Performance and Development Plan

Today I signed my 2006 PDP. What a joke. The PDP is this form that you have to get filled out that shows what your 'major accomplishments' for the year were, what you want to do in the coming year, and a little eval your boss fills out that includes a check box for 'meets expectations' or 'needs improvement'. (No there is no box for 'needs better social skills'.)

In past years, I have been told to fill out the 'major accomplishments' section, and the 'what I want to do in the coming year' section. In past years, I have gotten ahold of one from the year before, changed the dates on it, and turned it back in with the exact same wording and everything. No one ever complained. One year, the department HR lady even said it was the best batch of PDP's she had seen. (everyone in the room did the old cut-and-paste thing.)

This year I figured there was no point. I don't figure anyone reads these things. The only people who really care, is my chief engineer and the director. They both know exactly what I do, what my value is, and what I will be working on this year. No one else cares, especially when the servers are up and everything is running like it should.

When Dave emailed asking us to list our major accomplishments, I replied that I learned to juggle monkeys. I now have a 2006 PDP signed by me him and the director that says I learned how to juggle monkeys and this year I wanted to learn how to juggle elephants.

If it were up to me, that would have been the one submitted. There is no way that someone in HR reads through the thousands and thousands of PDP's they get every year. We figure the real reason is so that there is a paper trail if someone needs to be fired.

Anyhow, Dave made the process VERY painless for me this year, he wrote a paragraph about my accomplishments, what I wanted to do, and had me sign it. If future PDP's are this easy, I may even stop bagging on them.

I'm off to work out. Those elephants are heavy...