Unethical Request?

[Triskeliongirl]

We do this all the time in my field too. I don't believe it is unethical for the reasons stated, ultimatly the person signing it edits it to make it 'his' or 'hers' and signs their name to it. I do this all the time when asked to write letters, because it takes too much time to write a letter from scratch, and I worry I might sell the person short if there are things I don't know about them off the top of my head. I view it as a 'first draft' to get the facts down, and then I edit it, trying to add some more personal anecdotes, etc. Obviously if it sounds really weird, I would check the facts against their CV, but this has never happened. AND, don't sell yourself short. Write the best letter that you can write that tells the truth. For example, there are two ways to say the same thing. A technician brought me a first draft of a letter recently in which she stated that her peformance reviews were always good. I changed it to outstanding, since that was the word choson in the performance review. Good indicates a lower level of performance than outstanding. So again, tell the truth but don't sell yourself short. View this as an opportunity rather than an ethical dilemma. And don't view the boss as lazy, he/she probably has a lot of other things to do too and wants to be sure this letter gets off to a good start.

[HipGnosis6]

If it makes you feel any better, we had a form letter to give to our interns once their hours were completed. I personally had three interns and never once edited the letter.

Added: I had to go back and edit this to comment that I wound up leaving the job I was talking about because the owner wanted us to be compliant with some really truly unethical behavior. He was planning on screwing over the manufacturers who actually made the product by a) refusing timely delivery so he wouldn't have to pay when due and b) claiming the merchandise was defective so he wouldn't have to pay full price and then selling it as first quality goods. Yikes!

[Nanci]

We have to write our own annual performance reviews too. I started, after the first year, taking notes over the course of the year of good things I did, so I would have something to say. I'd never remember everything, otherwise.

Nanci

[Bad JuJu]

For just these reasons--as a basis for letters and for performance reviews--I do what Nanci does. Every year, I open a document called Goals and Achievements and I list every little thing I do at work in that document, from the mundane to the unusual. It's also a good place to keep track of problems and what causes them--lack of resources, etc.

I can't remember a job in which I didn't have to provide at least some input for my own performance review. And it kind of makes sense--you're more likely to know than your boss is exactly what you've done and how well you've done it. If you can't blow your own horn, you can't expect someone else to do it for you.