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AnswerRe: Performance review... Pin
Roger1652-Feb-16 2:52
Roger1652-Feb-16 2:52 
GeneralRe: Performance review... Pin
Sander Rossel2-Feb-16 7:07
professionalSander Rossel2-Feb-16 7:07 
AnswerRe: Performance review... Pin
Gerry Schmitz2-Feb-16 5:51
mveGerry Schmitz2-Feb-16 5:51 
GeneralRe: Performance review... Pin
Sander Rossel2-Feb-16 6:50
professionalSander Rossel2-Feb-16 6:50 
GeneralRe: Performance review... Pin
Gerry Schmitz2-Feb-16 7:29
mveGerry Schmitz2-Feb-16 7:29 
GeneralRe: Performance review... Pin
Sander Rossel2-Feb-16 7:40
professionalSander Rossel2-Feb-16 7:40 
GeneralRe: Performance review... Pin
Gerry Schmitz2-Feb-16 8:07
mveGerry Schmitz2-Feb-16 8:07 
AnswerRe: Performance review... Pin
SeattleC++2-Feb-16 6:15
SeattleC++2-Feb-16 6:15 
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.
GeneralRe: Performance review... Pin
Sander Rossel2-Feb-16 7:00
professionalSander Rossel2-Feb-16 7:00 
AnswerRe: Performance review... Pin
MikeTheFid2-Feb-16 6:39
MikeTheFid2-Feb-16 6:39 
GeneralRe: Performance review... Pin
Sander Rossel2-Feb-16 7:08
professionalSander Rossel2-Feb-16 7:08 
GeneralVS update for XXXX - why oh why did I click update Pin
Codeman the Barbarian1-Feb-16 6:03
Codeman the Barbarian1-Feb-16 6:03 
GeneralRe: VS update for XXXX - why oh why did I click update Pin
Afzaal Ahmad Zeeshan1-Feb-16 6:11
professionalAfzaal Ahmad Zeeshan1-Feb-16 6:11 
GeneralRe: VS update for XXXX - why oh why did I click update Pin
Codeman the Barbarian1-Feb-16 6:21
Codeman the Barbarian1-Feb-16 6:21 
GeneralRe: VS update for XXXX - why oh why did I click update Pin
megaadam1-Feb-16 6:26
professionalmegaadam1-Feb-16 6:26 
GeneralRe: VS update for XXXX - why oh why did I click update Pin
Sander Rossel1-Feb-16 8:28
professionalSander Rossel1-Feb-16 8:28 
GeneralRe: VS update for XXXX - why oh why did I click update Pin
Codeman the Barbarian1-Feb-16 6:58
Codeman the Barbarian1-Feb-16 6:58 
GeneralRe: VS update for XXXX - why oh why did I click update Pin
  Forogar  1-Feb-16 7:00
professional  Forogar  1-Feb-16 7:00 
GeneralDecision made. PinPopular
PompeyThree1-Feb-16 5:48
PompeyThree1-Feb-16 5:48 
GeneralRe: Decision made. Pin
jeron11-Feb-16 5:56
jeron11-Feb-16 5:56 
GeneralRe: Decision made. Pin
megaadam1-Feb-16 5:57
professionalmegaadam1-Feb-16 5:57 
GeneralRe: Decision made. Pin
PompeyThree1-Feb-16 5:59
PompeyThree1-Feb-16 5:59 
GeneralRe: Decision made. Pin
R. Giskard Reventlov1-Feb-16 6:00
R. Giskard Reventlov1-Feb-16 6:00 
GeneralRe: Decision made. Pin
Corporal Agarn1-Feb-16 6:10
professionalCorporal Agarn1-Feb-16 6:10 
GeneralRe: Decision made. Pin
Kevin Marois1-Feb-16 6:11
professionalKevin Marois1-Feb-16 6:11 

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