How to do a self-evaluation?
June 29, 2018 7:21 AM Subscribe
My workplace insists on making self-evaluation part of the performance review process. I hate hate hate this. Help me either (a) see the actual value in it so I can come around to the idea of doing it or (b) fake my way through it.
I am a software engineer. My workplace is one of those places where management insists on calling us "family". I like my coworkers, but hearing this kind of thing from management makes my blood boil. It feels disrespectful of my boundaries and insulting to my relationship with my REAL friends and family, who wouldn't immediately kick me onto the streets if their investors told them I wasn't making them enough money. That should give you an idea of my general feelings towards insincere corporate bullshit - it makes some people roll their eyes, but it makes me absolutely furious.
Anyway, we're doing some kind of new performance review which involves heavy self-evaluation and the kind of "goal setting" that reminds me of therapy. It's all short answer questions like "what do you contribute? How do you think you could improve?" No numerical answers.
I am very obviously having trouble tempering my hostility of the entire process. Trying to work my way through these questions makes me so frustrated that it has literally brought me to the edge of tears. I'm so uncomfortable that my instinct is to drag my feet and make the whole process just as uncomfortable for everyone who's forcing me to do it. I won't, but man do I ever want to.
I have a history of anxiety and depression, esp. relating to work and questioning my own intelligence and skill, and this is a really taxing thing for me to do from an emotional standpoint. I am managing a depressive phase now where I am having lots of intrusive thoughts as well, so I am questioning my own judgement.
My main goal is to get through the meeting that I'll have about these answers later, ideally without snarking or crying. If I could get a raise it'd be nice but I already make a comfortable salary and hope to be able to leave after another year or so anyway.
So... if you think this process ISN'T bullshit:
How in the world do you meet this with any kind of sincerity? How did you ever manage to find PERSONAL value in this kind of work self-evaluation process as an individual contributor (NOT just value for management)? Is there a way I can think about this that'll make it feel less excruciating?
Alternatively, if you think the process IS bullshit:
What should I say to get through it? What does management want to hear so I can say it? How can I get/fake some of that confidence to at least get myself a raise out of this?
(To be clear - I like my job, actually, and I do want to be a good programmer, but doing it in this way is really killing my drive almost out of spite! It feels like if I meet their insincerity with my own sincerity, it's a trap or joke.)
I am a software engineer. My workplace is one of those places where management insists on calling us "family". I like my coworkers, but hearing this kind of thing from management makes my blood boil. It feels disrespectful of my boundaries and insulting to my relationship with my REAL friends and family, who wouldn't immediately kick me onto the streets if their investors told them I wasn't making them enough money. That should give you an idea of my general feelings towards insincere corporate bullshit - it makes some people roll their eyes, but it makes me absolutely furious.
Anyway, we're doing some kind of new performance review which involves heavy self-evaluation and the kind of "goal setting" that reminds me of therapy. It's all short answer questions like "what do you contribute? How do you think you could improve?" No numerical answers.
I am very obviously having trouble tempering my hostility of the entire process. Trying to work my way through these questions makes me so frustrated that it has literally brought me to the edge of tears. I'm so uncomfortable that my instinct is to drag my feet and make the whole process just as uncomfortable for everyone who's forcing me to do it. I won't, but man do I ever want to.
I have a history of anxiety and depression, esp. relating to work and questioning my own intelligence and skill, and this is a really taxing thing for me to do from an emotional standpoint. I am managing a depressive phase now where I am having lots of intrusive thoughts as well, so I am questioning my own judgement.
My main goal is to get through the meeting that I'll have about these answers later, ideally without snarking or crying. If I could get a raise it'd be nice but I already make a comfortable salary and hope to be able to leave after another year or so anyway.
So... if you think this process ISN'T bullshit:
How in the world do you meet this with any kind of sincerity? How did you ever manage to find PERSONAL value in this kind of work self-evaluation process as an individual contributor (NOT just value for management)? Is there a way I can think about this that'll make it feel less excruciating?
Alternatively, if you think the process IS bullshit:
What should I say to get through it? What does management want to hear so I can say it? How can I get/fake some of that confidence to at least get myself a raise out of this?
(To be clear - I like my job, actually, and I do want to be a good programmer, but doing it in this way is really killing my drive almost out of spite! It feels like if I meet their insincerity with my own sincerity, it's a trap or joke.)
I've been in organizations where this is done moderately well and places where it's done really poorly. I think there's some value in this kind of evaluation, namely:
a) helps you (as individual contributor) plan your time
b) helps your manager know what you've been up to (most places I've worked, my manager has not been in charge of my tasking)
c) lets you show off a little if you want to
Most of these self evaluation processes start with some sort of goal setting (which, if you're just switching over to this now, you probably haven't done - but you will for next period). I have found it helpful here to have measurable, achievable goals - less "support program X with activity Y" and more "deliver product X by deadline Y." Then, come review time, your self evaluation can be as simple as "I delivered product X before deadline Y." This can obviously be more challenging if you're expected to set goals for, say, an entire year or if your priorities shift frequently but I think it should be possible to come up with a couple examples of "I planned to do this, I did it, and now I'm writing here about it" or "This issue came up, I dealt with it in this way, and here's the outcome." I would also include anything out of scope that came up that you successfully dealt with.
For some of the squishier questions like self-improvement - is there any training you want to take? Any kind of new tools or other assistance you're looking for from management? Stick it here. "I want to improve my skills in X by taking this class/acquiring these tools." Again, whatever you write down should be achievable; depending on how much you want to thumb your nose at management, this is also where you get to respond at the end of the year, "I wanted to learn X but the company was unable to provide funds for training."
How well this goes generally depends on how management treats it, unfortunately. I've been with managers who were never satisfied with the quantity of content in the reviews and that sucks. My current management is of the opinion, "say what you're going to do, do it, and then say that you did it." The plus side is that, since this is a new process for you, this first go-round is likely to be fairly lenient as everyone deals with the transition.
The review process is always pretty painful, but the one thing I usually get out of it is a little bit of introspection time about my job. Am I happy with what I'm doing? Am I looking forward to what's coming up next year? Do I want to be doing something else? If you trust your manager to help you with these things, it can be a good time to have those discussions.
posted by backseatpilot at 7:44 AM on June 29, 2018 [1 favorite]
a) helps you (as individual contributor) plan your time
b) helps your manager know what you've been up to (most places I've worked, my manager has not been in charge of my tasking)
c) lets you show off a little if you want to
Most of these self evaluation processes start with some sort of goal setting (which, if you're just switching over to this now, you probably haven't done - but you will for next period). I have found it helpful here to have measurable, achievable goals - less "support program X with activity Y" and more "deliver product X by deadline Y." Then, come review time, your self evaluation can be as simple as "I delivered product X before deadline Y." This can obviously be more challenging if you're expected to set goals for, say, an entire year or if your priorities shift frequently but I think it should be possible to come up with a couple examples of "I planned to do this, I did it, and now I'm writing here about it" or "This issue came up, I dealt with it in this way, and here's the outcome." I would also include anything out of scope that came up that you successfully dealt with.
