
Unlikely!
Although I never had an assignment I didn’t like, the
only one I asked for and received was Post-graduate school at Bethesda. At the end, when I was offered a staggered
assignment that would eventually (maybe) gain me a major command, I began to
feel about Fitness Reports like a longtime friend expressed when we were on our
first ship. He was playing poker and was
interrupted twice by his Senior Chief who opined that he was needed by his men,
an invitation he declined. Finally, the
Senior Chief said, “this may affect your Fitness Report.” To which he answered,
“The only way a Fitness Report could hurt me now is if it were rolled into a
tight point and stuck in my eye.”
This actually turned out not to be quite correct. He was discharged some 1500 miles from his
home and had to pay to get home out of his own pocket, including paying for shipment of his
personal possessions.
Through my career I saw a change in the method used
to evaluate and be evaluated. Gradually
there crept in some goal-setting, with accountability. Metrics replaced
vagaries, and job definition became clearer.

Several recent occurrences precipitated my writing on
this subject. For one, I asked my oldest
son who is in sales, whether he would receive an annual review. The answer was essentially, no. Instead they are assigned target sales goals at the
first of the year, with little interactivity in how they are set, tied to a bonus. There may be adjustments, and even changes in
territory throughout the year, but little of what I would recognize as goal
setting and accountability exists in the traditional sense.
My younger son had an evaluation recently, but
again it was less traditional and more in line of a demonstration of application
of principles, and understanding school goals.
So, if traditional reviews are a thing of the past,
what has replaced them?

We’ll have to wait and see. In the meantime, as a pretty-much retired
person, I hold a Staff Meeting with my support personnel as I shave in the morning and I can modify my
goals so I am always on target.
I realized as I
composed my annual Christmas letter, that I had more knowledge of Uber than
Mary, and possibly more than the people to whom I send cards. So, in my next Post I will catch you up on
what I know of Uber and why it presents an enigma in our developing
society. I hope you will join me.
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