Hi. I find writing and delivering performance evaluations very challenging since I am like the "monkey in the middle". I am just passing on the info from the executive without any real first hand knowledge. Does anyone have any experience or advice on this? Thanks, Dawn

I am so happy you created this group! I feel the same I "manage" 2 other assistants, but they "report" to their managers. I think it is more the VPs they report to, don't want to worry about HR paper work, evaluations and reviews. One worker I am comfortable with doing reviews because I know her work and her boss works well with me. The other I wish I could just get off my plate. I don't have enough interaction and sounds like your situation. I would just relay what the executive has to to say the best you can. I try to balance it with the person I am comfortable with. Is there anyone you can.. compare abilities with? As for if she does a good or bad job, the exec should tell you then take it from there. I know this is cliche, but I do try the.. start out with something good, something to improve and end with a compliment or something good when presenting evaluations. It is not my favorite part of the job.

Thank you for replying! I was beginning to think I was the only one out here with this issue. I have 10 direct reports! They all report to me but provide support to 3-4 executives each. So doing their reviews is a nightmare. The worst part of my job! I would rather file...hahah Thank you for your suggestions and for sharing.

I don't check DeskDemon every day though I should, it is a great site! I have applying for a job that will have about 5 - 6 staff support under me. It is the same company so I hope I get it! I look forward to sharing experiences and asking for everyone's advice.

Best of luck! Keep us updated.

Performance evaluations should not be difficult at all because the surbordinate writes down all that s/he deems to be successes and failures and then sit down with the supervisor to discuss each and every point and agree.

I used to do this ... a team of 20 under my supervision but there were always other people's messages to deliver during appraisals. Initially I delivered all the messages as if they were my evaluation ... that was my job right? to be loyal to the company.

Two things changed this approach: I had complaints about a temporary member of the team having body odour and being unpleasant to sit near as a result. I had to address this with the individual and decided it would be unkind to hint and not convey the full message - so I simply told her the complaints I had received... she thanked me for letting her know and went on to tell me she was having treatment for Hodgkins Lymphoma and couldn't use deodorants; she hadn't said anything in case we decided to end her contract. I told her we would not be doing that because her work was of a very high standard and she was a valued member of the team. We were able to provide her some facilities to freshen up privately during the day and after her treatment ended we recruited her on a permanent basis as soon as there was a vacancy but this reminded me always to consider that the other person may have a reason for an action.

Then during a team building day some criticism against my boss was turned by her towards me. I was so shocked I stopped being the company voice and started doing appraisals differently ... sure I still had to include everyone's messages but I started making it clear which messages were mine and which were made by a third party. If there was dissension with the third party view I would arrange for the matter to be discussed directly rather than acting as a go between.

I gained respect from my reports for the evaluation and suggestions I made ... even when sometimes there were difficult issues to address. Team Motivation improved and I felt better about delivering appraisals.