For some of the squishier questions like self-improvement - is there any training you want to take? Any kind of new tools or other assistance you're looking for from management? Stick it here. "I want to improve my skills in X by taking this class/acquiring these tools." Again, whatever you write down should be achievable; depending on how much you want to thumb your nose at management, this is also where you get to respond at the end of the year, "I wanted to learn X but the company was unable to provide funds for training."
How well this goes generally depends on how management treats it, unfortunately. I've been with managers who were never satisfied with the quantity of content in the reviews and that sucks. My current management is of the opinion, "say what you're going to do, do it, and then say that you did it." The plus side is that, since this is a new process for you, this first go-round is likely to be fairly lenient as everyone deals with the transition.
The review process is always pretty painful, but the one thing I usually get out of it is a little bit of introspection time about my job. Am I happy with what I'm doing? Am I looking forward to what's coming up next year? Do I want to be doing something else? If you trust your manager to help you with these things, it can be a good time to have those discussions.
posted by backseatpilot at 7:44 AM on June 29, 2018 [1 favorite]
I started a new job about a year and a half ago that does this. At first, I shared your hostility toward the process, and also have a history of cynicism, depression and self-doubt. But over time I actually found the exercise to be a good opportunity to think about how I do my work. I always give myself a very positive review, reviewing what I see as my accomplishments in the last reporting period and highlighting a couple things that I need to work on (it's always the same -- giving presentations). I've done it 4 times now, and my supervisors keep saying "we agree" and giving me raises, so it appears to be working!
posted by M.C. Lo-Carb! at 7:48 AM on June 29, 2018 [4 favorites]
posted by M.C. Lo-Carb! at 7:48 AM on June 29, 2018 [4 favorites]
"if you think the process IS bullshit:
What does management want to hear so I can say it?"
This is exactly why the process is bullshit. Management doesn't want to hear anything. They've already got what they need to review your work, and they've come to their own conclusions. Your self-evaluation responses will not figure in those conclusions. Like, if they've decided you're not productive enough, but you say in your self-evaluation that you make various contributions to things besides bottom-line productivity, they're not going to say "a ha, one of these days is actually more productive than we thought, and we should revise our evaluation of them!" If your conclusion conflicts with theirs, they will simply reject your conclusion.
Numerical self-evaluations are the best because you can just give yourself the max rating for every field and be done with it. For narrative evaluations, just try to make yourself sound as good as you can without lying. I'd love to tell you to answer facetiously ("what do you do well?" "I lead the team in English muffin consumption"), just to see if anyone actually pays attention to your responses, but I'm too chicken to actually do that.
posted by kevinbelt at 7:50 AM on June 29, 2018 [6 favorites]
What does management want to hear so I can say it?"
This is exactly why the process is bullshit. Management doesn't want to hear anything. They've already got what they need to review your work, and they've come to their own conclusions. Your self-evaluation responses will not figure in those conclusions. Like, if they've decided you're not productive enough, but you say in your self-evaluation that you make various contributions to things besides bottom-line productivity, they're not going to say "a ha, one of these days is actually more productive than we thought, and we should revise our evaluation of them!" If your conclusion conflicts with theirs, they will simply reject your conclusion.
Numerical self-evaluations are the best because you can just give yourself the max rating for every field and be done with it. For narrative evaluations, just try to make yourself sound as good as you can without lying. I'd love to tell you to answer facetiously ("what do you do well?" "I lead the team in English muffin consumption"), just to see if anyone actually pays attention to your responses, but I'm too chicken to actually do that.
posted by kevinbelt at 7:50 AM on June 29, 2018 [6 favorites]
Ok. So, I hear you, completely. It is kinda bullshit. I'm a software engineer who ended up as a manager of software engineers, and I've had to drag my team kicking and screaming though these things because this is what we gotta to because the big bosses say so. So I understand. And I hate the dragging/kicking/screaming almost as much as I hate doing my own evaluation. But it is what it is.
I'll tell you what I tell them - this is the process to get in writing, in "your permanent record", what you've done and why you rock (yeah, I know...). Note that all this applies to my big company; YCMD. But next year you may have a new manager, and they have no clue what you've accomplished. And heaven forbid they decide they dont want you around or whatever, if you do this well you have your ammunition that you do in fact not suck. Less doomsday-ish, managers need this track record to show to their bosses (who unfortunately probably dont know you from any of the other engineers) to argue for raises and promotions. It's painful, but it really can help you.
Go thought your commits for the entire year (assuming this is a yearly thing, if not, choose the right time period). Actually look at your commit history - chances are you did things you've forgotten about. What did you work on? How did you contribute to the success of the project (even if it was a complete failure, there are some parts that were successful). And if you can, how did this project contribute to the bigger goals of the company? Something like "Developed the XYZ feature for ABC project on time and at quality. Mentored junior developers on best practices through white boarding sessions and code reviews. Improved code coverage on ABC to reduce the number of future bugs". That sort of stuff, with as much detail to be helpful but you probably shouldn't be writing pages (and i don't want to read them!). You want to document what you did, how you did it, and why it's important.
Oh, and goals... these are fuzzy at best. Retrofit them to match what your team achieved. If your team was developing ABC, then helping the team deliver ABC on time, at quality with 90% code coverage was your goal (assuming you got decently close to achieving it). It may be specific to my company, but hitting your goals is pretty important, but what those goals are is a little more fluid and can change over time.
And finally - this is your chance to reflect on your future plans within the company and try and get the support you need from the company to get there. Do you want to be a manager? Have next years goals include attending conferences or courses on leadership or conflict resolution. Want to get better at functional programming or whatever? Your goal is to now read 2 books on the topic - and get your org to buy them for you. Again, your company may vary. Good luck!
posted by cgg at 7:53 AM on June 29, 2018 [4 favorites]
I'll tell you what I tell them - this is the process to get in writing, in "your permanent record", what you've done and why you rock (yeah, I know...). Note that all this applies to my big company; YCMD. But next year you may have a new manager, and they have no clue what you've accomplished. And heaven forbid they decide they dont want you around or whatever, if you do this well you have your ammunition that you do in fact not suck. Less doomsday-ish, managers need this track record to show to their bosses (who unfortunately probably dont know you from any of the other engineers) to argue for raises and promotions. It's painful, but it really can help you.
Go thought your commits for the entire year (assuming this is a yearly thing, if not, choose the right time period). Actually look at your commit history - chances are you did things you've forgotten about. What did you work on? How did you contribute to the success of the project (even if it was a complete failure, there are some parts that were successful). And if you can, how did this project contribute to the bigger goals of the company? Something like "Developed the XYZ feature for ABC project on time and at quality. Mentored junior developers on best practices through white boarding sessions and code reviews. Improved code coverage on ABC to reduce the number of future bugs". That sort of stuff, with as much detail to be helpful but you probably shouldn't be writing pages (and i don't want to read them!). You want to document what you did, how you did it, and why it's important.
