ou non ?
Having been in a similar position, I would make a list of specific areas for evaluation, ie, "follows direction, completes tasks in a timely manner, solves problems independently, takes initiative", etc., etc.. Rather than just giving a general good or bad eval, you can focus on areas they are great in and areas they could use some improvement in, that will give a balance and also allows you to "cover your ass" if indeed they are hired and later show problems.
Good luck, it's always a difficult position to be in!
Thank you all for your ideas and suggestions on how to do these evaluations and I'm happy to report that I survived the process!
Mexico Way: I do amdmit I was a bit proud they asked me to do it ;) ... and you were right. One of the girls told me this morning that she had realized she'd been overdoing the "getting in late every morning" thing but that it was my pointing it out yesterday that got her butt in gear this morning and on time to the office! LOL
Mamacita: It was hard! Specially since one of the girls reminds me a lot of myself so how can you evaluate someone that seems to have the same flaws as you do? But it turned out ok and she took it pretty well. Not to say that my own evaluation went as smoothly... I tend to only look at the bad things and not notice the good... so when my boss wrote in my evaluation: might be ready to move to the marking department next year (a pretty intersting career move) I, of course, understood: we can't wait to to get rid of her! pfffff...
Anonymous: Oui, c'est fait et ça s'est plutot bien passé... au moins de mon coté.
Cancun Canuck: Gosh... you sound like such a pro! I wish I'd had that list when I did the evals...I'm sure I would have looked a whole lot more professional! I think in the end it came out ok. I felt they actually appreciated the fact that it didn't seem so "official" and this let them talk openly and honestly about how they felt they did this past year. I tried to make them realize by themselves their strong points and mentioned the places where I felt there was "room for improvement" from an exterior point of view.
Overall, it was a stressing yet quite interesting experience!
Fned.
Glad it worked out!!!
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