Managers cheat employees with sugar-coated performance reviews

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Dear Joan:

Here is a situation for which I could use some advice. My employer is a large, state- funded University, with whom I have been employed for nearly eight years as an Accountant II. I have been on nearly 26 separate face-to-face interviews at this institution, during this time, for which I have yet to get even one job offer.

I have always had good performance reviews, but I am now being told that I have a terrible “legacy” that causes the management in our office to be dissuaded from considering me for any type of a promotion within our office. In fact, I just lost out on the only shot that would be available for some time for a promotion to an elevated position. Any suggestion, or advice, that you would have to offer would be greatly appreciated.

Answer:

Unfortunately, you may be a victim of career homicide. You’ve been cheated out of honest feedback for years. You should have started getting suspicious after your fifth unsuccessful interview. Apparently, your manager (or prior managers) haven’t had the guts to tell you before now about this “terrible legacy.” Instead, they kept you in the dark about this untouchable status and continued to give you good performance reviews. Thank goodness someone has told you the truth before you spend another eight years in frustration.

While it’s possible that your technical work may qualify you for a good review, I find it very difficult to believe that your “legacy” and your job performance are not linked. So, why was nothing said during your reviews?  For example, even though you may work with numbers all day, if you have difficulty working with your peers, that too, is part of your performance. Or, say you are a good technical performer but you can’t express yourself very well, that should also be discussed as a part of your performance review. Whatever the legacy may be, if it is serious enough to kill your career mobility, you have a right to know about it so you can decide to change or leave.

If the unspoken black mark against you has to do with a series of political faux pas, you probably won’t be able to undo the damage. Eight years is a long time and the collateral damage would have become serious by now. I doubt it would be reversible after this length of time, which is probably why you aren’t getting promoted.

This phenomenon has become fairly common in many organizations, and here’s why:

Weak managers, who don’t like confrontation, would rather gloss over their employees’ weak areas, just so they don’t have to have an uncomfortable discussion.

These managers are more concerned with their own discomfort than helping their employees succeed and advance. And if they think the employee will become defensive or unmotivated, the path of least resistance is to keep quiet.

Lazy managers who don’t pay much attention to their employees simply don’t care enough to tell their employees the truth.

They are out of the office, Velcroed to their computers, or in meetings all day. They may not even realize the employee has a problem, or if they know about it, care more about their own world than the future of their employee.

Fearful managers who are afraid of a grievance or—gasp! —a lawsuit.

I’ve observed a disturbing trend over the last ten years. Like in most areas of life, the fear of litigation is holding managers back from saying and doing what they know they should do. Rather than doing a good job of coaching, disciplining and documenting, they look the other way or throw up their hands and blame the lawyers.

Managers who don’t believe they can fire someone because of an entitlement culture will whine about an employee but are reluctant to confront the issue.

For example, some of my university colleagues tell me that the tenure mentality permeates university culture. They say it is not worth the effort to try to confront performance because trying to get senior management to agree to hold people accountable or fire them is like pushing a rock up a mountain of bureaucracy.

Overworked managers who don’t want to tell the employee about a problem because they don’t have the energy or the time to coach the person or replace them if they leave.

They would rather have a warm body, performing at 40 percent, than go through the time-consuming job of progressive discipline. Trying to turn the performance around represents an investment of time they don’t want to make. And if they rock the boat, they might have to recruit and interview and orient… They’d rather keep what they have and let the person languish in their job, or fail.

My advice? You have two choices. You can stay in the job you have and hope that all your future managers fit one of the above categories. Or, you can get out and go find a place where you can make a fresh start. Regardless of your decision, find out what the terrible legacy is, learn from it and leave it behind.

Would you like to bridge the commitment gap with your employees?   We provide customized training workshops for managers and supervisors, that will change behavior, create a healthy culture and build a customer-focused team.  Call us today at (800) 348-1944.

Confronting poor performance, or difficult behaviors, is difficult for many managers.  Joan Lloyd’s How to Coach & Give Feedback learning system is a step-by-step approach to help you help your employees make changes in their performance that will enable them to succeed on the job.  Actually reduces defensiveness and encourages open communication.  Now available in CD!