Self-Appraisal

Human tendency is that one expects others to evaluate ones performance. Even in such situations, critical comments are generally not accepted and understood in the right perspective. So it is ideal and always good to do a self-appraisal to find out where one stands.

I came across an interesting piece of conversation, which I would like to share.

A young boy went to a nearby store and saw a telephone at the counter. He could not reach the phone to dial the number. So he dragged up a stool near by got up and reached the phone. He then dialed a number. He started pleading for a job as a house-cleaning boy. The person at the other end of the conversation told him that he already had one. The boy did not leave it at that. He volunteered to do the job at half the fee of what the existing cleaning person was paid. Even to this the person who happened to be the owner of the house did not accept. The boy then started describing about how his work would be and that the owner would have a house as clean as the owner would want. To this the owner said that he was extremely happy with the person currently doing the cleaning job.

All the while the storeowner was watching the interesting piece of conversation between the boy and the person at the other end of the telephone call. Seeing the boys perseverance, the store owner offered a job to the boy in his store. The boy smiled and said, NO. The storeowner was surprised and asked him why. The boy said that he already had the job, and that he was working in the place where he had just called. It was just a call to check his performance.

That is self-appraisal for all to practice.