Annual Review questions -- what should i be expecting??

July 11, 2022 10:14 AM

Brief background: new company, first annual review, and so far it's been weird. Like, an hour-long mandatory all-company meeting where HR said things like, "...crying is not appropriate during your review..." My Manager returned from vacation today; let me know that my annual review is tomorrow, and that "she's only supposed to release my written performance review one hour before we meet." Which seems odd. Last company I worked for released it days in advance so we had time to reflect and prepare comments. Have the HR winds changed drastically in the last 8 years?? What's the current zeitgeist? What REALLY should I be expecting??
posted by Silvery Fish to Work & Money (18 answers total)

This is nuts and I am imagining that someone or multiple someones (probably not you don't worry) are being fired either for good or bad reasons, and your very bad HR thinks the best way to deal with it is to give them a shitty review and fire them or bully them into resigning all in the same afternoon. By treating everyone the same with the quick turnaround of the notes before the meetings they avoid giving these people a heads up and time to process or protect themselves from a very badly done severance.

This is not good practice and is not normal. I'd be interested to hear if I was right about the reasons once it's all done and dusted!
posted by cilantro at 10:19 AM on July 11, 2022 [15 favorites]

This sounds nuts, TBH.
posted by StrawberryPie at 10:22 AM on July 11, 2022 [11 favorites]

That sounds painful. I agree this isn't the way things are done in my experience. The comment you relay from the HR rep, or whoever, is outrageous and callus in the extreem.
posted by Alensin at 10:23 AM on July 11, 2022 [2 favorites]

Performance reviews have always, and will always, be a waste of time. The best managers make them short and sweet. "Performance" is an antiquated concept, and should be reviewed on the daily basis.

Even if your manager makes a big deal out of it, and gives you a 2/3 or 3/5 or whatever, just know that it's all on a bell curve and it doesn't matter. It never matters.

I'd recommend thinking happy thoughts about a different career or job, and have an abundance mindset - you could get rehired elsewhere easily.
posted by bbqturtle at 10:31 AM on July 11, 2022 [17 favorites]

My gut reads this as none of you are getting raises this year.

Hope that's not the case. Please update us.
posted by JoeZydeco at 10:38 AM on July 11, 2022 [6 favorites]

"Performance" ... should be reviewed on the daily basis.


So, in general, should be management. After a year, you should have a sense of what the company and your manager are like. If you have a decent manager and it's a well-run company, it's possible but unlikely that the review process will be awful. And vice versa.
posted by Mr.Know-it-some at 10:39 AM on July 11, 2022 [2 favorites]

This sounds like intimidation, fear, uncertainty, doubt. A well-managed company that's doing well doesn't need to resort to this. It may signal layoffs disguised as fake 'firing for cause'. Go in feeling as assertive and self-confident as possible. Have a list of accomplishments. Reject criticism calmly and factually. I'd consider recording the meeting on my phone if it's legal in your state. In my state, an in-person meeting may be legally recorded, Don't be secretive; honestly state that you'd like to record the meeting so you can learn.

Bullies only understand power, so try to muster up as much as you can.
posted by theora55 at 10:53 AM on July 11, 2022 [8 favorites]

Best answer: Some companies are really bad at this process. Your HR sounds hamfisted maybe because they are bad at their job or maybe because there is a history around this process.

I'd go into it with an open mind and see what happens. Neither of those things are a red flag to me. The "Do not cry" thing just screams we-do-not-know-what-we-are-doing more than it being some draconian nightmare. Only releasing your written review right before your actual review happens isn't that strange to me either. They just want to be there with you when it comes out so you can't misread or unnecessarily dwell on some small part of it before there is a chance to work it out. They don't really want you to have a prepared rebuttal.

The most important thing for you to do is develop a good close relationship with your manager and talk about things when they occur, not once a year. In reality, like most every HR things, this review process is for the company. It is not for you. This is a documentation point in the company's relationship with you that it is important to the company to have in case they need it later.

I would not worry and see how it goes. If they fire you, they were going to do that anyways. If they don't, you'll have more information on whether you should be looking for a new job.
posted by cmm at 10:58 AM on July 11, 2022 [4 favorites]

I work for an insurance company, so it's not really cutting edge, but that's not how we do things. I got my copy several days in advance, along with a personal chat from my manager about what was in it (promotion! /humblebrag). That said, there does seem to be a trend in performance reviews (especially in tech) to use the review process as a means of culling employees, ensuring a company culture of competition (or so they claim).

I have pretty extreme anxiety about performance reviews, to the point where I was nervous to meet with my manager even though I knew I'd be getting promoted, and this raises a lot of red flags for me. Specifically, the one-hour-notice thing, which is more like what happens when someone is getting fired. I'd be a little surprised if they actually fired you; if that was really what they wanted to do, they probably wouldn't have waited until your supervisor returned from vacation. But it certainly feels like they want you to think that's one of the potential outcomes.

Honestly, assuming you're not getting fired, this doesn't really seem like a bad plan. I've always gotten advance copies for the same reason you have, to "reflect and prepare comments", but to be honest, that has never mattered. Like, once your supervisor writes your review, the process is over. Presenting a thoughtful comment at the actual meeting won't cause them to admit they're wrong and go back to rewrite your review. Advance notice doesn't really seem to serve much point, aside from definitively establishing that you won't be fired.

The fact that it's a new company leads me to believe that funding is an issue and they're probably going to let at least some people go during the review process, which is to say that the review process is actually a layoff process and you're probably going to have to explain to the Bobs what you'd say you do here. (Amusingly, the job described in that scene is more or less my job.)