Oh, and goals... these are fuzzy at best. Retrofit them to match what your team achieved. If your team was developing ABC, then helping the team deliver ABC on time, at quality with 90% code coverage was your goal (assuming you got decently close to achieving it). It may be specific to my company, but hitting your goals is pretty important, but what those goals are is a little more fluid and can change over time.
And finally - this is your chance to reflect on your future plans within the company and try and get the support you need from the company to get there. Do you want to be a manager? Have next years goals include attending conferences or courses on leadership or conflict resolution. Want to get better at functional programming or whatever? Your goal is to now read 2 books on the topic - and get your org to buy them for you. Again, your company may vary. Good luck!
posted by cgg at 7:53 AM on June 29, 2018 [4 favorites]
Possibly BS, possibly not. Management attempts to impose a sense of family from above don't bode well.
In healthier workplaces, a self-evaluation is an opportunity to think big about the role you play and how it could be better for both you and the organization, and also a chance to ask for the resources or latitude you'd need to make it better.
In an unhealthy environment, see kevinbelt's answer.
posted by jon1270 at 7:57 AM on June 29, 2018 [4 favorites]
In healthier workplaces, a self-evaluation is an opportunity to think big about the role you play and how it could be better for both you and the organization, and also a chance to ask for the resources or latitude you'd need to make it better.
In an unhealthy environment, see kevinbelt's answer.
posted by jon1270 at 7:57 AM on June 29, 2018 [4 favorites]
The best way to use this is to pitch your manager on whatever you'd like your path to be at this job. This is a chance for you to draw attention to your value and negotiate about what you want from the job -- sort of like an interview, but you have more leverage since you're already in the door and they depend on you.
- Use every opportunity to show how you're awesome -- highlight great things you've done, call attention to ways you've contributed that might have gone unnoticed, and emphasize how well you do at the parts of the job you like best.
- If you have your eye on a promotion or another position at the company, highlight the skills and achievements you have that match that position. Depending on whether you think your manager would be open to the discussion, you might even explicitly state that you see yourself growing into that position in future.
- For the dreaded "how can I improve" question, you have several options.
-- Identify a professional development opportunity. For instance: "I'd like to get my certification in FOO this year, since I believe I'll be better able to contribute to the team in ways X, Y, and Z as a certified FOOist. In order to do that, I'd like to attend the FOO International Conference and take the FOO certification course grade 2. In order to do that, I'd like to request a professional development budget of $x."
-- Identify an area you were struggling with but have improved upon (another way of highlighting your strengths). "Earlier this year, I found that I needed to doing more teapot-rustling in order to fully succeed as a teapot rancher. I studied up and have significantly improved my teapot-rustling skills in way X and Y. I'd like to continue improving Y and Z skills this year, and I've already begun an online Z-class to do so."
-- Identify something you need help from your manager to fix: "I believe I could prioritize better and work more independently if I had a better sense of the overall workflow; I'd like to work with [manager] to develop this broader awareness."
posted by ourobouros at 7:58 AM on June 29, 2018 [7 favorites]
- Use every opportunity to show how you're awesome -- highlight great things you've done, call attention to ways you've contributed that might have gone unnoticed, and emphasize how well you do at the parts of the job you like best.
- If you have your eye on a promotion or another position at the company, highlight the skills and achievements you have that match that position. Depending on whether you think your manager would be open to the discussion, you might even explicitly state that you see yourself growing into that position in future.
- For the dreaded "how can I improve" question, you have several options.
-- Identify a professional development opportunity. For instance: "I'd like to get my certification in FOO this year, since I believe I'll be better able to contribute to the team in ways X, Y, and Z as a certified FOOist. In order to do that, I'd like to attend the FOO International Conference and take the FOO certification course grade 2. In order to do that, I'd like to request a professional development budget of $x."
-- Identify an area you were struggling with but have improved upon (another way of highlighting your strengths). "Earlier this year, I found that I needed to doing more teapot-rustling in order to fully succeed as a teapot rancher. I studied up and have significantly improved my teapot-rustling skills in way X and Y. I'd like to continue improving Y and Z skills this year, and I've already begun an online Z-class to do so."
-- Identify something you need help from your manager to fix: "I believe I could prioritize better and work more independently if I had a better sense of the overall workflow; I'd like to work with [manager] to develop this broader awareness."
posted by ourobouros at 7:58 AM on June 29, 2018 [7 favorites]
I think this sincerity/insincerity thing is a something of a trap. You’re taking this much more personally than it’s intended, despite any corporate language to the contrary. The self-eval is a tool for you and your manager to capture what you’ve accomplished, what are your strong points professionally, and what development you’re working toward and direction you want to head in. It’s a check in.
As a manager of multiple directs, eval season is a lot of work. I just want people to track their accomplishments and show some insight into their career path and professional development. It’s not an exhaustive inventory of their professional selves much less their personal character.
I usually transfer most of the info from the self evaluation to the final evaluation. I do find that some people use the self eval for self promotion and I have to temper that with growth ideas, while others are highly self critical and have to temper those with praise.
One thing I’ve learned over the years (about myself and about others) if that the strengths and weaknesses don’t change a great deal but people work toward and around them, and are more successful if they at least manage perceptions about those things. It’s also difficult to shake some first impressions so changing managers can be useful after a while if the relationship isn’t great. This is a good place to check the temperature there.
posted by vunder at 7:58 AM on June 29, 2018 [12 favorites]
As a manager of multiple directs, eval season is a lot of work. I just want people to track their accomplishments and show some insight into their career path and professional development. It’s not an exhaustive inventory of their professional selves much less their personal character.
I usually transfer most of the info from the self evaluation to the final evaluation. I do find that some people use the self eval for self promotion and I have to temper that with growth ideas, while others are highly self critical and have to temper those with praise.
One thing I’ve learned over the years (about myself and about others) if that the strengths and weaknesses don’t change a great deal but people work toward and around them, and are more successful if they at least manage perceptions about those things. It’s also difficult to shake some first impressions so changing managers can be useful after a while if the relationship isn’t great. This is a good place to check the temperature there.
posted by vunder at 7:58 AM on June 29, 2018 [12 favorites]
Does your company have any sort of stated goals or expectations for people in your position? If so, make sure to include as many of those buzzwords as you possibly can.
posted by praemunire at 8:01 AM on June 29, 2018 [2 favorites]
posted by praemunire at 8:01 AM on June 29, 2018 [2 favorites]
I just finished the first one of these I've completed at new company, where I've been for over three years.
On the whole, I think of the process like this: it's kind of bullshit, but it's also one of the least bad options at hand to accomplish a somewhat difficult goal - evaluating employees and giving feedback. After three years with no concrete feedback, it was good to at least get a sense of how things are going.
