Performance Appraisal For Hourly Employees: Fill & Download for Free

Not in the United States. This question has been fleshed out in the courts thanks to Walmart. Years ago, department managers (hourly employees) would voluntarily wander in on their free time and clean up their departments (like on Sundays when they did shopping as they all used to have weekends off). Later on a department manager was passed over for a promotion because her department wasn't as clean as her peers. She sued and won.In the court hearing, she claimed that she was the only department manager who refused to ever do work off the clock. When she said that to her store manager, he replied that “Everybody else did what it took to get the job done.” She claimed that it was an unfair advantage. The store leadership team claimed that they never put such pressure on employees and in fact weren't responsible for what people did on their time off.Under cross examination the store manager and district manager were asked if it were acceptable for an employee to work off the clock. They said no. Then they were asked if they'd ever told employees never to work off the clock. They said yes. Then they were asked if they'd ever terminated an employee for working off the clock. They said no.Clincher! Game over and they knew it. Why? It comes down to American corporate norms and the long held legal view that: “a rule that is not backed up with both the threat of corrective action AND a consistent track record of corrective action is not a bona fide rule.”Walmart lost the court case and had to pay millions in fines and class action money. The reason? “An environment where employees are allowed to work for free creates an environment where other employees feel pressured to work for free to be considered good performers. This deprives them of their rights and an even playing field when it comes to annual appraisals and opportunities for promotion.”No employer is permitted —even if you offer it voluntarily— to ever allow an employee to work for free. I was there when Walmart lost the lawsuit on this matter. I saw managers written up for not forcing employees to take their breaks. I saw managers fired for allowing unpaid labor to happen in their store.

Questioner: If you were forced to do only one thing till death starting from now, what would that be?Me: Smile!Questioner: Are you sure? I mean, I am going to activate it,Me: Of course buddy! It would be a blessing for me. A Smile is a curve which sets everything straight. There are so many positive benefits of Smiling. You just activate that “Smile”thing.Questioner: Okay!*So, I get a smiling face*Me: *At social events*People: Wow, he’s so positive. His positivity reflects from his face! People like him, inspire me a lot.Me: *Giggling inside* Haha, I am loving it.Me: *At work*Boss: I am giving performance appraisal to Namit. Whenever I give him any task, he never complains and is always smiling. We need more employees like him!Me: *Giggling inside* Haha, I am loving it!Me: *At date*Girl: You know, a person becomes attractive when he/she smiles, and you’re always smiling, I think, I’m falling for you!Me: *Giggling inside* Haha, I am loving it!*Receives a call*Caller: Mr. So and So, passed away today, Funeral is at 4 pm!Me: *Smiling* I’ll be there.*Enters the funeral premises*Random Person: Why the hell are you smiling?Me: *To myself* Oh shit! I just forgot about this.*Covers face with a cloth**At the funeral**Everyone is crying*Friend: *To me* Why have you put a cloth?Me: Nothing! Just saving myself from pollution.*Goes towards deceased person son*Me: *Pats his back* You know, this is life… *Cloth drops down*.. the one who has come on this planet, has to go one day!Son: *Sobs* My father has passed away and you’re smiling?Me: ……….*Everyone starts beating me**After few hours*Me: *Smiling* Please don’t hit me! It’s hurting.Others: Damn, shameless fellow! Still smiling.*Continues beating*

I moved back from a Manager role to a Technical role in an Indian IT company.If the question is why do Indian IT employees intend to progress/grow as managers instead of technical roles, below is not the answer. This answer is why managers move away from technical skills.As a manager, you’re so busy with the operations and project management that you hardly get time to use, polish and renew your technical skills.Most of the middle managers in the Indian IT do not sit idle or browse on trading portals, do chatting on mobiles as most of the freshers/developers perceive. Of course, there’d be some lazy foxes as would be in other levels.As a manager leading a 45 member team, half of my day would go in daily Operations -(Budgeting, Reporting, Staffing, Billing & Invoicing, Approvals, writing/editing SoWs, CRs, etc. A quarter of the day would go in Project Management - Metrics, Quality reports (Milestones, Productivity, CoQ, etc.), Requests creation/management, Task allocation & tracking, Project Plan (MPP/Internal tools, Estimates), Escalations, Status Reports, Client Communication, Procurement of space & hardware, etc. Another quarter of the day would go in People Management like Approvals for leaves, on-duty, Performance Appraisals, Hearing to team’s aspirations, Conflict resolution,On-boarding, Separations, Interviewing potential replacements, etc.In addition, there would be ad-hoc works like RFPs (Proposals), Client Visits, ODC Management, BCP/BCMS (Business Continuity), TownHall preparations, Interviews on weekends…On an average of 30 minutes for each person, it took me 20 hours or 3 full days to just have an Appraisal conversation with each of my team. Later, we had to spend time in filling the forms in the system, meetings with the higher managers on determining and begging/bargaining for good ratings for the team.Now, you tell where’s the time for the managers to be upto date with the latest trends.