Wednesday, October 30, 2013

Critical Performance

I am highly critical of my supervisors, as supervisors often deserve.  In fact I think every supervisor should have a critical workforce.  They need underlings who demand communication and who turn down the short end of the stick.
It should be noted that I don't think anyone deserves or should be forced to work with a contrarian workforce.  Then you're just a Republican in a Democrat Congress.  
I've had a conversation with my supervisor recently.  And I found out that the communication problems I noted earlier start above his pay grade.  While that was a pleasant enough flight, no one has plans on how to get the words from that speech down to actions on the ground. 
As government employees, we are evaluated annually.   There are four major performance objectives; things like mission execution and organizational support.  What the heck is anybody supposed to put down for either of those?! Even my supervisor agrees that "mission execution" is pronounced "more of the same".  I've been on several projects which were dropped from the mission and there's no communication about how any of us are going to be added back in. 
But at least I can rest assured that we're still not trained for whatever tasks come out of that speech.  Training that isn't free isn't available.  Traveling for training is even less likely to happen.  It doesn't literally require an act of Congress, only a commanding general's signature.  But training is one of the four major performance objectives on our upcoming annual rating.  Which means, the top rated workers will describe their web surfing engagement of online self-study resources in the most pointy-haired words.