And the listing achievements section is basically drafting a portion of your resume.
posted by craven_morhead at 8:09 AM on June 29, 2018
On the whole, I think of the process like this: it's kind of bullshit, but it's also one of the least bad options at hand to accomplish a somewhat difficult goal - evaluating employees and giving feedback. After three years with no concrete feedback, it was good to at least get a sense of how things are going.
And the listing achievements section is basically drafting a portion of your resume.
posted by craven_morhead at 8:09 AM on June 29, 2018
Different perspective - I've found it useful to go back through past self-evaluations when updating my resume years after the events. You may not be looking to move now, but having a fairly contemporaneous record (like every 6 months or 1 year) of your accomplishments can be helpful when you need to reach into your memory to remember all the things you did to explain to someone new why they should hire you.
(On preview - dammit!)
posted by cdefgfeadgagfe at 8:11 AM on June 29, 2018
(On preview - dammit!)
posted by cdefgfeadgagfe at 8:11 AM on June 29, 2018
In my experience, these are just BS. Only your current manager can typically see them, and they are basically meaningless. So you can go over the top and write volumes or you can write a few sentences summarizing things and it will make no difference. Jot down what you’ve accomplished in a few bullets. Note what areas you might focus on to improve and give that a go. It doesn’t need to be a novel. Not everyone wants to or can be a manager or director. It’s fine to enjoy and want to stay in an individual contributor role. If your employer doesn’t get that, maybe time to move on. Go the extra mile and calculate some metrics if you want. But generally raises are already determined long before these things, which yes if you have a great manager may be useful. But if you have a great manager they’re generally in contact enough that this is a pointless exercise, because they already know the info. It’s dumb. Work can be like that. That’s why you get the money for it.
posted by OneSmartMonkey at 8:15 AM on June 29, 2018 [2 favorites]
posted by OneSmartMonkey at 8:15 AM on June 29, 2018 [2 favorites]
If there's a way to find out somehow if your immediate supervisor buys into it or thinks it's bullshit, that could help. As far as attitude toward the corporate process goes, I basically could have written your question, but fortunately I have a direct supervisor who also thinks it's bullshit, so we have a tacit agreement A) not to take up too much time with it and B) to use it to establish that I'm good enough to qualify for the paltry COLA increase that comes with a successful rating. We deal with it, we move it up the ladder, and there we are. Possibly attempt something similar, depending on your relationship with your supervisor?
posted by dlugoczaj at 8:17 AM on June 29, 2018
posted by dlugoczaj at 8:17 AM on June 29, 2018
The process IS bullshit! Everybody hates it, especially your manager! You can think of it as a PR exercise for yourself, kinda like writing a resume for the job you already have. I can see why that's infuriating, but it's also a huge opportunity for you to help define what bullshit narratives will be spun out by management about you as an employee. I'm a manager now so I get to do these on both sides, here's what has worked for me.
As an employee:
- For your contributions, straight up restate your accomplishments from the past 6 months. Managers don't always know or remember your best work and this is your chance to jog their memory.
- For your goals, write shit you're already doing, then extend them to their logical conclusion. "I'm currently working to optimize teapot output, and once that's complete I'm hoping to tackle other inefficiencies."
- If you're angling for another position, slip some hints by framing it as professional development. "On top of teapot optimization, I would love to develop my skills and maybe become more involved in the teapot modeling side of the business."
As a manager, I like:
- Short bullet points, cause I ain't got no time.
- Solutions. Every negative point should come with an idea to resolve or mitigate the issue.
- Impersonal statements, especially in the weakness section. Maybe you feel your attitude isn't tops or you don't get along with your coworkers or whatever, but mulling and writing this shit down won't help you feel better about the process, and it will force your manager to have icky personal conversations they might not want/need to have at that moment. That's how evaluations turn into emotional wringers. Save your own sanity and let your manager bring that stuff up if it's important to your performance. If you do have interpersonal issues with coworker, experience harassment, or have health issues that have an impact on your work, that should be brought up in a separate meeting, preferably as it happens, not saved for the evaluation.
posted by Freyja at 8:19 AM on June 29, 2018 [4 favorites]
As an employee:
- For your contributions, straight up restate your accomplishments from the past 6 months. Managers don't always know or remember your best work and this is your chance to jog their memory.
- For your goals, write shit you're already doing, then extend them to their logical conclusion. "I'm currently working to optimize teapot output, and once that's complete I'm hoping to tackle other inefficiencies."
- If you're angling for another position, slip some hints by framing it as professional development. "On top of teapot optimization, I would love to develop my skills and maybe become more involved in the teapot modeling side of the business."
As a manager, I like:
- Short bullet points, cause I ain't got no time.
- Solutions. Every negative point should come with an idea to resolve or mitigate the issue.
- Impersonal statements, especially in the weakness section. Maybe you feel your attitude isn't tops or you don't get along with your coworkers or whatever, but mulling and writing this shit down won't help you feel better about the process, and it will force your manager to have icky personal conversations they might not want/need to have at that moment. That's how evaluations turn into emotional wringers. Save your own sanity and let your manager bring that stuff up if it's important to your performance. If you do have interpersonal issues with coworker, experience harassment, or have health issues that have an impact on your work, that should be brought up in a separate meeting, preferably as it happens, not saved for the evaluation.
posted by Freyja at 8:19 AM on June 29, 2018 [4 favorites]
What I personally do:
- Gather lists of what I've done in the last year: I skim through version control logs, bug databases, email, etc., and summarize. Usually there's some stuff I've forgotten.
- Figure out what I want to do next year: stuff I started last year but didn't finish, emerging problems to solve, etc.
At this point I've got a story in mind about what I got done and what I want to do next year. Then I go look at their form and figure out some way to slot my story into the questions they asked.
I keep it matter of fact. A clear list of what I've done and plan to do speaks for itself. Trying to be a cheerleader would drive me crazy.
I hate it too, but I survive and usually feel a little better about it when it's done.
I also save the report and any of my notes. And usually there's some followup meeting with my manager, and I keep notes from that too. I can often reuse some of that material the following year. Once you've done it a few years you may develop somewhat of a formula, and I think that's OK.
posted by floppyroofing at 8:37 AM on June 29, 2018
- Gather lists of what I've done in the last year: I skim through version control logs, bug databases, email, etc., and summarize. Usually there's some stuff I've forgotten.
- Figure out what I want to do next year: stuff I started last year but didn't finish, emerging problems to solve, etc.
At this point I've got a story in mind about what I got done and what I want to do next year. Then I go look at their form and figure out some way to slot my story into the questions they asked.
I keep it matter of fact. A clear list of what I've done and plan to do speaks for itself. Trying to be a cheerleader would drive me crazy.
I hate it too, but I survive and usually feel a little better about it when it's done.
