It’s That Wonderful Time of Year! No, Not Halloween, Not Thanksgiving, Not Christmas, Rather, the End of Year Performance Reviews Season.
In this final stretch of the year, the corporate world is readying for its yearly ritual of performance reviews. You know, the magical evaluation that states whether you’re deserving of getting a raise, a promotion, or even worthy of being retained as an employee of said company.
I once worked for an international financial firm that handed out a twenty-page PDF to all its supervisors, managers, and directors, on “How to conduct yearly reviews.”
This same company held calibration meetings where they had other managers from across the country weigh in on review rankings. There were people who didn’t know a particular staff member from Adam dictating that person’s rating. The high grades I gave my best employees were overturned through this process, and it was infuriating.
They purposely made it almost impossible for anyone to get an exceptional classification, pushing everyone toward the middle instead. But year after year, managers completely played along with this farce.
It was completely irrational and a waste of time.
Many companies use performance reviews as an Inquisition, a court trial where staff are put on the spot; having to defend themselves against the prosecution. This causes much unnecessary…
