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January 10, 2006
Evidence versus Truth, or Will the Witness Please Answer the Question!
From the land of "ignorance is no excuse" comes this picture of the fine line between being "accountable" and being "guilty".
At Federal Agency employee performance evaluation time, overwrought managers avoid confrontation and hassles with poor employees, but go on to solve the wrong problem, by simply giving them (only) a passing grade that makes all further debate moot. But then a new manager takes over and wants to get rid of the bad worker, which can't be done because the personnel folder doesn't have anything in it to support the claim of poor performance.
Thus proving once again that when it comes to measurement, like with jokes, what makes it work is not what you tell but how you tell it -- then the problem usually kicks in with the re-telling by someone else.
So much for a single version of the truth!
See the full gory story by Washington Post columnist Stephen Barr at the Federal Diary for Tuesday, January 10, 2006.
Posted by Malcolm Ryder at January 10, 2006 1:11 PM
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