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The annual confidential report, an impartial assessment of the character, capabilities, and performance of an employee, was once a dreaded tool in the arsenal of the reporting authority, particularly in the pre-digital era. Often, it would not be a fair appraisal of the individual who would have sweated the whole year for the report that could make or mar
his career.
Sometimes the comments in the work and conduct columns of the report would be “damned with faint praise”. “Has immense potential” or “just satisfactory” or, in respect of someone who would play truant now and then “excellent whenever present”. The bosses seldom called out
an employee for lack of performance or conduct but took refuge in such muted comments.
Of course, there were also those who wielded a bold and ugly pen, and a report from them could demolish aspiring individuals and set them reeling down the corporate ladder by a few years, and by the time they found their feet, things would be beyond repair.
But one confidential report that took the cake was “far from satisfactory” in respect of an employee with an impeccable track record and a soaring career graph. The union members immediately swung into action as they perceived the matter as a grave injustice perpetrated against a star performer and sent one of their astute representatives to plead for the aggrieved employee’s cause.
When he said the employee should have been given “excellent” for his endeavours, unfazed, the reporting authority came back with a smile. “Far from Satisfactory” is a much better report than merely excellent, which anybody can get.
When the union representative appeared nonplussed, the assessor elaborated, “Far from satisfactory means he has left his satisfactory status far behind and forged ahead.” In chaste Bengali, he said, “satisfactory ke chhede anek door choley gacchey.”
Though performance did play a part, the reports were largely impression-driven, and some deserving people lost out and others gained for no genuine reason.
Yet, there were fair-minded bosses who exercised their judgement to see that those who performed well deserved better. So Bosses were indeed a motley crowd! I had my fair share of good and bad reports that were widely disparate in my long career in a large, amorphous organisation. One reporting authority’s comment was “lacklustre performance,” and the other said “star performer!”
Of course, with technology taking over, one’s entire performance is on display, data-driven, and fed into computers, throwing up the requisite scores. More transparency, less subjectivity. A very miniscule part of the process is at the discretion of the boss, and as the damage is vastly contained, one can earn one’s due. With it, the Annual Confidential Report, as we knew it, seems to have died a natural death.