Appraisals are a waste of time. Right?

Investors in People, the workplace lobby group, is clearly alarmed that one in three workers who endure appraisals think the whole exercise is a waste of time. As is commonly the case, a better picture comes by turning the survey's observation on its head. Two in three think appraisals are worthwhile?  That is either astonishing to the point of incredulity or a major achievement.

The survey, full results of which will soon be published on the Investors in People website, canvassed 3,000 opinions - so its findings ought to be somewhere near the mark. The I-in-P blurb goes on to says that those dissatisfied one-third of appraisees reckon the sessions are a charade, and nothing more than a tick box exercise. One in five, moreover, think that their managers have committed the cardinal HR sin: they did not give the appraisal the first thought prior to closing the meeting room door.

Again, if that means four in five did give the appraisal any prior consideration, that is a hugely encouraging result. It is more likely, I fear, that many managers are just practiced and proficient at feigning interest and expertise when, in fact, they know diddly.

The most interesting top line finding is that half of interviewees came away from their annual review suspecting that their manager have failed to be honest. Turn this one of its head and, sadly, it is no less worrying.  I suspect that fears about hurting interviewees' feelings, and unfamiliarity with what is allowed or appropriate to say (and legal complications that might ensue) compound the impact of straightforward incompetence.

But I also suspect that interviewees fail to appreciate that there is only so much a manager can say and box them into corners of dishonesty by asking answerable questions. More commonly, perhaps, there is no real clarity about what the sessions are for.

They ought either to be a hardball game where rigorous appraisal translates directly into pay; or, preferably, an annual opportunity for two colleagues to sit down and have a natter about life, the universe, and their respective jobs. It is funny how we spend vast amounts of our lives working close to, and closely with, people we rarely ever talk to in, er, freeform. "Did you manage to send that email off to Bloggins?" is no substitute for the occasional "How are you? And how are we? Really and truly?"

OK, now pass the sick bag. Or see what m'earned colleague Sathnam Sanghera had to say about appraisals in one of his recent Saturday columns in The Times.