I also save the report and any of my notes. And usually there's some followup meeting with my manager, and I keep notes from that too. I can often reuse some of that material the following year. Once you've done it a few years you may develop somewhat of a formula, and I think that's OK.
posted by floppyroofing at 8:37 AM on June 29, 2018
The entire process is bullshit and you are right to be angry. The only reason to put any effort into it is so that there is a record of your contributions. If you can show that you contributed to the company and there is a record of it, if your manager decides (s)he wants to fire you for poor performance, HR might get flustered and give you a large severance. At my old office, my manager tried to fire one of my coworkers for poor performance. He had literally given her a stellar review the previous week during official performance review. Having that record of great performance combined with her being a protected class, meant that she received a very large severance package in exchange for not bringing a valid discrimination claim.
The review process is just another way for your employer to mess with you, but you can use it to your advantage by helping to keep of a record of your contributions.
posted by parakeetdog at 8:45 AM on June 29, 2018 [2 favorites]
The review process is just another way for your employer to mess with you, but you can use it to your advantage by helping to keep of a record of your contributions.
posted by parakeetdog at 8:45 AM on June 29, 2018 [2 favorites]
Just be cynical and self-serving. Rank yourself highly, list your achievements, be generous in your assessment of yourself. Is there a conference you want to attend? A new skill you want to learn? Put that in your goals. Exploit their corporate bullshit.
posted by theora55 at 8:50 AM on June 29, 2018 [3 favorites]
posted by theora55 at 8:50 AM on June 29, 2018 [3 favorites]
Two thought exercises that could help you approach this:
1. How can working on this self-evaluation help prepare you to draft resume bullet points and cover letters for future jobs? How can it prepare you for typical job interview questions?
There’s a lot of overlap, ultimately, between this form of self-evaluation and boilerplate interview questions, and describing how you perform and add value to various tasks, not just what those tasks are, is a good skill for interviewing. One approach then, is to use your time on the clock to help prepare you for a workplace that’s an even better fit.
2. Ask yourself, “What do I need from my employer in order to do my job better?” and see if you can get any of that out of the evaluation process.
This could be an opportunity to acknowledge what you’ve done well but also ask for support, like an improved workflow or professional development opportunities, that would help you build on your success.
Good luck! I’m answering this question instead of working on my monthly performance report, so I feel your pain.
posted by dapati at 8:54 AM on June 29, 2018
1. How can working on this self-evaluation help prepare you to draft resume bullet points and cover letters for future jobs? How can it prepare you for typical job interview questions?
There’s a lot of overlap, ultimately, between this form of self-evaluation and boilerplate interview questions, and describing how you perform and add value to various tasks, not just what those tasks are, is a good skill for interviewing. One approach then, is to use your time on the clock to help prepare you for a workplace that’s an even better fit.
2. Ask yourself, “What do I need from my employer in order to do my job better?” and see if you can get any of that out of the evaluation process.
This could be an opportunity to acknowledge what you’ve done well but also ask for support, like an improved workflow or professional development opportunities, that would help you build on your success.
Good luck! I’m answering this question instead of working on my monthly performance report, so I feel your pain.
posted by dapati at 8:54 AM on June 29, 2018
I agree completely with craven_morhead, cdefgfeadgagfe, Freyja and dapati that you can think of this as an opportunity to track accomplishments that you can then refer to when your resume needs updating.
To dapati's list of helpful thought exercises, I would add:
3. How can you use this self-evaluation to document the accomplishments and characteristics you want your supervisor to cite when future employers call for references or ask for letters of recommendations?
I explicitly advise the people I supervise to think of it this way. I keep copies of performance evaluations for everyone I've supervised for just this purpose. I also approach my own self-evaluation this way to my manager and keep copies of my own in case I ever needed to share them back.
Bullshit is what you make it. Good luck making this process work for you!
posted by kittydelsol at 9:30 AM on June 29, 2018 [1 favorite]
To dapati's list of helpful thought exercises, I would add:
3. How can you use this self-evaluation to document the accomplishments and characteristics you want your supervisor to cite when future employers call for references or ask for letters of recommendations?
I explicitly advise the people I supervise to think of it this way. I keep copies of performance evaluations for everyone I've supervised for just this purpose. I also approach my own self-evaluation this way to my manager and keep copies of my own in case I ever needed to share them back.
Bullshit is what you make it. Good luck making this process work for you!
posted by kittydelsol at 9:30 AM on June 29, 2018 [1 favorite]
Whatever you do, don't say anything remotely negative about yourself. I'd steer clear of sarcasm and outright hyperbole, and I wouldn't compare myself to anyone else there. Otherwise, your job here is to make yourself look great. It's tedious, it's stupid, but it's part of the game.
Somewhat related story: I once worked at a place where I didn't have the best relationship with my manager. I was handed a sheet for me self-eval; I filled it out and gave it back. Was I a little sarcastic? Sure. Anyway, I got chastised for not taking the process seriously, and given the "opportunity" to try again. So I handed in a 5 page version complete with a 2 page appendix that attempted to put a dollar value on all the work I was doing.
They didn't read it; and I got moved to salary from hourly, which was effectively a pay cut.
Fuck reviews.
posted by booooooze at 9:42 AM on June 29, 2018
Somewhat related story: I once worked at a place where I didn't have the best relationship with my manager. I was handed a sheet for me self-eval; I filled it out and gave it back. Was I a little sarcastic? Sure. Anyway, I got chastised for not taking the process seriously, and given the "opportunity" to try again. So I handed in a 5 page version complete with a 2 page appendix that attempted to put a dollar value on all the work I was doing.
They didn't read it; and I got moved to salary from hourly, which was effectively a pay cut.
Fuck reviews.
posted by booooooze at 9:42 AM on June 29, 2018
I don't think it's BS or that it's great. It just kind of is, and it can be useful, for your manager and for you. (I do think that family line is nonsense and it makes me mad too, though).
As an employee, I look at these moments to assess how I am doing, and call out skills and things I believe I've done well, and note accomplishments and contributions that others may not have noted. In order to write them, I usually bullet list point out everything I want to say. Then I remove things that seem redundant or combine things to larger points, remove things that actually seem petty or useless, and then I rewrite them in more flowery language.
As a manager, I find my report's self assessment to be very useful when looking at my perspective of my feedback, and feedback from others, to have a good, objective conversation about where we might not have the same perspective. It can be really useful for me to help a report who might be struggling with something to say "you have identified your ability to swallow swords as something you've contributed to the project, and I've noticed that you have swallowed a lot of swords -- but nobody else actually mentioned that as a strength about you, and I had to take you to the hospital that one time instead of going to a board meeting. That said, your sword swallowing technique would actually be really useful in the circus performers department. Maybe we could find a way for you to lend some of your support to the circus performing department, but we should also work on ways to improve your triple lutz, since we work in the figure skating department."
posted by pazazygeek at 9:59 AM on June 29, 2018 [3 favorites]
As an employee, I look at these moments to assess how I am doing, and call out skills and things I believe I've done well, and note accomplishments and contributions that others may not have noted. In order to write them, I usually bullet list point out everything I want to say. Then I remove things that seem redundant or combine things to larger points, remove things that actually seem petty or useless, and then I rewrite them in more flowery language.
