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Appraisal anxiety

As companies fill out appraisal forms, DNA speaks with employees and managers to find out how they are beating the stress.

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It’s the appraisal season in offices. If you’ve been waking up in the middle of the night in a cold sweat wondering if your appraisal went well enough to get you that hike and promotion, you’re struck by the appraisal anxiety bug. And it’s not sleepless nights for the employees alone; managers, too, are an equally distressed lot. While facing appraisal after appraisal might only make you familiar with the process, it certainly doesn’t quite prepare you to deal with the overwhelming uncertainty each time.

Pratima Bellur*, 28, has been working in a corporate firm in Bangalore for over five years. But every time her work is being appraised, she gets anxious and jittery. “I haven’t been able to sleep well for some time now. I fear that the bad relationship I share with my manager will affect my hike,” she says. Recently, Bellur was made in charge of a project that didn’t go too well because of a communication gap with her manager. “I’m scared this episode will be the deciding factor in my appraisal,” she says.
It becomes difficult to deal with these anxieties when office gossip rears its ugly head. “People start talking before the hikes are handed out in an organisation,” says Anil Kumar, a development lead at an IT firm in Bangalore. Discussions of the percentage increase in hike, who’s getting promoted — most of these being only a figment of the imagination — invade work stations, canteens, smoking corners and after-work drinking sessions.

This is also that time of year when the rough and tumble of supervisor-employee relationships, once again, come to the fore in many flashback moments. Thirty-year-old S Avinash* recalls how his first job appraisal seven years ago had left him a nervous wreck. As a young, first-time employee, he had the enthusiasm to work, but just didn’t get on with his manager. “I struggled and struggled to make the right impression in my superiors’ eyes. But I couldn’t do so with my manager,” he says. “I knew my hike would be disappointing then and I could hardly sleep or eat well,” he recalls. But today, doing his sixth appraisal in his fourth company, he is well prepared. “I’ve been working in this company for the past year and a half and this is going to be my first appraisal here, and I am confident that it will be good,” he says.

As for the current trend and how the market is looking, Priya Chetty-Rajagopal, vice president, Stantonchase, says though the recession made it difficult for companies everywhere last year, this year will see a lot more optimism in the air. “Employees are certainly a relieved lot when compared to this time last year. But the uncertainty remains. Earlier, hikes used to be fixed. But today, they vary from employee to employee,” she explains.

Like they say, it’s all about the attitude. Attitude, really, can make the demon of an appraisal season less daunting on harried employees and supervisors.

*Names changed on request.

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