Polish this Draft!

6.3 Polish this Draft!

Controversies: 3.12, 5.20 Key Words: performance appraisal, Senior Executive Service, abuse of power Case Complexity → Low CD: 4.17 President Obama’s Executive Order

Annual performance appraisals typically result in anxious moments for all, espe- cially the person receiving the appraisal. Yet others can be drawn into the anxi- ety circle that can have ethical or not-so-ethical overtones. Consider yourself an employee who works in a large city agency as a staff member for a senior manager. You are routinely expected to provide “input” for the manager’s annual evaluation. Suppose your input goes directly to his secretary and thus to him—is anyone going to say anything but glowing things about what happened under his watch? Probably not.

Now consider an even more uncomfortable situation. Suppose you, as the best writer on the staff, are given the task of polishing the draft of the senior manager’s performance evaluation which had been put together using the “input” that every- one had provided. Trying not to violate your own ethical standards, you simply edit it, correcting grammar and rewording so it will read more smoothly. You return

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it to his secretary who shares it with her boss. Then, the boss sends it back to you and pronounces “it is not good enough” with instructions to “make me look like

a god.”

Discussion Questions

1. Would you voice your ethical concerns to the boss?

2. Would you report your boss to his boss?

3. Would you request a transfer to another agency?

4. Would you simply turn your head and make your boss “look like a god”?

Case Assessment

Bruce Rodman, U.S. Railroad Retirement Board, Chicago, Illinois:

Th is represents a fairly common occurrence in government, as staff members are often expected to provide input and editorial assistance in preparing their supervisor’s “self assessment” for appraisal purposes. Th is is particularly true for senior managers who have broad-based responsibilities. In such an instance, they often have no choice but to rely on staff members to provide needed detail on the unit’s overall performance during the year. Ideally of course, the person whose per- formance is being appraised would be the one to take the information and fashion it into a comprehensive overview of his or her own per- formance during the year. However, this scenario presents less of an ethical problem with a capital “E”—in that it involves something of questionable legality, a conflict of interest, or unfair advantage—but one with a lowercase “e” dealing with workplace expectations and pro- priety. It also begs the question of who exactly should be responsible for the senior manager’s appraisal—him or his superior? Technically, it is the supervisor, but a self-appraisal is often requested that more or less becomes the final product.

It is one thing to accentuate the positive and another to tell an out- right lie, and it is not clear from this case which is in play. The first thing the employee should do is talk directly to the boss in order to obtain

a clearer understanding of expectations. It sounds like much commu- nication is through the secretary, so something could have been lost in translation. If that is not the case, the employee should definitely voice any concerns. Perhaps the boss will take greater personal respon- sibility for the document or give the assignment to someone else. It could also create ongoing tension, in which case the employee may want to investigate other job opportunities. Rather than going to the designated agency ethics official, who typically deals with “capital-E”

192 ◾ Ethics Moments in Government: Cases and Controversies

problems, other likely sources of guidance and support are the agency’s human resources director or perhaps an employee assistance program counselor (who is usually trained in social work with experience in workplace problems). Regardless of whether the employee decides to comply with the assignment to the best of his abilities and principles,

he should keep copies of all documentation, including edited drafts and written directions, as evidence of how the situation developed. As

a last resort, he could raise his concerns with the supervisor’s supervi- sor—for whom the appraisal document is actually being prepared— although this could heighten everyone’s interest in pursuing other opportunities.

Joanne E. Howard, Senior Consultant MCIC (Metro Chicago Information Center), Chicago, Illinois:

I would not voice my ethical concerns to the boss. First, the boss has obviously risen through the hierarchy or gotten the job because

he or she thoroughly understands the system. I would follow the chain of command and edit the report for grammar and appropriate wording. However, once the boss came back to me requesting that I “make him look like a god,” I would draw the line. I would indicate

I had done the best that I could and that I had no other input in my arsenal. This is a form of “passive” insubordination; however, I would immediately begin to look for another position outside of his chain of command.

1. Would you report your boss to his boss? If I found another posi- tion outside of the organization, I would let my parting shot be

a meeting with the big boss to report my experience. I would, however, not initiate this meeting until I was on my way out of the organization.

2. Would you request a transfer to another agency? My request for a transfer would depend on how egregious the behavior of the boss had been in the past. Every employee is cast in the role of the dutiful sycophant at some point in their career. My request for a transfer would depend on how many times I had been asked to play this part, my role in the organization, how valued I felt as an employee, my level of responsibility in the pecking order, how many people I had reporting to me, and my age and family situation at the time of the transfer request. It is easy to respond to hypothetical situations when you only have yourself in mind. However, if you are the head of household or your income is needed to support children in

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private school or college, you have a sick parent that rely on your income, the situation immediately changes and takes on more poignancy.

3. Would you simply turn your head and make your boss look like

a god? In many ways, most of us would respond to this ques- tion based on our level of experience, the state of the economy, and our household responsibilities. No one in this economy is going to “cut off their nose to spite their face”—times are just too critical. I do, however, think that most self-respecting employees placed in this position would do the right thing, review their situation (home obligations and work-life balance), and stay in place if they could but leave if they could not stomach it. Remember, no deed goes unpunished, even if the employee is in the right.