As a manager, I find my report's self assessment to be very useful when looking at my perspective of my feedback, and feedback from others, to have a good, objective conversation about where we might not have the same perspective. It can be really useful for me to help a report who might be struggling with something to say "you have identified your ability to swallow swords as something you've contributed to the project, and I've noticed that you have swallowed a lot of swords -- but nobody else actually mentioned that as a strength about you, and I had to take you to the hospital that one time instead of going to a board meeting. That said, your sword swallowing technique would actually be really useful in the circus performers department. Maybe we could find a way for you to lend some of your support to the circus performing department, but we should also work on ways to improve your triple lutz, since we work in the figure skating department."
posted by pazazygeek at 9:59 AM on June 29, 2018 [3 favorites]
We have to do these every year--it's an organization-wide mandate. I have a formula. I get last year's evaluation (harder for you, since you don't have one, but pull together a list of stuff you did or contributed to), and first:
--list everything I worked on, contributed to, committees I sat on, etc., with one- or two-sentence descriptions.
--list a bunch of goals for next year--this is relatively simple because our evaluations and our fiscal year are on a 6-month offset, so I list everything I worked on during the past 6 months as a goal, plus list stuff I'd like to do or have been asked to do.
--take last year's list of goals and add to them a one-sentence description, either "This was done," "This was done but X, Y, Z," or "This was not done because A, B, C."
I then take List #1 and write it up in paragraph format and use that as my self-evaluation, focusing on how each item helped the organization achieve its current strategic plan, and use the other lists as the Goals section. I used to take some of the "This was not done..." stuff and explain what I could do to perform that better in the future, on the basis that it would look weird if I didn't have some sort of self-critical stuff on there. Then I sat on a peer review committee where I read some applications that also included the self-evals of some colleagues and discovered that they didn't bother with explaining where they went wrong and how they could do better. So I quit doing it.
The best thing that comes out of this is that I have a list of goals to track this coming year, and I use that to work from, and I can use it to update my resume (no intention of leaving, but if I do, I don't want to have to reconstruct my resume from scratch and remember over a decade of work). My boss likes it because he just copies and pastes it into the departmental evaluation form he has to fill out, and thanks me for being so thorough.
posted by telophase at 10:46 AM on June 29, 2018
--list everything I worked on, contributed to, committees I sat on, etc., with one- or two-sentence descriptions.
--list a bunch of goals for next year--this is relatively simple because our evaluations and our fiscal year are on a 6-month offset, so I list everything I worked on during the past 6 months as a goal, plus list stuff I'd like to do or have been asked to do.
--take last year's list of goals and add to them a one-sentence description, either "This was done," "This was done but X, Y, Z," or "This was not done because A, B, C."
I then take List #1 and write it up in paragraph format and use that as my self-evaluation, focusing on how each item helped the organization achieve its current strategic plan, and use the other lists as the Goals section. I used to take some of the "This was not done..." stuff and explain what I could do to perform that better in the future, on the basis that it would look weird if I didn't have some sort of self-critical stuff on there. Then I sat on a peer review committee where I read some applications that also included the self-evals of some colleagues and discovered that they didn't bother with explaining where they went wrong and how they could do better. So I quit doing it.
The best thing that comes out of this is that I have a list of goals to track this coming year, and I use that to work from, and I can use it to update my resume (no intention of leaving, but if I do, I don't want to have to reconstruct my resume from scratch and remember over a decade of work). My boss likes it because he just copies and pastes it into the departmental evaluation form he has to fill out, and thanks me for being so thorough.
posted by telophase at 10:46 AM on June 29, 2018
I have ever worked places where self-evals were 100% a trap: if you said anything negative about yourself, no matter how minor, it would be used against you. If you said anything positive beyond the absolutely quantifiable, it would be used against you (“so and so is exaggerating/showing off/lying” with the variant depending on how much Boss hated you). If your workplace is toxic in this particular way, you can use what is now my default: just list accomplishments/completed projects in the most factual, least braggy way possible. For “ways to improve” find some PD or something that is not at all required to do your job successfully but might be interesting. Do not give bosses ammunition.
(In a less toxic workplace, or if you’re male, then ymmv)
posted by goodbyewaffles at 11:10 AM on June 29, 2018 [2 favorites]
(In a less toxic workplace, or if you’re male, then ymmv)
posted by goodbyewaffles at 11:10 AM on June 29, 2018 [2 favorites]
Eh, it's sort of 50% bullshit, 50% not bullshit. This probably won't factor much in your actual eval and raise, but you can use it to be useful. Here's a series of questions you can ask yourself:
1) What awesome things did I do this year that my manager might not know about, or might not realize how much I contributed?
2) What is an area where I genuinely am not 100% happy with my work, and/or can see myself improving, so that my manager knows I'm both aware of this and interested in getting better?
3) What's a thing I got way better at this year?
4) What parts of my job do I absolutely hate? What is a path forward at the company that minimizes them?
5) What's a thing at work, or tangentially related to my work, I would like to learn more about?
6) Do I want to be more involved at the company? For example, mentoring new hires, advising on policy, or contributing to hiring processes?
7) Was there anything confusing, annoying, or frustrating that happened at work in the past year? What made it so bad? What questions do I need answers to in order to make it less confusing, or at least decide if this is going to be a long-term annoyance I have to put up with if I stay at this company?
This is always tougher if you are a happy individual contributor who doesn't want to be a manager or pick up more authority, but the review conversation is also a good time to talk about that.
PS, regardless of whether or not your company pulls that "we're a family" line on you, these goals should not be personal or therapy-like or even life-coach-like at all. Whether or not this stuff will help you grow as a human being is something you can decide on your own time, but your objectives here are a) remind your manager of good stuff you did, b) demonstrate you got better at last year's goals, and c) maximize your happiness and minimize your annoyance at work.
posted by capricorn at 11:18 AM on June 29, 2018 [1 favorite]
1) What awesome things did I do this year that my manager might not know about, or might not realize how much I contributed?
2) What is an area where I genuinely am not 100% happy with my work, and/or can see myself improving, so that my manager knows I'm both aware of this and interested in getting better?
3) What's a thing I got way better at this year?
4) What parts of my job do I absolutely hate? What is a path forward at the company that minimizes them?
5) What's a thing at work, or tangentially related to my work, I would like to learn more about?
6) Do I want to be more involved at the company? For example, mentoring new hires, advising on policy, or contributing to hiring processes?
7) Was there anything confusing, annoying, or frustrating that happened at work in the past year? What made it so bad? What questions do I need answers to in order to make it less confusing, or at least decide if this is going to be a long-term annoyance I have to put up with if I stay at this company?
