Question:
My colleague has become very bitter towards work, as well as the rest of the team. He believes that his appraisal was unfair and he was denied a big opportunity because of a minor error due to his oversight. I do relate to his situation because he is definitely a very sincere and competent professional. This sudden negativity, I am afraid, is going to only further get him in to unpleasant situations. As I can already see, his performance is lowered as he is appearing to be quite cynical in his approach towards his work. How can I as a team mate encourage him, because I feel for him and wish to make a difference.
Advice: It is very often the case in many organizations that appraisals are inaccurate because of what is referred to as `recency effect` in this the appraiser is swayed by what, an appraisee may do good or bad just before the appraisals are due.
The options you have:
1. You may sensitize the person who has conducted the appraisal of your colleague and encourage him or her to have a meeting and counsel the colleague and come to a better agreement.
2. You may counsel the colleague to contact his or her senior who has appraised him or her for a meeting in which things may be aligned for the better.
Please advise the colleague that by allowing the mistake to cloud his or her attitude and by not taking appropriate action, he or she is giving credibility to the inaccurate appraisal, which is a lose, lose situation for both him or her and the organization.