It's Eval Time!! Why we're unable to score all "excellent" ratings

workingforskies · Mar 24, 2008

As that could definitely affect your compensation, find a new place to work. It sounds like to me as if they have a quota system. Under that system, you could have the top 5 best nurses who ever lived and 1 will be rated high, 1 would be rated low and the remaining 3 will be rated in the average range. Vanderbilt University Medical Center has, (at least up until the time I left), that crappy eval. system in place and I thought it was dreadfully unfair.

Sabby_NC · Mar 24, 2008

Hi Angie if something was whited out and they expected you to sign this again I would refuse.

Or if you signed your eval, then they whited it out, well this is so wrong on many levels. Request a meeting with the person who demanded the white out to be done. This goes in your file and no paper should have white out on it. They should get rid of the stuff we have!!

I agree with your standards of excellence.

We all strive for this and YES we can be excellent in many areas on our Evaluation.

StNeotser, ASN, RN · Mar 24, 2008

I did an eval for an absolutely wonderful tech and was told to change it because "nobody was perfect". I had not written in enough weaknesses, therefore there were no realistic goals on how to improve performance. This individual was practically perfect and there was very little I could do to put in weaknesses. I ended up writing in that she needed to go to school to become an RN, something I knew wasn't going to happen anytime soon because of her family/financial situation. I also wrote in something about timekeeping because twice in one year she had clocked in three to four minutes late. Never called off.

UM Review RN, ASN, RN · Mar 24, 2008

I did an eval for an absolutely wonderful tech and was told to change it because "nobody was perfect". I had not written in enough weaknesses, therefore there were no realistic goals on how to improve performance. This individual was practically perfect and there was very little I could do to put in weaknesses. I ended up writing in that she needed to go to school to become an RN, something I knew wasn't going to happen anytime soon because of her family/financial situation. I also wrote in something about timekeeping because twice in one year she had clocked in three to four minutes late. Never called off.

This is exactly what I'm talking about. Where on earth do TPTB get the idea that excellence equals perfection?

Once you hit the excellent range, you really have your job skills down pat and you really only need to maintain your standard.

The whole philosophy of the evaluation process as a measure of perfection, not excellence, is quite flawed.

I'm only venting here, but I honestly feel like if I hear that "Well, I can't give you an excellent rating because nobody's perfect" line one more time, I'm going to start doing something about it besides complaining to you folks.

lpn1313 · Mar 24, 2008

I recently was given an evaluation that was prefaced with "I had you rated as 'excellent' but I had to change it because we are only allowed to have a certain number of 'excellent' evals in the building." This was of course a financially driven decision.

CT Pixie, BSN, RN · Mar 24, 2008

If it makes it a bit better, it doesn't just happen in nursing.

I had my yearly eval. My supervisor had ranked me "average" in a few sections. The sections were as follows: Productivity, errors, absenses. Everything else had "excellent". (I am a health claims analyst and my job intails adjudicating health claims)

I looked at it, didn't say anything to her and walked off to HER supervisor. I asked her to look at my copy of the eval and see what she thought. I didn't point out anything to her and let her look it over. Her response was "how in the h*ll are you just "average" in those catagories?!" I am the highest producing claims analyst EVER in the entire history of the company (they've been around since the late '60's). Add to that I have the lowest error rate EVER in the history of the company (my error rate is less than 0.05 percent!) AND I normally never take all of my paid time off. My HR person is forever hounding me that I need to take some time off. I am always end up not taking my alloted paid time off. The company owners have told me verbally and in writing many times over the 13 yrs I've worked for them how much they appreciate me and my work. How they'd be up a creek without my production, how I'm one of the best employees they have ever had..blah blah blah (My raises have always been nothing less than 10%)

My supervisors supervisor went to her, told her to rescore those catagories to EXCELLENT. My supervisor was not happy about it. Funny thing is, she scored another coworker EXCELLENT in those catagories that she score me average in. That coworker is AVERAGE if not below average in those catagories.

