A year ago, I had an interesting discussion with a colleague about evaluating performance in the context of external constraints. The question was: “If you are leading a team of people whose lives are under differing amounts of non-work demands, should you evaluate their performance in light of these demands?”

Example: There are two people in a team – a single guy and a divorced father with two kids. They both deliver the same results. Should they both get the same rating, or should the person who manages to deliver results despite high non-work demands (i.e. the single father) be evaluated more favorably?

My colleague’s answer was that the two should be treated differently, because it’s harder for the lone parent to deliver the same results than for the single guy (for whom it is easier to stay longer hours or work without interruptions).

My answer was no, the evaluation should solely depend upon the set goals in the beginning of the year. If a person reaches his set goals, he should be evaluated and incentivized accordingly. Certainly, a single parent is likely to have less capacity than a single guy without kids; however, if this difference in capacity influences anything, it should be the respective goals, not the evaluation. The outcome may be the same (the single guy having to work harder than the widower), with one important difference: They both know what is expected of them, and how to reach or exceed those expectations.

And even the differently set goals might be unfair: What if the single guy pursues a promising career in amateur swimming (consuming most of his weekends), or spends a lot of time volunteering in a center for disabled people? Does it matter for your evaluation if you spend your off-work time raising children, volunteering, doing sports, persuing hobbies, or just hanging out in front of the TV? Isn’t work-life balance something individual that it is impossible to use it as a frame of reference for performance evaluation?

What do you think?

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