Do you have any co-workers who have already gone through their reviews? Or is everyone's review scheduled for the same time tomorrow?
posted by kevinbelt at 11:03 AM on July 11, 2022

Not releasing the written review in advance seems within the norm in my experience. It sounds like they might do a forced stack ranking (so managers have to give 1s 2s and 3s and can’t just give out all 2s for example). That can leave people feeling bitter or upset especially if they were given no indication throughout the year that they needed to improve. That might not be the case but it has definitely led to tears and angry rants at the places I’ve worked that used that method. If it’s tied to compensation or layoffs it’s even more likely to do that. Are there any coworkers you can grab for a coffee chat or 10min teams call to get the inside scoop? Glassdoor reviews might have helpful info too.
posted by ohneat at 11:23 AM on July 11, 2022 [1 favorite]

In my experience, I've never gotten my review until I'm in the room with my manager discussing it. That doesn't strike me as odd. The crying thing, though- that's a bit of a red flag.
posted by Torosaurus at 11:26 AM on July 11, 2022 [17 favorites]

I came here to say about the same thing Torosaurus did. At all my jobs in the past ~20 years, I have never seen my review until I was in the room discussing it with my manager.

The "crying is not appropriate" thing does seem weird, could that possibly have been a (bad) joke? What other kind of material was covered in that meeting?
posted by Juffo-Wup at 11:54 AM on July 11, 2022

At my current org the process is that each employee writes up a self-assessment; their manager writes up a response; they meet to discuss, and both documents are sent to someone in HR who (as far as I know) files them away never to be seen again. (We actually do this every six months instead of once a year, but the mid-year review is a much lighter process.)

We use performance reviews as one of several factors in making salary adjustments, but we do not stack rank (stack ranking is stupid), or use annual reviews as an opportunity to fire someone. (That would be a huge waste of time; writing these docs is time-consuming, especially when you have a lot of direct reports!)

Some managers share their response document ahead of the meeting; but most (me included) prefer to have the in-person discussion first so it can be more of a conversation about what action to take as a result. (Though I make a point of never catching someone by surprise with my feedback; if they don't already know how they're performing then I've not been doing my job properly.)
posted by ook at 12:56 PM on July 11, 2022 [3 favorites]

Nthing the request to update us after the end of your review day!

I worked for a state government, and whether I got it in advance before meeting with my manager or not seemed to vary manager by manager but I usually saw the form when I went in the office. The good ones did, however, try to give feedback on my work quite often, so the review seemed somewhat 'pro forma' when it came around.
posted by TimHare at 1:44 PM on July 11, 2022 [2 favorites]

Best answer: As a manager I have delivered a lot of performance reviews under a lot of companies' systems. I've worked at places where you were supposed to send the employee the written review days ahead of the meeting, at places where you were forbidden from doing that, and at places where it was left up to the manager. The ones where it was standard or required practice to send it out ahead were in the distinct minority in my experience (small sample size of course). Most places I've worked either explicitly tell managers to not share the written review ahead of time, or let managers decide.

One thing I will say is that I've found that giving written reviews out head of time creates many more opportunities for things to go badly. Yes, many (most) people use the time to read and understand the review, and come to the conversation with some great questions and maybe a plan for how they will address their areas for improvement. But in a small but very painful minority of cases, the recipient stews on it, seemingly willfully misinterprets it, nitpicks it, and comes in armed with a list of arguments for why the feedback is wrong or unfair. I definitely think that it's on me as a manager to both make sure that performance review feedback is not a surprise, and to write the written review in a clear and understandable way. But no review writer is perfect, and people come at these things with different mindsets. Being able to, IN THE MOMENT, add nuance, answer questions, and clear up misunderstandings before they boil over is really helpful.

Long way of saying, I don't think that not giving the review to you ahead of time is a red flag or particularly unusual. The other stuff does sound weird, though.
posted by primethyme at 4:02 PM on July 11, 2022 [3 favorites]

The “don’t cry thing” is yellow or potentially red flag. Could mean they have had issues in the past and are (badly) trying to be proactive about it. Could just be that HR sucks, and a lot of HR does suck so that’s not that unusual. If HR sucks, you can still have a good job with a good manager.

The one hour early thing is not at all concerning to me. I have worked for very good, well-run companies and I have never even got mine ahead of time, at all. The first time i see it is during my review (although usually it’s more my manager talking through it, I don’t necessarily even see it), and then I get a copy later, usually immediately after.

Good luck! Let us know how it goes.
posted by sillysally at 4:36 PM on July 11, 2022 [3 favorites]

My initial, generous, reaction is that the "don't cry" thing is in the category of "Things That Have Happened" - there was a big drama at some previous review where someone cried, and it was handled badly, and now HR are badly trying to stop it happening again by telling people not to do it.
posted by fabius at 5:34 AM on July 12, 2022 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: Thank you all for your replies!

Annual review went fine. There’s a scale of 1-4, with 2 designated as “meets expectations” which seems a little off to me.. mostly 2s, a few 3s, with the explanation that my manager was instructed to do it this way so that there’s “room to grow.” Which, having been involved with data collection and design for decades - pegging your criteria to outcomes you want rather than the situation as it is never gives you good information.

Yes, I think I’m dealing with a ham-fisted HR dept. Your collective feedback was incredibly helpful in letting me know this wasn’t normal. This HR department also put together an all-employee live via Zoom “Juneteenth Trivia Contest!” that quietly fell off of our calendars. Which I was grateful for - it just seemed incredibly tone deaf to me.

I so appreciated all of the comments and warm wishes and concern. And thank you people who have managed other people for the information from your side of the table.
posted by Silvery Fish at 2:30 PM on July 12, 2022 [2 favorites]