Your Performance Evaluation, Dropping the Bomb

I hear this too often, so it is my rant for the week. A reader asked this question:

“My boss really upset me during my evaluation this year. She started telling me everything that I did not do and my evaluation wasn’t great. I thought about it afterwards and what makes me really upset is that she never told me during the year that I was not performing the way she wanted. So she dumped it all on me in one day. Is that fair? What do you do?”

I call this “bomb dropping.” Managers are either allergic to conflict or claim they are too busy to give proper feedback when it is due (particularly criticism). Whatever the excuse, it is simply not fair for a manager to be punitive during an evaluation if she has not prepared you for it throughout the year.

The time to tell an employee that they are not performing is not at the end of the year. What in the world can anyone do about it at that point? People quit their jobs because of this issue. It is like a parent who never addresses bad behavior  with their kids throughout the year and then tells them in December that they are getting very few Christmas gifts, if any.

So, to my reader. What do you do?

Manage up and tell your boss how you feel. Do it appropriately, but be firm. Tell her:

1. You do not appreciate getting all of the negative feedback during the evaluation and none of it throughout the year.

2. Tell her how it made you feel. (again appropriately)

3. Get agreement on how you are going to fix the problem. Suggest you have monthly meetings to get feedback on how you are doing.

This is something that can be fixed easily, but often it is not. Half of the responsibility is yours.