OT: goals

SilverFoxKnows

SilverFoxKnows

Joined
Sep 25, 2002
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Today at work everyone was asked to write down their short and long term goals. I guess what we write down is going to be a part of our yearly review. Two of the people in my office wrote down things like "I will increase my enrollments", "I will be a team player", "When I get my Masters I intend to stay at the university" and more things like that, which to my eye looks really insincere bordering on brown nosing. Here's what I wrote:

"Dear Bob,

As per Alecia’s request, here are my goals.


In the short term I would like to get my VW running, go camping, go hiking, and go back to school.


In the long term I would like to: be a paramedic, live in a dome house in the hills of San Diego, restore a ’64 Pontiac, publish a couple of novels, go hang gliding, get more tattoos, sell a drawing, photograph a fox in the wild, learn to recognize birds by their calls, plant a garden, learn to ride horses and motorcycles, celebrate my 25 year wedding Anniversary, quit smoking, learn to recognize the constellations, study a martial art, take fencing and archery, own a 1973 Ford XBGT, read the Bible, Torah, Quran, Tao te Ching, Upanishads and Bhagavad-Gita, meet my Father, be at peace, have wisdom."

So, did I just shoot myself in the foot? Or do you think they'll find the honesty refreshing? ;) So, what are your goals? And would you put your real goals down on paper to give to your boss?

Frank
 
So, did I just shoot myself in the foot?
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All depends on who you're writing for, what kind of person/people they are. The stuff that the others wrote is crap. Goals have to be measurable. Yours are, if not exactly job-related.

About the only negative thing that they can say about your goals is that they aren't job-related, and please try again. I like them, but my opinion doesn't count.
 
is never a shot in the foot. We did a goals thingy like that when I was i the corp world, but it was goals specific to the job (as it was explained to us). If they didn't qualify/clarify "goals", then they should accept whatever they get.

Keith
 
Echo Aardvark's words exactly.
...with that said, writing anything else wouldn't be truthful. Me like also :)
 
Any job I ever had, my short term goal was to make it until quitting time. My long term goal was to make it to quitting time tomorrow.
 
SilverFoxKnows said:
...Two of the people in my office wrote down things like "I will increase my enrollments", "I will be a team player"
Click to expand...

They should fire that guy for not being a team player now. :)

We did something like that a few years ago. We were supposed to come up with some sort of "mission statement" for ourselves and for the company. Da "boss" said that if we were feeling down or losing sense of purpose we would simply read our mission statement and somehow find new purpose blah blah blah. I usually just run down the clock, then go home and watch tv.

We're also supposed to have our own intranet web page, so people in the office can read our "biographies" and see that we're more than just a name on a list. I think I'm the only one that updates his page, but I fill it with the same sort of stuff I post here. Haven't gotten in any trouble over it yet. :) :rolleyes:
 
I like your goals, Frank. Job related or not it shows character, which is important (or at least it should be). I studied Industrial/Organizational psychology in college. Some of the team building and job placement stuff is pretty interesting, IMHO, but the most of my profs said that the whole moral thing is still very sub-par. They seem to think it boils down to 2 things. 1) people will always only work as hard as they have to unless the reward is great and that only works for a little while. 2) money earning is not a constant. If you give a guy a 5 cent raise he won't care. Dock his pay 5 cents and he'll throw a fit. i think you did good:)

~Jake
 
Frank--great goals, both short term and long, especially living in a dome home :) Hopefully your employers will respect your honesty and creativity.

Bruise--just be thankful you only had to come up with a mission statement. My company recently went through "coprorate branding" training. They teach you things like how to "be your own brand!" and how to "live the brand! " God, how I miss the simple carefree days of mission statements :D I think I would have preferred getting branded with a branding iron; my brain still hurts, and I don't think I'll ever be able to wash the stench out of my soul:(.
--Josh
 
Hehe... "Be your own brand". :) Sounds like fun. Where would I go to get a refund on this inferior product. :rolleyes:

Maybe to escape all this goofy managerial stuff, I'll start my own chain of tanning salons. I'll call them "Melanoma 2 Go". E-mail me for investment opportunites. :rolleyes: ;) :footinmou
 
Hi:

got back from Reno just in time to post today.

Brought home a used copy or Zen and the art of motorcycle maintenance. So far, SFN sounds like he may have read it. :D :D :D
 
but I did enjoy The Chronicles of The Tao (forget the author). Borrowed it from a buddy, it's one I'd like to add to my permanent collection. But every time I'm in a bookstore with money to spend my brain goes blank.

Frank
 
Zen and the art of motorcycle maintenance is available electronically online...I have a copy on each of the computers I regularly use. It's been a source of direction? for a long time.
 
I like the cut of that Jib!
We have a performance planning type eval at my work where the whole format is contingent on quarterly meetings with your supervisor to identify problem areas that need work, praise for a job well done, and planning for future work related endeavors/skill enhancement. In four years I haven't met with my supervisor once! What a joke. I either don't sign the evaluation or do without reading his assessment of my performance. We are allocated a pay raise and Human Resources(anybody remember when it was called Personell?)is always really cagy about not telling us how the varying percentages are assigned. Frankly I gave up trying to figure out their doublespeak and just take whatever they're doling out.
A dome huh? I think we have a forumite that lives in one somewhere in the gold country of up north. Was, is that you? Monolithic domes look awfully tempting. I like the idea of strength, little upkeep and energy efficiency. Hell, if I lived in one of those I wouldn't need to wear my little tinfoil hat!
 
Things are definitely deteriorating at work. Got a new boss who doesn't know #### about managing people. He's a director, and is still writing .bat files. Incorrectly. "And I feel the future trembling, as the word is passed around..." Anyway.

Sorry. Everything about HR/Personnel is garbage. Touchy/feelie stuff that has nothing to do with real life. Too much liberalism in college, I say.

BTW, should you understand/agree with any of the above rant, please check your meds. They are probably overdue.
 
I agree that aside from disbursing, collecting, and storing (the companies' copy) of the insurance forms, HR doesn't seem to do much, other than act as a shield between management and everbody else. Conflict-resolution? Riiiiight. That means convincing you to be happy with the status quo so somebody with the authority to do something doesn't get bothered. The ones I've met seem to think that they are real important, I guess one has to constantly psyche oneself up for what as far as I can tell is a crappy job.

Actually, I think "human resources" might be a better name than personnel.

Modern resource-utilization means consume it until it's used up then go find some more.

Petroleum and fire-wood are resources.

If you find "is a valuable resource" written on your evaluation, look out.
 
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