Monday, January 12, 2009

Writing (Good) Reviews Is Hard

I spent most of the weekend writing my employee reviews and only got half of them done.  I wonder if it is really worth it.  I know most of the managers out there do not spend this much time with their reviews.  I however feel obligated to do a good job even though I have only been the manager for this group for the last three months.  Most managers will just put down what they want in the review, put a comment or two, and leave it at that.  But I feel like if I am going to say good things or bad things, I should actually justified every good or bad rating with specific examples.  It is a lot harder than it sounds, especially when you were not the group's manager for most of the year.

So what do you think?  Do you really care how much time your manager puts in your review?  Would you rather just get your rating and be done with it or do you actually want specific feedback on your work?

6 comments:

  1. always give your best. success.

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  2. I hate writing reviews but I appreciate that reviews are needed. I just figure out a better way to do them. Maybe short reviews on sub topics more times a year?

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  3. I wish my managers would put more time and effort into writing my reviews. Often times (and I'm sure this is true with most people), I get very generic comments like "works well in a team environment" and "meets service level agreements 100% of the time." I can tell that the managers copied and pasted a lot of the wording from some previous template or is using buzz phrases from a company manual. What's worst is I cannot tell how they derived my rating from these generic comments. Kudos to you for taking the time to write a thoughtful review. You might not feel it or can confirm it but trust me that your employees will know and be surprised by the detailed comments you provide in their reviews.

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  4. My sentence lost a few words. :-) Should have said "I just would like to figure out a better way to do them."

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  5. I usually do not have such a hard time with reviews. This year it is particularly difficult for me because I have worked with this group for most of the year, but not in a managerial capacity. It's quite different to work with someone than to rate someone. Normally, I keep notes of my employees for the year. This time, I have a lot less to work with.

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