This is always tougher if you are a happy individual contributor who doesn't want to be a manager or pick up more authority, but the review conversation is also a good time to talk about that.
PS, regardless of whether or not your company pulls that "we're a family" line on you, these goals should not be personal or therapy-like or even life-coach-like at all. Whether or not this stuff will help you grow as a human being is something you can decide on your own time, but your objectives here are a) remind your manager of good stuff you did, b) demonstrate you got better at last year's goals, and c) maximize your happiness and minimize your annoyance at work.
posted by capricorn at 11:18 AM on June 29, 2018 [1 favorite]
Yeah just try to push through it and de-personalize a bit.
One data point - at one time in my career, I was working in a mildly toxic environment, and my supervisor, who was intrusive, did not respect personal boundaries, and had already given notice asked me to do my self-evaluation. As like the last thing we ever did together professionally. I had worked with them for years, and this was the first written self-eval. So for many (very legitimate and similar to yours) reasons I did not take it at all seriously; I spent a few minutes throwing some straight bullshit together and handing it in.
This was not a good thing to do! Just grist for the last horrible conversation I had with them, and then they were out the door. I very much wish I had just bit the bullet and could at least have a decent reference come out of dealing with that tool for so long.
posted by RajahKing at 11:24 AM on June 29, 2018
One data point - at one time in my career, I was working in a mildly toxic environment, and my supervisor, who was intrusive, did not respect personal boundaries, and had already given notice asked me to do my self-evaluation. As like the last thing we ever did together professionally. I had worked with them for years, and this was the first written self-eval. So for many (very legitimate and similar to yours) reasons I did not take it at all seriously; I spent a few minutes throwing some straight bullshit together and handing it in.
This was not a good thing to do! Just grist for the last horrible conversation I had with them, and then they were out the door. I very much wish I had just bit the bullet and could at least have a decent reference come out of dealing with that tool for so long.
posted by RajahKing at 11:24 AM on June 29, 2018
We had to do self-evaluations at my previous job at the same time the boss was writing evaluations of us. I actually found it helpful; it was a jumping off point for discussion, and gave me a good opportunity to make sure the boss was aware of everything I'd done well over the year that they just didn't notice while it was happening. That was a pretty convoluted sentence, but I'm sure you get my meaning.
posted by The Underpants Monster at 11:33 AM on June 29, 2018
posted by The Underpants Monster at 11:33 AM on June 29, 2018
There's always some degree of bullshit with evaluations, but honestly, this DOES sound like your history is making you get disproportionately upset. They are NOT actually asking you to justify your entire value as a human being here, no matter how the questions make you feel, and you should be able to reflect on your work and discuss the concrete things that you have done without going into a blind rage.
I think the key for you to get through this is to step back and not take it so personally, but it sounds like that might be especially difficult for you right now. Can you get some perspective from outside your own head, like a (very) trusted coworker, or a friend/partner who has some sense of what you do at work? Try to focus on what you did, not how you feel (about your company or yourself). Long term, this seems like something that might warrant therapy again. Never mind the corporate overlords, it's good for you to be able to reflect on your work without torturing yourself.
As for what to actually submit, already good advice above but also maybe talk with your manager and/or coworkers and get a better sense of what you're actually expected to do? You don't have to give them all the details, but "Hey, I'm really not sure what to write for these things, what sort of stuff are you putting down?" might help calibrate your expectations and give you some framework to follow.
posted by yeahlikethat at 1:21 PM on June 29, 2018 [1 favorite]
I think the key for you to get through this is to step back and not take it so personally, but it sounds like that might be especially difficult for you right now. Can you get some perspective from outside your own head, like a (very) trusted coworker, or a friend/partner who has some sense of what you do at work? Try to focus on what you did, not how you feel (about your company or yourself). Long term, this seems like something that might warrant therapy again. Never mind the corporate overlords, it's good for you to be able to reflect on your work without torturing yourself.
As for what to actually submit, already good advice above but also maybe talk with your manager and/or coworkers and get a better sense of what you're actually expected to do? You don't have to give them all the details, but "Hey, I'm really not sure what to write for these things, what sort of stuff are you putting down?" might help calibrate your expectations and give you some framework to follow.
posted by yeahlikethat at 1:21 PM on June 29, 2018 [1 favorite]
Also I think work would be a lot better in general if you don't take everything corporate says as a personal affront to your dignity. Like, you're right that referring to employees as family is obnoxious, but it does NOT actually affect or devalue your relationships with your real friends and family, so try to let it go. (Save your fury for things that actually impact your family's well-being, like shitty leave policies.) Remember that the opposite of love is indifference, not hate. They don't care about you, so why give them so much of your energy in return?
posted by yeahlikethat at 1:26 PM on June 29, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by yeahlikethat at 1:26 PM on June 29, 2018 [1 favorite]
No matter how I actually feel about evaluations, I always take them seriously. Throughout my career, I've seen old evaluations come back around in many different ways: during interviews for a promotion, reviewed by new members of the management team, and, in one case, subpeoned for a lawsuit involving a car accident (the lawyer used the evaluations to establish evidence).
posted by WaspEnterprises at 1:27 PM on June 29, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by WaspEnterprises at 1:27 PM on June 29, 2018 [1 favorite]
Rule of thumb: How would a 4.5 star review of you on Amazon read?
(You as a software engineer, not you as a person.)
One thing that makes these easier for software engineers is that there's always something new to learn, and you can put that in the inevitable "room for improvement" section. "We have project ____ coming up. To help it go more smoothly, I'll need to brush up on my _____."
posted by clawsoon at 3:38 PM on June 29, 2018 [1 favorite]
(You as a software engineer, not you as a person.)
One thing that makes these easier for software engineers is that there's always something new to learn, and you can put that in the inevitable "room for improvement" section. "We have project ____ coming up. To help it go more smoothly, I'll need to brush up on my _____."
posted by clawsoon at 3:38 PM on June 29, 2018 [1 favorite]
Don't let your depression and cynicism sabotage this review. If your manager has a fixed amount of raises available, do you think they're going to give them to people who articulated their strengths and accomplishments well and have a clear career goal and roadmap, or people who tossed something off that's is inconsistent and seem not to care? Making it easier for your manger ultimately makes it easier for yourself. Annual reviews are literally a part of every professional organisation I've ever worked for - if you want an upward career in tech, best to get this process down pat now, I'd say.
1) Start with your position description or Key Performance Indicators, you should have one somewhere.
2) Break that down into bullets, and have a look at what work you did in the last six months that met those things. 2-4 examples per bullet.
3) Use your hard numbers here as proof points that you generated faster turn around, improved processes, money saved etc. Don't write War and Peace; 100 words per bullet if you can, give or take.
4) Hopefully you've been saving emails throughout the year where someone said something nice about your work, chuck a couple of those quotes in, too.
