Flat Goal

Generally viewed as a Raw Deal or a Nightmare by most Examiners, I am one of the few who can complain about this new Performance Appraisal idea where my complaints are not fabricated or forecast or related to what "might happen", but rather they stem from issues I personally dealt with and experienced for the last two quarters of FY07 ~ a.k.a. the longest 6 months of my life!

I went on the Flat Goal Pilot thinking that it would work out for me because I generally worked paid OT at 110% production, maintained my examining hours percentage between 75%-85% and knew that I would be starting part-time graduate courses in FY08. With the advertised flexibility, management made it sound like the program was the next best thing since sliced bread. My primary tried to talk me out of it, as did some other Examiner's in my AU, but I still wanted to give it a try.

Worst.Idea.Ever. It is very true that that Flat Goal increases production levels in a system that doesn't give adequate time for examining as it is (at least in my technology. For my first two years, I averaged between 110%-120% with about 10-20 hours of paid OT/biweek. Let me point out, that this is well above the average for Examiners in my technology and let me also point out that we've lost 10+ Examiners in the last two years. My technology has one of the worst attrition rates in the Office for a whole host of reasons that I won't get into within this post. On the Flat Goal Pilot, I barely achieved 110% without feeling like a hamster in a wheel and I picked over my cases (something I had never really done before) in order to get enough counts in. This tactic was ultimately what drove me to want lie out in the middle of the beltway over the course of the second quarter on the pilot on more than one occasion because I just kept getting more and more behind and my amendments just kept piling up.

I was also sick for 20 hours the first quarter of the pilot and had to essentially "make up" that time because those hours did not count as non-examining hours. It was really hard to gauge if I was making up the time appropriately due to not having a bi-weekly production report generated for my work. Also, I was on strong antibiotics that made me tired and cranky. I was technically not feeling well for a whole week, but not wanting to use a ton of sick leave, I only took 20 hours. Even still, you would never in a million years be able to convince me that being expected to produce when sick is a good idea -- or a fair one -- now that I've been through it. No way. Not gonna do it. I would rather go back to my college job of waiting tables in a major city where half the guests don't even tip as a full profession than be expected to produce when I'm sick.

Another worthy thing to note is that there has been a substantial increase in mandatory examiner training initiatives given the recent KSR decision, patent reform issues and the Final Rules package. The number of hours I have spent in training over the last year is twice the number hours I spent in training the previous year. Such a huge jump in training hours was not anticipated (by me) when I signed up for the pilot. So essentially, for the entire two quarters I was on the pilot, if I had been on the traditional production I would have been closer to 68-72% examining time NOT 80%!

I finished my second quarter of the pilot just over 80% of what I was expected to produce for that quarter. Had it not been a pilot, I would have received a written warning and probably would have ended up being terminated. Pretty Scary considering how well I actually do perform on the current outdated system that gives me less time than I need anyway. Needless to say, I was booted off the pilot -- but it didn't matter to me since I had been asking to get off of it since the first bi-week of that second quarter!!

It's been three bi-weeks since I've returned to the standard production system. I'm averaging 110% and finally starting to rack-up my workflow points again. I no longer feel like a hamster in a wheel -- and I even started grad school part-time. That's something. I'm taking two graduate level engineering courses, working 90 hours/bi-week and producing at 110% (70% examining time).

I told my SPE that if they made the Flat Goal a mandatory program, my two-weeks notice would be on his desk the very day management made the announcement. I am not a slave, nor a robot, nor a mindless drone who enjoys working for free. Thanks.