Question

Scenario 1:

John is a 21 year veteran worker with a stellar performance record that is well documented by previous performance evaluations. He has missed work an average of 1 day per week for the last 60 days. Velma, his supervisor for 5 years, has not talked to John about the absences because she was waiting for the time to complete annual performance reviews for all 11 employees in her department.

You are to analyze this scenario, make comments, and present what you prescribe for Velma.

Scenario 2:

Star has worked within the organization for 6 years in a clerical, dead-end, $8.375 per hour job comprised of mostly shuffling papers – papers that need to be shuffled to comply with stupid policies and procedures. That’s the way this job has always been done. Star’s performance and attendance has declined over the past 9 months. Today, Star’s only supervisor for the entire 6 years, Martin, conducted a 5 minute annual performance review with Star. Star was rated “unacceptable” by Martin. No other notes or comments were included on the evaluation form.

• How would you have managed Star’s performance?
• Make recommendation regarding Star’s future employment and also the evaluation process used by her supervisor, Martin

Scenario 3:

Spencer is a very bright engineer hired 2years ago after graduating from a top-tier school, UAF. Spencer performs in excess of expectations, is a self-starter, always volunteers for special projects, and has recently completed a project resulting in $187,000 in annual savings. Spencer’s boss conducts the evaluation interview, tells Spencer all the good stuff and rates Spencer “Exceptional”. At the conclusion of the meeting Spencer is told that the organization is very thankful for his contributions. However, recent budget constraints and other management priorities do not allow any funds for base salary adjustments.

• If you were Spencer, what would your reaction be?
• If you were Spencer’s boss, what could you do to keep Spencer’s future performance “Exceptional”?
• If you were Big Boss of this organization, how would you reward the top performers?

Scenario 4:

Emma is a recent graduate of Harvard Law School. She joined the Legal Department 18 months ago. Corline, a 15 year employee, also in the Legal Department, is due her annual performance review. At the end of Corline’s interview she is rated “acceptable”. Corline asks her supervisor why Emma was hired at a salary within $3,000 per year of hers, a 15 year employee.

• What answer would you give to Corline?
• What causes situations like this to occur?
• How might you prevent such wage compression?

Scenario 5:

Ben conducted a face-to-face performance evaluation interview with Yuome, a 21 year employee. Yuome has performed over the review period (annual) at a level rated as “meeting all expectations”. Yuome never misses work and completes special projects, on time. Her latest project resulted in annual savings of $52,000. It is well known via the grapevine that the salary adjustment pool for this year is 6.8% of last year’s base.

At the end of the interview, Ben states that he wishes he could increase Yuome’s salary, however, she has reached the top of her salary range and company policy does not allow any increase to her base.

• What you would have done differently, had you conducted the interview as Yuome’s supervisor?
• What is Yuome’s reward for her last year of performance?
• What other creative pay increase vehicle(s) might you suggest?
• How does an organization avoid this situation?

Scenario 6:

Fred has evaluated the performance of Cletus for the last 11 years. The evals are always on time, clear and perceived by Cletus to be fair. Cletus has received annual salary increases averaging 4.9% over 11 years. Cletus is to be evaluated, along with 6 others within the next 30 days.

Fred was recently promoted because his department’s performance was outstanding. Janice was named as Fred’s replacement and is evaluating Cletus and the rest of the workers in the department. Janice makes a decision to delay completing performance evals for 90 days until she can get settled in to her new position.

• What issues will employees in the department have with Janice’s decision?
• What is another option for the timely completion of the evals?
• If you were Big Boss, what action, if any, would you take towards Janice?

Scenario 7:

During Rama Sue’s annual performance review interview, Raymond, her supervisor for 5 years, tells her that she must improve her performance in the next 90 days or she will be terminated. Rama Sue asks what it is that she did wrong. Raymond tells her the meeting is over.

• How would you have handled this situation?
• List a few items that Raymond owes to Rama Sue.
• What should Raymond do next?
• Assuming Rama Sue’s performance does not improve in 90 days, what action should Raymond take?

Scenario 8:

Candy is told by her supervisor, Lu, that although her performance is rated “excellent”, she will not be given any salary increase or be recommended for promotion. Why? Because Lu saw her working as a part-time exotic dancer at a local gentlemen’s club.

• Is Lu’s decision based upon Candy’s work performance?
• Does Candy have any recourse? If yes, what is it?  

Scenario 9:

Sharonda has worked in our organization for 5 years. Currently she is serving as fulfillment specialist. Her last four (4) performance evaluations have resulted in her being laterally transferred to other departments, one move per year. In 5 years, she has never been recommended for a salary increase.

Sharonda was evaluated last week by her current supervisor, Jose, and rated “superior”. Jose recommends a salary increase of 8%; which is an amount greater than the 4% salary pool.

• Pretend you are in the position of being Jose’s supervisor and approve all salary adjustments.
• After reading Sharonda’s eval, what would you do?
• How might you explain this turnaround in performance as rated by Jose

Scenario 10:

Spirit is employed in Graphic Arts where she creates advertisement copy for the enterprise. Spirit has completed her first year of work and is being evaluated by her supervisor. At the face to face performance evaluation interview Spirit informs her supervisor that she is “too creative” to be measured.

• How would you handle this situation?
• What criteria would you use for Spirit’s performance evaluation?
• How would you clarify Spirit’s understanding of performance objectives?

Answer 1

Scenario 1:

Velma has noticed that John has been missing work on an average of 1 day per week. She has noticed it for last 2 months but has not acted on it. This brings to question the management skills and proactive approach of Velma. She should not be waiting for annual performance review in order to give feedback to John. She should be giving him feedback whenever it is necessary. In this case it was necessary maybe 50 days ago. Velma could have controlled this absenteeism in John’s part. However, now her inactivity will likely cause John to receive a poor discipline score.

Recommendation to Velma: Do not delay any further. Speak to John immediately and identify the issue for which he has been missing work on a regular basis. Then find a solution to the problem.

Scenario 2:

Star is in a dead end job. The wage is nearly the minimum wage allowed by the government and the same task has been done by Star over the last 6 years. It is surprising that Star has not lost motivation and became a poor performer only in the last 9 months. Martin is Star’s boss and know about the task and the condition of the task. Considering that it is surprising that Martin has not spoken to Star about the decline in performance and attendance.

If I was at Martin’s place, I would firstly intervene when Star begins to show a decline in the performance. That would have been at least 8 months earlier. I would speak to Star and identify the reason for poor performance and then try to identify a solution.

Recommendation: Star’s future employment should be secured. The organization has not provided any upskilling opportunity to Star and the employee has been in a monotonous job for the last 6 years. Given this situation, the company should take immediate action to train and develop Star.