亲爱的安妮：一年一度的业绩考评时间又到了，我和同事们跟往年一样，都抱着逆来顺受的态度。我们已经习惯了业绩考评走过场，赶紧让它结束。因为老板对我们的工作疏于了解，他所做的只是尽力弄清我们在过去一年中工作的得失。每年年终我们都会抱怨老板在考评中的错误，或者我们完成了某些工作而他并不知情。但迄今为止，我们没有一个人试图对这种评估提出异议。有没有一种可行的办法来纠正不准确的业绩评价呢，或者我们是否就应该这么得过且过？如果我什么都不说的话，我涨薪和升职的机会是不是也会随之减少。您对此事怎么看的？——未被正确评价的人

    亲爱的未被正确评价的人: 别这样，约翰•胡佛说：“逆来顺受绝对是处理这种事的最糟方式。为什么要让自己职业生涯中如此关键的部分受制于他人呢，尤其是你已经知道老板对你的工作毫无概念，为什么还要这样继续下去？”

    胡佛在位于曼哈顿的帕特纳人力资源国际咨询公司（Partners in Human Resources International）从事企业高管培训工作。他负责对来自IBM、希尔顿酒店（Hilton Hotels）、通信公司威力众（Verizon）、施乐(Xerox)以及其它很多大型公司的经理人提供咨询服务。他还写过一本具有深刻见解的书：《如何为白痴工作：不炒老板照样成功》（How to Work for an Idiot: Survive and Thrive Without Killing Your Boss）。

    针对你提出的问题，有一种答复是你当然可以质疑业绩评估的不准确或者不完善。胡佛称这种答案是“令人生厌的人力资源部门式答复”。他说：“你可以去人力资源部门要求重新进行评估，指出老板漏掉的东西，补充到个人档案里。”

    然而，从政治角度来说，这种做法风险很大，因为这可能会让你的老板难堪，使得他看起来对你所做的工作一无所知。胡佛称：“最好列出一份清单，直接去找老板，向他指出他忽略了的事情，并请求他将这些增加到对你的书面评价中去。”如果你不这么做，那么你的发展机会将会减少，这是毋庸置疑的。

    现在，让我们来谈谈如何避免这种情况的发生。胡佛称：“你应该每周撰写个人业绩评估。作为咨询师，我们通常会告诉老板跟每一位下属沟通，每周至少一次，即使非常简短也没关系。要设定工作目标并听取员工的进展报告，而不能像你的老板那样，一年才对员工进行一次评价。”

    胡佛建议：“但如果老板并未这么做，那你就要设法让他做到。每周找老板谈谈，告诉他你正在做什么，进展如何，随后再发一封简短的电子邮件总结一下你们所谈的内容。等年终评估时间临近时，再写一份简洁的汇报，总结一下今年的工作成绩，通过电子邮件发送给他。”

    Dear Annie: It's annual performance-evaluation time again, and my coworkers and I are, as usual, taking a grin-and-bear-it approach. We've gotten used to just getting it over with, as my out-of-touch boss does his best to come up with the pros and cons of our performance over the past 12 months. We end each year grumbling about the things our boss has gotten wrong, or things we've accomplished that he is just unaware of, but, so far, none of us has attempted any rebuttal. Are there any practical ways to correct inaccurate performance reviews, or should we just keep muddling along? I'm wondering if saying nothing is undercutting my chances for raises and promotions. Your thoughts? — Underappreciated

    Dear Underappreciated: Whoa. "'Grin and bear it' is absolutely the worst possible way to handle this situation," says John Hoover. "Why are you abdicating such an essential part of your career to someone else, especially since you already know your boss is clueless?"

    Hoover, who leads the executive coaching practice at Manhattan-based consulting firm Partners in Human Resources International, counsels managers at IBM (IBM), Hilton Hotels, Verizon (VZ), Xerox (XRX), and many other big companies. He also wrote an insightful book called How to Work for an Idiot: Survive and Thrive Without Killing Your Boss.

    What Hoover calls "the boring HR answer" to your question is that you can indeed challenge an inaccurate or incomplete performance review. "You can go through the HR department and ask to be re-evaluated, pointing out things that were missed so they can be recorded in your personnel file," he says.

    Politically, however, that route is risky, since it's likely to embarrass your boss by making him look, well, out of touch with what you're doing. "A better approach is to go to your boss directly with a list of the things he has overlooked, and ask him to add them to your written review," says Hoover. If you don't, your suspicion that you're undercutting your own chances for advancement is probably spot on.

    Now, let's talk about how to prevent this debacle in the future. "You should be scripting your own performance evaluation 52 weeks a year," says Hoover. "As coaches, we always tell bosses to communicate with everyone under them at least once a week -- even if only very briefly -- to set goals and get progress reports, rather than blind-siding people once a year, as your boss seems to be doing.

    "But if that is not happening, you need to make it happen. Engage your boss in a conversation every week about what you're working on and how it's going, and follow up with a brief email summing up what was said," Hoover advises. "Then, as annual evaluation time approaches, write up a succinct account of your accomplishments for the year and email it to him."