So some advice for anyone looking for work or thinking of changing companies in the near future.
You should always ask about employee appraisals and how they work.
Reason I say this is because the way my work does theirs makes it very unattractive, for a person like me anyway. I'd leave this company tomorrow if I could... I hate being trapped! :/
Anyway, if a company you're interviewing at uses a 'totem pole' appraisal system, think very carefully whether you want to be a part of that company or not. What this system technically is, is an appraisal on who you know and what people know about you, rather than your actual work. To put it bluntly, this is putting the 'it's not what you know but who you know' into your everyday work.
For my company here, this means I'm suppose to be some person highly involved in all the doings in the company if I ever hope to get a 'decent' raise, they have a lot of company groups to join and also we have a company social network which I'm suppose to participate in. I'm supposed to do all this and my work at the same time along with doing their crap online training...
Needless to say, I'm not impressed. Some people like this kind of thing. I'm not really one of them. I'd rather be assessed on my work, not on my social ability, which is their way of assessing now 'committed' I am to the company. Which I'm not... I'm not good at faking it.