Perceptions from the mid-cycle review

It never made sense to me why my office conducts its "mid-cycle" performance reviews in August and then its annual reviews in December.

I mean, hey, I'm no rocket scientist or nuthin' but I do know that August is not mid in this cycle! More like two-thirds or some junk like that! But I digress...

Anyway, I got my review today and it wasn't anything too surprising. My current boss (I've had 2 in the past year) is trying to teach me how to write goals and is telling me how to get more statisfaction out of my job. He also told me that I am "on-track" to a promotion at year's end if I "keep up the good work".

That's all good stuff, but that's not all he said.

Nope, it wasn't all sunshine and cookies this year.

He started to tell me about how, in the officeplace, perception is reality. He told me that it doesn't really matter what the truth of a situation is but only how that situtation is perceived by others. (Uh oh! Red flags and danger and all that!) He then proceeded to tell me that there had been "talk in the office" about the amount of time my co-worker (and good friend) and I had been spending "hanging out" while at work. He assured me that no one had or could complain about the work that we do, the quality, timeliness, etc. becuase we are known for doing our work as requested and usually complete it on-time if not early. And he also told me that he know about the "hurry up and wait" that is so much a part of the job I do. (Believe me, there are some long draughts inheirent to the work I do but when it rains it pours.) "But," he said, "if some one sees that you two are spending a lot of time talking at our desks or at the coffee machine then the common perception of the two of you and your job performance will not be in your favor." He told me that there were some who felt that they were working harder than we were and that, therefore, we must not be working at all. Or at least not very hard anyway. He finished by telling me that he wanted these BS sessions to stop and for us to find work to fill up our down time.

Unfortunately, I couldn't argue with him because he had me nailed. Well, at least on the part about the "hanging out". We did spend too much time doing that and we did need to stop. However, the perception part is a big pile of poopie and I told him so. I told him that it seemed rediculous to me that perceived efficacy is valued higher than actual efficacy. I went on to explain how sitting at ones desk and surfing the web during your down time any different than what we were doing. Yet, because those who are engaged with their computer screens could actually be doing work (whether they were or not was not to be addressed) they are perceived as being more productive and harder workers than those who choose to engage one another. He agreed but that didn't matter since the perception was that we were the ones obviously not working so we didn't get the benefit of the doubt.

And that was that.

My friend and I knew that our freedom wouldn't last forever and, thankfully, we were tipped off to it's impending doom by a empathetic supervisor just before the mid-cycles came around. We changed our behavior and hang out only during our officially sanctioned breaks. The days are emptier than they used to be and boredom is once again a constant companion but at least we are giving off the correct perception now and that's all that matters.