The Annoyance Of Performance Review Cycles
Just how often do we have to play ‘rate my work’ these days instead of doing actual work?
Let’s start this missive with an illustrative quote that has stuck in my own mind for some time and has been applicable to many situations thrust upon me in the grand game since first hearing it back in 1979.
“James Bond.
You appear with the tedious inevitability of an unloved season.”
- Hugo Drax, ‘Moonraker’
(Let’s just replace 007’s name with ‘Performance Review’ and cut out any unnecessary waffle, unlike an actual performance review, and get on with the article.)
The Tediousness
I’ve written many times, and at considerably length, of the ineffectiveness and inaccuracy of performance reviews within the grand game of software engineering.
Simply, they are a method employed by management and enacted by the minions of HR to restrict the growth, progress, and remuneration of permanently employed staff¹.
Alas, they’re currently a necessary evil if you decide to stay with any one company for more than 6 or so months and have the aspiration that they’ll keep your pay in line with market rates².
From the ‘360 reviews’ favoured by companies stuck in past centuries where employees were forced to…
