More employers seek comment during reviews

How is your performance at work?

Gone are the days of checklists and numerical scoring when you and the boss sit down to evaluate your work duties and conduct. Narration is now the key to appraisals, according to John Robinson, head of the employment law practice for the Tampa, Fla.-based firm of Fowler White Boggs Banker.

Companies are looking for narrative comments about an employee’s performance, skipping the traditional methods that often produced misleading scores and failed to customize the review to the worker.

And don’t be surprised if the boss solicits some written comments from you before the meeting. The goal is to get you to think about your job more deeply, focus on what and how you do, and critically analyze ways to improve, Robinson said.

Technology

Company developing ‘finger in ear’ phone

Let your fingers do the talking with an experimental cell phone by Japan’s top mobile carrier. To use the Finger Whisper phone, simply put your finger in your ear.

The microphone and earphone are embedded in a wristband. So when the phone rings, just start talking into the inside of your wrist while sticking your finger in your ear, NTT DoCoMo spokeswoman Junko Miyazaki said.

The gadget transforms voice into vibrations that travel through your bones into your finger and then into your ear, where the vibrations can be heard as sound again.

But don’t expect throngs of Japanese to be walking down the street with fingers in their ears anytime soon. Finger Whisper is still being developed.

Motley Fool

Name that company

I’m a large media and education company, founded in 1877. Along with the flagship newspaper that bears my name, my properties include Newsweek magazine, television stations in Detroit, Houston, Miami, Orlando, San Antonio and Jacksonville, and the Cable ONE cable television system. I also own Kaplan Inc., the folks who help kids prepare for standardized tests, among other educational and career services. There’s a popular John Philip Sousa marching band tune named after me, and Richard Nixon didn’t particularly like me. Who am I?