self "up-raisals"

if you work for a company with a a performance management system in place then you'd definitely go through something known as self appraisals ... it means that your boss would've set some KRAs for you in the beginning of the year and now you need to evaluate your self against the set goals.. for me this process has always been a pain.. mostly for the following reasons:

1. you are supposed to write things about ure self without sounding pompous !! (whatever happened to being modest..) and dont underplay your self either..
   
2. goals set are so vague that the response to them would only mean writing good english..
3. the KRAs if rephrased would sound more like " write 100 words on what you did throughout the year"
4. then there are catch-22 situations where one response would only mean that you did badly in something else..
5. and then there are questions on competency ! and ure like DUH! what do i respond to that.. your boss already knows how competent you are.. so u need to put the right amount of words without sounding like a fool..(if that was possible we d all be great writers by now )
   
6. so on and so forth....

at the end of it.. all that matters is not what you wrote or what you did but what ure boss thinks you actually did :D

i really don't understand why a company would go and invest so much of money on a performance management system when at the end of the day the only person evaluating you is your immediate boss and that wont change whether there is system in place or not.. the KRAs set in the beginning of a lifetime dont really matter because things keep changing and everything that one does can never be put on paper.. but whoever developed this has made a good amount of money and is probably laughing somewhere ...

to conclude.. its all about raising your self.. is that why it sounds right even when u call it "up-raisal" ?? :P