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QOTD: Do You Look Forward to Your Annual Performance Review?
Jul 27I’m curious: Is there anyone out there who looks forward to their annual performance reviews? Let’s hear it. And if you detest annual performance reviews, let’s hear that too.
About the Author
Frank Roche
Frank started IFRACTAL over 7 years ago with Sarah Chambers. Together, they've created HR communications and HR software for some of the world's leading companies. Frank is also studying Flamenco guitar and origami.
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The more important question for me is whether the people that report to me look forward to their performance reviews.
I have hated virtually all of my 29 annual performance reviews.
@rick – I couldn’t agree more. Who could possibly look forward to such awkwardness and waste of time? Not to mention how useless they were.
I had semi-annual reviews for 3 years and there was only 1 useful comment that ever came out of any of them – my director told me “I know you only care if you got a raise or not. Don’t worry, it’s all I used to care about with these things when I was in your position. You can ignore the rest of this crap.” He still went through with the rest of it though…
My boss emails it to me, along with a note on the state of Cost of Living raises for the year. What will my review look like? Let me see last years…
@Greg, so sad, man. Sad because it’s so prevalent…yep, it’s last year’s review with two extra things. Ugh.
Last performance review was with a Fortune 500 company in 2007. I was a global HR generalist and supported the CIO of the organization and his leadership team.
My performance review was held during last week of May 2007 — and it was for calendar year 2006. It was a year in which I had three HR bosses, by the way. By May 2007, I had two more bosses. [That's five HR bosses in 18 months.]
I was leaving the company on June 7, 2007. My husband had a new job and we were planning our relocation. The performance review was just a formality because I had received a bonus, stock options, RSUs, and a merit increase in March 2007 — two months earlier.
This long-ass story has a point: if we can’t get this right in HR, we have no business lecturing our clients.
PS – I can’t spell leadership. I *should* be fired.
I personally have loved it when I knew I was doing well at my job and getting along with my boss. I have feared it in environments where there was inadequate feedback. As a new manager at another job, I did it diligently, particularly the performance planning part and therefore the reviews were straightforward and even fun.
Being fairly new to this area of Talent Management, I have asked the same questions albeit a broader one (What do you think about the Performance Management process at your company?) to a lot of folks I know and on my blog (http://lrnr.wordpress.com/2009/04/04/performance-reviews/). Most folks have said they hate it or don’t care much for it. The only ones who liked it were the ones whose reviews were tied to quarterly or half-yearly bonuses.
I like it because I know that Openning Day is right around the corner. Annual performance review, Pitchers and Catchers, “play ball”.
We have performance reviews TWICE a year. I find it terribly awkward and unsettling, even though there are never any suprises and my manager’s feedback is mostly positive. I always hear the same thing about how I deserve a promotion, even though its complete BS. Its been almost two years since “I deserved a promotion” and I’m still waiting…
I don’t look forward to it b/c even if I have a good – or even stellar – review, in the back of my head, I’ll know that other directors aren’t doing due diligence and providing the same kind of performance review that I’m receiving from my director. We are so sporadic about performance management that it dilutes the initiative to a bit of a farce.
It doesn’t matter how good your own performance review is if more problematic individuals in your department aren’t being held to the same principles.
@Ani: You nailed it. Most “Performance Reviews” are for keeping the status quo or shredding someone who the company wants to let go. I have run into very few people who have a performance review that is about achievement or accomplishment.
Performance review should be a many-times-a-day event. It’s what bosses are supposed to do. If you want six months or even six weeks or six days to give people follow up, you’re begging for surprises of the nasty kinds.
@Wally I couldn’t agree more about an all-the-time communication approach. Once a year makes me laugh. Yikes.
It happened to me once to anxiously wait the annual performance review.
It was my first year in a company that never had an HR before, consequently my job role was somehow ambiguous. I found that performance review as an opportunity to draw some conclusions after the first year and having my job role defined.
@M Really great place to find out your job role — a year in at a performance review. I should write a little more about setting expectations…glad it sounds like yours worked out.