February 12, 2004

 Evaluations 

Last week, the Guild learned that written evaluation forms were being distributed to Guild represented employees at Time Inc., and managers were, asking employees to evaluate their own performance in writing. The Guild contacted Tina Kremenezky, Assistant Director of Employment Law for Time Inc., who serves as management’s representative at the weekly Guild/management grievance meetings, and asked her to look into the apparent contract violations as soon as possible. Our Guild contract specifies that evaluations be oral, not written.

At a February 9 meeting, Kremenezky agreed to the Guild’s request that management stop handing out paper evaluation forms, destroy those that had already been collected, and not make a self-evaluation part of the oral evaluation. Human Resources will inform managers of that decision. 

Please remember the following points: 1) the oral evaluation is optional, employees can decline to participate; 2) if employees want a written summary of an oral evaluation, they must ask the manager within a week of the evaluation, and the manager must provide one, but cannot require employees to sign it.  

Some workers rightly view the written summaries as good insurance policies, if the oral review has been a good one. 

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02/12/04