Imagine yourself sitting up at your work desk, Twix bar in one hand, coffee cup in the other, smiling at the prospect of writing your year-end review. Or wiggling in your seat out of sheer excitement to run into your year-end performance review meeting with your (not so) favorite manager…
Rewind…
Ok, let’s go back and press the real Start button on this scenario…
What really happens every year around this time is the real you ends up slouching in the chair, ready to slide under the desk at the mere thought of doing anything remotely related to year-end reviews. In your mind clouded by year-end holidays and spiked eggnog (you know it is), a root canal looks like heaven compared to suffering through assessing your own work and talking about it with the very person who may be holding your entire career’s future in their hands…
I used to dread year-end performance reviews more than wearing flats anywhere (to each her own). Why would anyone ask you to document your professional awesomeness (or lack thereof) after all? And then use it as a basis to either promote you, or leave you three feet under professional disappointment level? Really, people?
I know, I know what you may be thinking…That even though there have been attempts at getting rid of the whole performance review thing, it’s still widely done in most companies. And that after all, there is some value to this exchange of professional assessments padded with politically correct dialogue and flying sparks of positivity everywhere…
Sure, but under the thick layer of work performance and inter-personal relationships all mired in a cloud of inevitable human subjectivity, there are also these subtle but oh so significant factors most won’t tell you about the Real Game of Performance Reviews. Except some of us who just can’t keep secrets, or watercolor gossip, or office goodies (stop looking at me…)
- Your manager probably hates them as much as you do: Sitting across from anyone’s ego filled with the expectation of positive news would make the most fearless leader quiver a bit under her desk. It’s never easy to deliver that kind of message, even if it’s a good one. You’re basically in charge of someone’s professional future, if only for a year, a quarter or however long they’ve been reporting to you. And that responsibility, in addition to turning in your own performance review when you all want to do is eat eat cake and celebrate the holidays, is no walk in the
parkoffice… - It’s a musical chairs game: At the end of the day, the whole thing is pretty close to playing musical chairs. There are only a certain number of chairs (read promotions, positions, and most importantly money), and only a certain number of candidates that can lay claim to the goodies. Translation: if you didn’t make it past that extra millisecond of professional and personal awesomeness based on a few people’s subjective evaluation, you’re out of a chair.
- The standards are biased: Of course, they are. As objectively as the performance parameters may be described, they are still assessed by…humans. So whether we like to admit it or not, there’s still a measure of subjectivity and humanity that goes into any performance review (and I mean, any).
- You’re being coddled: More and more companies are urging managers and performance reviewers in general to highlight the positives, and dress the negatives as “areas of improvement”. Just as the next generation is being groomed as “everyone wins a trophy, the point is to participate”, at work also, the next generation of professionals is being pushed to emphasize the positive, beautify the negative, and bury our heads in the sand in the name of maintaining employee morale. Noble? Maybe. Misleading? Certainly. Just as some employees should be legitimately praised, promoted and patted on the back, others should be told they need to step on the gas. Point blank.
- It really boils down to how skilled your manager is: Ever heard the phrase “There are no bad employees, there are only bad managers”? In many cases, your performance, and the assessment of it, really depends on how skilled your manager is. A skilled manager will be able to offer appropriate coaching to her/his team members, and spot their strengths and weaknesses. However, unskilled and un-committed managers will tend to over-rely on their team members without seeking to develop them.
Next time you feel like throwing up a bit in your mouth at the prospect of receiving (or giving) your year-end performance assessment, think about the above as you painfully wobble towards the fateful meeting room…
Now do yourself a favor and think back about all the performance reviews you may have already received. Which ones of these 5 things that no one may have told you about before really were at play? And after your heart jumps back in your chest, please let us know what you think in the comments section.
To Your Career Success,
The Corporate Sis.
