Dear Bob ... Our company is now implementing a self evaluation annual review form and I was recently emailed mine to complete. While this process is new for our company, I have been through it before with my previous employer. I don't like filling these things out, but I would guess that companies use it to their advantage and to avert any potential legal entanglements with employees. Unfortunately, office polit Dear Bob …Our company is now implementing a self evaluation annual review form and I was recently emailed mine to complete. While this process is new for our company, I have been through it before with my previous employer.I don’t like filling these things out, but I would guess that companies use it to their advantage and to avert any potential legal entanglements with employees. Unfortunately, office politics run very high in our company (it makes me sick), so I appreciate your column from last week. In light of that, what is the real purpose of a self evaluation form and how would you recommend filling it out so that it can’t be used against you?– EvaluatingDear Evaluating … What is the real purpose? It depends on the company. Mostly, I’ve seen the used in one of two ways. The first is as a sincere attempt on the part of a manager to understand each employee’s perspective regarding his or her performance. This is a sensible thing to do. If employee and manager agree, it streamlines the whole performance/goal-setting discussion. If they don’t agree, it helps the manager understand where communication needs to improve, where he/she needs to pay more attention to how the employee is performing, and where the employee needs coaching about being more willing to confront his or her shortcomings.Either way, the self-appraisal improves the process.The other way I’ve seen self-appraisals used is as a workload reducer. Some managers use it as a way to get employees to write the first draft, which lets them act as editors of performance appraisals instead of authors. Usually, editing is quicker. You’re right to be concerned in a political environment, because these things are easily abused, and not always through malicious intent. It’s in the nature of things that every employee will have different personal standards, which means every self-appraisal will be based on a different performance scale. This is exacerbated by the demonstrated inverse relationship between actual performance and self-assessment: Employees who assert their exceptional contributions are usually poor performers; those who express concerns about their performance more often are those who deliver high value. Part of what managers are supposed to do, of course, is to apply a single performance standard to everyone. The limitations of self-appraisals in achieving this goal are obvious.If you trust your manager, I’d suggest having a short, open conversation. Just ask: “Before I fill this out, it would be helpful to understand how it fits into the process. Put it this way – if these are the primary inputs to the process and everyone is going to inflate their performance to get ahead in the performance rankings, I’ll have to do the same thing – I’d be foolish to do anything else. If you’re going to write the performance appraisal and my self-appraisal is to help us discover where we agree and disagree about my performance, I won’t put any spin into it.”If you don’t trust your manager, ask someone who you trust who’s been around for a few years a similar question. The only other piece of advice I’d give you is this: If you do end up having to emphasize the high notes, as it were, make sure to include one or two very safe opportunities for self-improvement – the equivalent of having a good answer for the interview staple, “What’s the worst mistake you ever made in your career?”Demonstrating that you’re able to recognize your shortcomings makes the rest of your self-appraisal more credible; choosing your shortcomings carefully keeps them from getting you into trouble.– Bob ——– Technology Industry