My super's rationale for scoring me AVERAGE was "she's young, she has plenty of time to "work up" to excellent. Mary Smith is older, she's worked her way up"..uhh yeah..whatever.

noc4senuf · Mar 24, 2008

I have 3 nurse managers under me along with 4 others that are direct reports. I give my managers "excellant" ratings consistently. THey are great at their jobs, know their stuff and definitely hardworking. Do they make mistakes at times... yep, they are human. And if I could give them more than the percentage points I am allowed across the board for raises I certainly would.

maire, ASN, RN · Mar 24, 2008

I came from another state so I'm loathe to tell people how to do things down here, but their system of evaluations really irritates me to no end.
On evals from other states I regularly got all "excellent" ratings. Not here.
Here, I got an all "excellent" rating and the nurse who gave me the eval was told to change her answers because "no one is perfect." And so she actually had to white out an answer and change it. I was horrified. I thought it was completely unethical of TPTB to coerce her to do this, especially on that flimsy logic.
I've since heard that statement at every single eval I've ever had and I've finally decided to give voice to my personal objection to that line of reasoning.
People, you are equating "excellent" with "perfect." They are NOT the same. There is a range of excellence that doesn't necessarily presume perfection.
So, IMO, yes you can give someone all "excellent" ratings. Excellence is excellence, after all.
What's your take on this?

Ugh. I'm glad I'm not the only one who is faced with this. I was crushed when I got my first eval for the job I'm working at now. I had been getting wonderful feedback and felt I had been punched in the kidney or something when I saw 3.5/4 on my annual eval.

I asked my peers about it and that's what they told me. "Oh, you got a GREAT rating!!! BossRN never gives out "excellent" because she feels there is ALWAYS room for improvement."

Seriously, WTH?

mauxtav8r · Mar 24, 2008

In another industry I was met with this dimwitted logic, too. Trouble was, we worked with other people's money. So, I could live with "Very good" rather than "Excellent" until they got around to the "Ethics" portion of the form. I totally put my foot down and got an addendum stating I had achieved the "highest available" level of ethics in the organization. Not excellent, though, because, as the op said "nobody's perfect."

Burned me up, because in that business, how the money was handled was the highest standard we held, and I was (like CT Pixie) regarded as "best employee ever" "best move the boss ever made was to hire you", blah, blah. In the end, there was one older employee who left the organization because she would not tolerate anything less than "Excellent" in the ethical evaluation.

I have very mixed feelings about tying pay raises to performance reviews, if they are limited in this way to the prevaling top-third, middle-third, lowest-third. I believe raises should be earned, but a really great team can have lots of top-third types, while a poor team . . . you get the idea.

bollweevil · Mar 24, 2008

It's all about money. Money and who is well liked, who's not.

Our place is the same way. There can be only a certain number of "exceeds expectations" given out. The rest of us get mediocre/satisfactory/no raise evaluations. It is seriously demotivating. Why ever do more than the minimum if the reward for going above and beyond is no raise. yes, we must answer to our own consciences and have to live with ourselves. Somehow, I have learned to live with doing "good enough" instead of always striving to go above and beyond. As long as my patients don't suffer and I can live with myself, I think it's ok to do just "good enough". I am only human, I have only so much energy and time and ability to focus when my bladder and bowel are about to rupture, when my stomach is growling, when my back and feet are paining me, when I'm forced to work another double, and when I have little to no input on how my job is done or on how aides behave.

bollweevil · Mar 24, 2008

I don't think I made the point strongly enough - TPTB allow only a certain number of evals to be given that merit a raise. The point is all about money. It's not about truly caring about the patients or the workers. It's about caring about the bucks.

Random thoughts: Does "excellent" equate to "perfect"? I think not. It means one is doing better than average, better than one's peers. There can still be room for improvement even if one is doing an excellent job.

My supervisor wanted me to raise the rating on one of the staff who did favors for her. I was reluctant, as I see this person as argumentative. Being a realist, though, and not wanting to tick off my boss, I told her I would. Fortunately, the computer would not let me, as she had already approved my initial rating of this person as "meets expectations". She should have talked to me sooner.