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Managers are only "good" or "bad" if one has experienced both. Some of us have.
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Performance reviews are a ritual meant to put you in your place. Despite pretense, PRs are not objective. They are rather an annual signal about how well your manager likes you. At a really top-rate company, you'd get continuous feedback from your manager and PRs would be unneeded. At other companies, it's a chance for your manager to retaliate for anything you did to annoy them, from being late on an impossible deadline to questioning their authority by suggesting alternative ideas. They can bring up stuff that happened years ago, or focus just on stuff they remember from the last couple months.
This can be frustrating, because sometimes there is useful feedback in a performance review. If you can detach, you can learn things that will help you work better with your colleagues. You can't completely blow off performance reviews. You have to take them seriously. But they're deeply, unrecoverably awful.
If you are both a superstar developer and an obsequious brown-noser, your performance review will go splendidly, because that's what bosses like. Show any spirit and nine bosses out of ten will retaliate. The Japanese apparently have a saying, "The nail that sticks up, gets hammered down." Here in the US we're supposed to be a meritocracy. I've worked in meritocratic companies with very nurturing managers. But meritocracy is a weak cultural impulse. You're always at the mercy of your manager. If they hire on a pointy-haired boss (I'm talking to YOU, Charlie), that tradition of meritocratic reward can evaporate.
Take a minute to get calm and detached before the review. Remind yourself not to react. Say, "Yes sir" and "Thank you sir". Don't whine to your buddies after ('cause that totally gets back to the boss). Let it out at home, where hopefully there's somebody who actually loves you. Remember, it's not about you. It's about your place in the hierarchy.
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SeattleC++ wrote: It's about your place in the hierarchy.
That hierarchy doesn't go very deep 
We also don't have PR or HR or whatever.
It's just me, my team lead, and the general manager.
My team lead (who hates the word manager) is a part of the team. The only difference between him and me is that he has more responsibility so he has the final say (and I haven't heard him say "no" to anything I've suggested in the past year).
We had a really good talk. I wrote down the good things I did in the past year up front, but I didn't need my notes because he mentioned them all. I also wrote down some of my bad habits, but he didn't mention them (well, one was mentioned, but he laughed it off).
I even complimented him on his openness towards ideas, changes, and his team.
I guess I'm lucky to say that nothing you describe sounds familiar to me 
SeattleC++ wrote: Let it out at home, where hopefully there's somebody who actually loves you.
My cat Nika, but she only loves me when she wants food 
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Quote: any tips on what (not) to say?
Don't say anything like, "I'm ambitious and hope someday to rise to your level of incompetence!"
Cheers,
Mike Fidler
"I intend to live forever - so far, so good." Steven Wright
"I almost had a psychic girlfriend but she left me before we met." Also Steven Wright
"I'm addicted to placebos. I could quit, but it wouldn't matter." Steven Wright yet again.
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I hope to rise to his level of salary though
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I install Visual Studio once! Trust me, when I say "once", I mean it. 
The sh*t I complain about
It's like there ain't a cloud in the sky and it's raining out - Eminem
~! Firewall !~
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I must be a real glutton for punishment. Just decided to update Android Studio as well... ugh
Time to open up Atom
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Afzaal Ahmad Zeeshan wrote: Trust me, when I say "once", I mean it.
Ah... those were the days!
Visual_Studio_97[^]
Life is too shor
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Which had version number 5? 
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Wow, both are still updating
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It is interesting to note that the updates always seem to take longer than the original installation. However, once done I have found VS to be an excellent and complex product that has given me few problems. I run several add-ins, extensions, etc. and they all seem to work very well. The biggest issues I have with the IDE are all with the ridiculously, presumably fashion-conscious, UI which is doing the real Apple thing by putting form before function.
- I would love to change the world, but they won’t give me the source code.
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I've decided to end my relationship with my Blow-up doll.
I just don't know how to let her down.
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Don't let the pressure get to you.
"the debugger doesn't tell me anything because this code compiles just fine" - random QA comment
"Facebook is where you tell lies to your friends. Twitter is where you tell the truth to strangers." - chriselst
"I don't drink any more... then again, I don't drink any less." - Mike Mullikins uncle
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Remember when you were inflatuated?
Life is too shor
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PompeyThree wrote: I just don't know how to let her down.
You have to pull your plug out...
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Just pop her balloon, or bust her bubble.
Mongo: Mongo only pawn... in game of life.
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Glad you liked it. I actually made that up myself last night, while my (real) missus was at work. I couldn't wait till she got home so I could tell someone. I said "I made up a joke tonight do you want to hear it" she replied "No please don't" 
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Sounds like just a lot of hot air to me!
- I would love to change the world, but they won’t give me the source code.
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I guess a little prick might help.
“That which can be asserted without evidence, can be dismissed without evidence.”
― Christopher Hitchens
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Please - no one mention anything about an "inflationary period" !
| "The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein | | "As far as we know, our computer has never had an undetected error." - Weisert | | "If you are searching for perfection in others, then you seek disappointment. If you are seek perfection in yourself, then you will find failure." - Balboos HaGadol Mar 2010 |
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She didn't meet your inflated expectations?
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