Performance Reviews Sucks

[Ghel]

Every year for the past several years, we’ve been asked to fill out a self-analysis as part of our performance review. Supposedly, it factors in to our raises, but it’s hard to see the correlation.

The first part is hard enough. Rate yourself on a 5-point scale in the following categories: communication, quality of work, dependability, initiative, job knowledge, adaptability, decision making, education & training, professional growth, interpersonal skills, coachability, customer service, and professionalism. Why shouldn’t I put 5 for everything? Is my supervisor going to see that and say I didn’t take the review seriously?

Then comes the open-ended questions, which are even worse. Questions include: opportunities for development, important accomplishments, performance improvements (this one says I can put N/A), and any additional comments. I feel like I should write something for each of these, but what? It’s really hard to find opportunities for development when the bank won’t even pay for advertising. My best accomplishment this year was moving into the HMDA Auditor role, which I will definitely list. But what do I say about it?

I stress over this way more than I probably need to. I’d love guidance how to handle this better. Or reassurance that I’m doing fine.

[EricKei]

For the open-ended stuff:

Look at any job descriptions/postings they may have for your position in order to find out what they expect/think of as important/good.

Opp for development/accomplishments: You're soaking in it! The promotion that you earned shows that you are willing and able to improve and learn new things. You may still be (relatively) new to this role, which gives you both the opportunity and motivation to learn more about the role and about where you can go from there once you've proven yourself in the new position.


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That being said, my take on these sorts of things is quite cynical.

All 5's? They'll think (maybe say) you were lying. All 4's? They'll see those as 3's and an "admission of incompetence." Anything higher than what your boss thinks you should get? Exaggeration to make yourself look good.

Feels like the old "establish a paper trail so we can fire people 'with cause' at any time" BS so that they can more easily slash payroll hours so the big bosses can get their bonuses.

[csquared]

On the 1-5 scales. Check with your employer.

Where I work, 3 is "you have done your job". 4 is "exceeding expectations". 5 is reserved for God. 2 is "you better have your resume up to date". No one gets a 1. You were fired long before that.

This is not eBay we're you get a five for doing the bare minimum.

[Ghel]

Yeah. Based on the descriptions provided, your take on the 5 point scale is spot on, csquared.

They don’t make sense for some of the categories. Education and training, for example. “Virtually no detected preventable/controllable errors” is part of a 5. What errors would there be with training?

I’m still having trouble with the open-ended questions. I’m worried I’m overthinking it. I can’t find my copy of last year’s performance review, but I don’t think I had any performance improvements I needed to work on. I hope if I put N/A, it will be fine.

Thanks for talking through this with me. This crap sucks.

[RealUnimportant]

What errors would there be with training?

Either failing to learn, or failing to teach, depending which end of the training you're on. If you haven't received any, or given any, I'd mark it not applicable.

I absolutely detest this kind of thing, it's putting managereal work off onto those who're supposed to be managed, regardless of what level you are in the company. In an early job they tried getting me to fill one of these in and I couldn't take it seriously, to the point they had to take me aside and explain the higher-up that'd thought of this wheeze was feeling very upset at how I was treating it so could I do it again? I needed the job, so I gave it a rework, but I also explained as best I could that it's impossible for me to evaluate my performance as anything other than doing my best, because either that's what I'm actually doing, or that's what I want you to think I'm doing even if I'm goofing off!

[Ghel]

Unfortunately, not applicable isn't an option on any of the 5-point scale question.

I agree about not wanting to take this seriously. But I also want to get a decent raise, especially since they moved our annual raises from July 1 to January 1, meaning we won't have a raise (not even for cost of living, and inflation has been brutal this past year) for 18 months. Last time, I got a 5% raise compared to everyone else's 2% (supposedly) but only because I took on the role of HMDA Auditor. I'm still not being paid what I deserve.

I have to finish this stupid questionnaire by the end of the week. I hate how much this is stressing me out.