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I disagree with this dudes blog. I love my reviews. I seek criticism so that I can improve and like the positive feedback because it helps motivate. But mayb

I disagree with this dudes blog. I love my reviews. I seek criticism so that I can improve and like the positive feedback because it helps motivate. But maybe I am an outlier. And as a person who has to give reviews, I want to tell people where they need to work on and praise their strengths. I tend to work with people from East Coast finance world, and they not too keen on the touchy feely story telling stuff. Its sort of expected that you have to have thick skin and get to the point.

carbocation 8y ago
I like criticism in the moment because I can directly link it back to my actions and contemplate improvement. I don't find it helpful during a summative "review" session when the details of what I did (or should do differently) have been lost. When you say you seek criticism, I'm wondering if you're doing it frequently enough that it's more like the former and less like the latter.
Clubber 8y ago
Yes, it's good if it's done right. When it's done poorly it's not. Let's say you've independently identified a systemic problem, report it, fight to fix it, and fix it all with quantitative numbers to show a large, direct benefit to the bottom line. You'd think that would be a pretty big deal to a company. If you got an average review because, "well that's your job, isn't it?" it's fairly demotivating.
organsnyder 8y ago
My concern (which I think is at least partially shared by this blogger) is the rigidness of formal annual reviews. A formal review should contain no surprises—if a formal review is the first time you've heard a certain piece of feedback (especially negative), then your management is shirking one of their primary responsibilities. Given an environment where feedback is frequent and useful, the formal annual review becomes a tool that only satisfies the larger enterprise machine—it's of little value to the manager or the employee.
- nilkn 8y ago
  When feedback is continuous and healthy throughout the year, I think the review itself acts just as an amplifier. It lets you really praise someone officially in a big way for good work. If someone has been seriously troublesome, it should never be the first time that has come up, but it lets you magnify how important it is that their performance issues get resolved. In that sense, it can serve a dual role as a sort of PIP. The review is also an opportunity for the manager to sift through all that continuous feedback over the entire past year and condense the important stuff down into some easy-to-understand big picture ideas. Reviews can also be an opportunity for the direct report to get career plans in writing from their boss. For instance, if you want a promotion to X, the result of the review may be a written plan by your boss on how you can achieve that promotion.
- zerkten 8y ago
  Completely agree on "no surprises", but the annual review process provides a way to frame progress that the manager and employee can work within. When folks stayed at one company for their whole career it was a permanent record of progress that could be referenced. Moving companies is the norm now in tech, but when your are working in an enterprise having this record will benefit you when you want to move up or around in the organization.
dfxm12 8y ago
I seek criticism so that I can improve and like the positive feedback because it helps motivate. Why do you need a formal, periodic review process for this? If you seek feedback, you're asking for it regularly, right? If you have feedback for someone, you just tell them, no? This is what the dude was saying: We have teams of creative people who crave feedback, of people who want to learn and grow. Let’s not stifle them with bureaucracy.
ravitation 8y ago
To be perfectly honest, if you use the phrase "touchy feely story telling stuff" I'm going to probably disregard your opinion on management. Management is first and foremost about people, and people are first and foremost about feelings... If we're not starting from that point, there's some problems (and probably huge misconceptions about the nature of work) that need to be addressed before we can even start to talk about management, let alone performance reviews. Otherwise, I'd love some examples of what is discussed in your performance reviews.

carbocation 8y ago

I like criticism in the moment because I can directly link it back to my actions and contemplate improvement. I don't find it helpful during a summative "review" session when the details of what I did (or should do differently) have been lost. When you say you seek criticism, I'm wondering if you're doing it frequently enough that it's more like the former and less like the latter.

Clubber 8y ago

Yes, it's good if it's done right. When it's done poorly it's not. Let's say you've independently identified a systemic problem, report it, fight to fix it, and fix it all with quantitative numbers to show a large, direct benefit to the bottom line. You'd think that would be a pretty big deal to a company. If you got an average review because, "well that's your job, isn't it?" it's fairly demotivating.

organsnyder 8y ago

My concern (which I think is at least partially shared by this blogger) is the rigidness of formal annual reviews. A formal review should contain no surprises—if a formal review is the first time you've heard a certain piece of feedback (especially negative), then your management is shirking one of their primary responsibilities. Given an environment where feedback is frequent and useful, the formal annual review becomes a tool that only satisfies the larger enterprise machine—it's of little value to the manager or the employee.

nilkn 8y ago
When feedback is continuous and healthy throughout the year, I think the review itself acts just as an amplifier. It lets you really praise someone officially in a big way for good work. If someone has been seriously troublesome, it should never be the first time that has come up, but it lets you magnify how important it is that their performance issues get resolved. In that sense, it can serve a dual role as a sort of PIP. The review is also an opportunity for the manager to sift through all that continuous feedback over the entire past year and condense the important stuff down into some easy-to-understand big picture ideas. Reviews can also be an opportunity for the direct report to get career plans in writing from their boss. For instance, if you want a promotion to X, the result of the review may be a written plan by your boss on how you can achieve that promotion.
zerkten 8y ago
Completely agree on "no surprises", but the annual review process provides a way to frame progress that the manager and employee can work within. When folks stayed at one company for their whole career it was a permanent record of progress that could be referenced. Moving companies is the norm now in tech, but when your are working in an enterprise having this record will benefit you when you want to move up or around in the organization.

dfxm12 8y ago

I seek criticism so that I can improve and like the positive feedback because it helps motivate. Why do you need a formal, periodic review process for this? If you seek feedback, you're asking for it regularly, right? If you have feedback for someone, you just tell them, no? This is what the dude was saying: We have teams of creative people who crave feedback, of people who want to learn and grow. Let’s not stifle them with bureaucracy.

ravitation 8y ago

To be perfectly honest, if you use the phrase "touchy feely story telling stuff" I'm going to probably disregard your opinion on management. Management is first and foremost about people, and people are first and foremost about feelings... If we're not starting from that point, there's some problems (and probably huge misconceptions about the nature of work) that need to be addressed before we can even start to talk about management, let alone performance reviews. Otherwise, I'd love some examples of what is discussed in your performance reviews.