5) Do you have organisational values? Make a couple of those bullets, and list some (Even shorter) examples of how you demonstrated these. This is stuff like helping people even though it's not your job, volunteering, mentoring, committee work. Anything where you've gone above and beyond, where someone else doing your job and just kind of blah about it wouldn't have done anything.
6) Do you have a career goal? Maybe it's a promotion, maybe it's doing more of X kind of work - it's very important you let your manager know about this, as they won't action it if they have no visibility. No one will recognise your brilliance and just promote you, you have to let people know. So you say "My long term (or 3-5 year or whatever) plan is to do more Blah/Get promoted to X kind of role/grow my knowledge of Blah. This is what I've done in the past year to achieve this (two or so super short examples), this is what I'd like to do in the next year (three or so super short examples).
7) Areas to improve. Do not, contrary to some advice in here, put nothing. That is a pain in the ass for managers, makes you look hilariously lacking in self-awareness, and also you give the control of the 'areas to improve' conversation to people who aren't you. You want to be the person shaping this narrative. It's better for your career short term and long term. People hate this one but in some ways it's the most important thing in performance reviews.
Pick at least one example where you think you could have handled something better, or you think 'I wish I had handled that like [someone else on the team]". Clearly and succinctly outline the situation, the actions you took, the result of those actions, and then talk about the actions you wish you had taken, and what the result would have been. Very clearly state how you propose to develop your skills in this area of the next 12 months, to enable to you take those different actions next time. It could be a training course, a mentoring/shadowing thing with someone else on the team, some offline learning, whatever. Be realistic here about what you will do, and identify a real problem.
For me, a tip in this area is to think of situations that have been high stress for me in the last year, or where I've kind of thought everyone was being an asshole. Cause generally if you think everyone's being an asshole, the odds are pretty solid that you are the asshole, or at least one of them.
That's it. Shouldn't take more than two hours, and then you don't have to do anything for the next 12 months except save emails of praise for later evidence.
General pointers: Evidence and situation based. Everything starts with real examples, backed up by evidence in the form of numbers, work product, praise etc. Do not just say "I performed well with Y" - always bring it back to examples. The more visibility they have/had, the better.
No emotion - keep emotion or emotive language right out of it. This is a fact-based conversation, it's not about feelings, yours or others.
Don't bag out other colleagues/teams. You might really, really want to. Don't. It looks petty and unprofessional (even when they totally deserve it!). If they are truly crap, everyone will know. This is your performance review, not theirs. This also means not relitigating fraught situations, and do not blame others etc. This is about what happened, and how you responded to it, not whose fault it was. Managers don't care about that, they care about solutions and the people doing them.
Short - some managers have to do tonnes of these, they don't want to read a novel of self-justifications. Keep it punchy, they will love you for it.
Best of luck, no one likes this process. However I genuinely believe it's an important one for career growth. If you approach it like a structured task, it should go pretty fast.
posted by smoke at 7:42 PM on June 29, 2018 [2 favorites]
1) Start with your position description or Key Performance Indicators, you should have one somewhere.
2) Break that down into bullets, and have a look at what work you did in the last six months that met those things. 2-4 examples per bullet.
3) Use your hard numbers here as proof points that you generated faster turn around, improved processes, money saved etc. Don't write War and Peace; 100 words per bullet if you can, give or take.
4) Hopefully you've been saving emails throughout the year where someone said something nice about your work, chuck a couple of those quotes in, too.
5) Do you have organisational values? Make a couple of those bullets, and list some (Even shorter) examples of how you demonstrated these. This is stuff like helping people even though it's not your job, volunteering, mentoring, committee work. Anything where you've gone above and beyond, where someone else doing your job and just kind of blah about it wouldn't have done anything.
6) Do you have a career goal? Maybe it's a promotion, maybe it's doing more of X kind of work - it's very important you let your manager know about this, as they won't action it if they have no visibility. No one will recognise your brilliance and just promote you, you have to let people know. So you say "My long term (or 3-5 year or whatever) plan is to do more Blah/Get promoted to X kind of role/grow my knowledge of Blah. This is what I've done in the past year to achieve this (two or so super short examples), this is what I'd like to do in the next year (three or so super short examples).
7) Areas to improve. Do not, contrary to some advice in here, put nothing. That is a pain in the ass for managers, makes you look hilariously lacking in self-awareness, and also you give the control of the 'areas to improve' conversation to people who aren't you. You want to be the person shaping this narrative. It's better for your career short term and long term. People hate this one but in some ways it's the most important thing in performance reviews.
Pick at least one example where you think you could have handled something better, or you think 'I wish I had handled that like [someone else on the team]". Clearly and succinctly outline the situation, the actions you took, the result of those actions, and then talk about the actions you wish you had taken, and what the result would have been. Very clearly state how you propose to develop your skills in this area of the next 12 months, to enable to you take those different actions next time. It could be a training course, a mentoring/shadowing thing with someone else on the team, some offline learning, whatever. Be realistic here about what you will do, and identify a real problem.
For me, a tip in this area is to think of situations that have been high stress for me in the last year, or where I've kind of thought everyone was being an asshole. Cause generally if you think everyone's being an asshole, the odds are pretty solid that you are the asshole, or at least one of them.
That's it. Shouldn't take more than two hours, and then you don't have to do anything for the next 12 months except save emails of praise for later evidence.
General pointers: Evidence and situation based. Everything starts with real examples, backed up by evidence in the form of numbers, work product, praise etc. Do not just say "I performed well with Y" - always bring it back to examples. The more visibility they have/had, the better.
No emotion - keep emotion or emotive language right out of it. This is a fact-based conversation, it's not about feelings, yours or others.
Don't bag out other colleagues/teams. You might really, really want to. Don't. It looks petty and unprofessional (even when they totally deserve it!). If they are truly crap, everyone will know. This is your performance review, not theirs. This also means not relitigating fraught situations, and do not blame others etc. This is about what happened, and how you responded to it, not whose fault it was. Managers don't care about that, they care about solutions and the people doing them.
Short - some managers have to do tonnes of these, they don't want to read a novel of self-justifications. Keep it punchy, they will love you for it.
Best of luck, no one likes this process. However I genuinely believe it's an important one for career growth. If you approach it like a structured task, it should go pretty fast.
posted by smoke at 7:42 PM on June 29, 2018 [2 favorites]
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Also succinctly and articulately describing accomplishments isn't a bad skill to practice. It's not easy to do well and unless you are a rampant self promoter you probably don't work on it a lot.
On the bullshit side: You obviously don't want to submit the parts of this that are brutally honest self assessment. So cut out the stuff except what you want to present, mostly good, just one mildly bad (or optionally one thing you really want changed.)
Another thing I find myself doing is essentially pretending i'm someone else. I don't lie but I end up feeling it's almost like I'm do a writing exercise where I imagine how someone who was all into corporate speak and career development would describe things I did. Then I can take satisfaction in 'succeeding' at the assignment.
posted by mark k at 7:42 AM on June 29, 2018 [9 favorites]