#performance review time

[spidergoatduex]

[marchek]

You know what I don’t need at this hour of the morning? Righteous work-induced rage about something that went down last year.  I am still so fucking angry about it. 

[middlemanagementlivingthedream]

Dear Sir, I've read with interest how you're renowned for doing shit that got shit done and shit (paraphrasing on account of my terrible memory). Do you have any tips on completing performance reviews?

That's a great question  Performance Reviews suck.  Well, maybe just mine do.  I'm not a fan of trying to remember everything I did all year, then write it with a positive spin of how I helped some fucking shit do some shit and stuff a project successfully meet its goals.  The last few years have been like pulling teeth every 6 months, scouring through my notebooks or meeting lists or even calling coworkers looking for things I did to account for my time and efforts.  

This year, though, I tried something different that actually made my performance evals a bit easier.  I wrote up a self-assessment every month.  Yes, trying to make something you hate to do easier by doing it more often sounds counter intuitive, but it really works.  A little bit of time every month makes up for days of scratching your head, or worse, omitting something awesome you did.

First, I created a spreadsheet with all of my goals I'd created with my boss.  I made sure I had the goal topics, and any descriptions or bullet points my boss or department had outlined.

Then, near the end of every month, I'd spend an hour or two adding notes to the spreadsheet.  Make a couple of notes of what you actually did that month towards each of your goals:  

'Facilitated the XYZ meetings',

'Performed Root Cause Analysis of the flerghum thistleshits project', 

'Engaged IT for initial disaster recovery discussions for the waffles initiative',

'Closed X number of sales and opened discussions with X number of possible leads for the kitten mittens products'.  

You're just noting what you did as part of each goal in a couple bullets or sentences.  It's easier to remember everything you did if you're looking at smaller chunks of time.  

Note: if you did something ad-hoc that month, or had new work added to your plate (or old work taken away), document that, too. In fact, that's almost more important to document.  You and your boss decided on your goals for the year, so that's what you're expected to do.  If you do more than that, bonus. 

Every quarter, give yourself a little more time for a review of your notes.  How are you doing meeting those goals?  Anything on there that has no update?  Are you spending waaaaay too much time on 'new' things that were added to your workload that aren't in your goals?  That might help you focus on your essential work, or facilitate a conversation with your boss about changing your focus.

If you're making a little log every month, it's easier to track everything you're doing.  This was my first year trying this approach, and it was invaluable.  For both my mid-year and year-end evals, I basically had everything drafted already.  Not only that, but my notes were more complete, and my review was more comprehensive.  When the time came, all I did was clean up some language, made some additions and revisions, wrote my summation, and I was finished.  It was hours, not days.

So while that may not help you right now, it can certainly help you for next year.  And remember, spell check the fucking shit out of your review.

[middlemanagementlivingthedream]

That Guy

I have just used the following words/phrases when describing someone's performance:

Blunt

Combative

Bullying

Aggressive

Confrontational

Difficult to work with

Verbally abusive

Resistant to change

As you can tell, this is going swimmingly.

[middlemanagementlivingthedream]

kiwafruit replied to your post: I hate doing performance reviews

Reviewing you or someone else? They’re only useless if nothing ever gets done with what happens out of them. Otherwise they’re a great opportunity to acknowledge for those that like recognition and provide challenge for those that seek improvement…

Both, actually.  It's our mid-year review time.  I'm actually ahead of schedule this year.  My review is due today, and I actually started it a whole day in advance!  Huzzah!  Last year, I started at 5pm the day it was due.  Finished around 10pm.  Hated life.  But got a good review.

I agree that reviews are great opportunities for feedback.  I think if you can't write anything to acknowledge a person's performance, or need for improvement (along with suggestions on how), you might as well not do the review.  

One of my coworkers is awesome, and without their work, I wouldn't have been able to accomplish a couple of much larger goals.  Their review is glowing, and was easy to write.  

Another person I'm writing a review for... not so much.  I'm kinda dreading that one, because it's going to be a couple sentences of mildly positive comments, then a couple pages of documentation on their confrontational demeanor, project sabotage, and some incompetence.  I hate that I have to write this review, but this person's boss asked me to review their work this year, and to be honest about it because they know something has been off this year in this person's work habits.  

I just don't want to be *that guy*.

Well, off to be *that guy*.

Good luck everyone else.

[middlemanagementlivingthedream]

Am listening to Thom Yorke's The Eraser on loop

Not sure what good can come of this, but I'm going to be in an awesome mood.

[middlemanagementlivingthedream]

I hate doing performance reviews

Guess what I'm doing today?

I feel like an idiot writing these things.  I don't want to say anything bad, and I never know how much / little to write.  

I'd rather write a presentation to a stack of VP's.