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PatriciaGestoso·Nov 29, 2022

Posted in:Advice Favors Compensation Early Career Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Management and Leadership Misc Tech

During my 15+ years as a manager, I’ve endured reading the most boring self-assessments written by star employees and mentees.

As we’re approaching that time of the year again when I ask my team to complete their self-assessment, I’m bracing myself to inflict myself that pain again. The kind of reading pearls of wisdom such as “I think I met this objective” by somebody that absolutely overachieved it. Or simply “Objective done” by another that smashed the target. No data, no testimonials, and no evidence. All in spite of them receiving reports as well as emails supporting their good work.

I instruct my team and mentees every year that they need to write their self-assessments for the company, not for me. That they need to add information to their assessment so the organisations they work for see that they are not simply saying "done" but there is plenty of work delivered behind it.

Still, I get a lot of resistance from them.

Common pushbacks come in sentences like “it’s a waste of time”, “I don’t care”, or “it’s a ticking box exercise”, which inevitably lead to self-assessments that appear to be written in 5 minutes putting all the onus on me to highlight their work, whilst I do devote a lot of effort to writing their assessments because I know how crucial they are for asking for a promotion or justifying a salary increase.

I cannot wait…

On the flip side, I do put a lot of energy into my self-assessment. Why? Because I see it as my opportunity to tell the company my view about how I have contributed to the organisation during the past year. And the only person that can take away that from me it’s myself by doing a poor job at it.

I’m very curious about what my network thinks about self-assessments. Do you care or don’t you?

What of the sentences resonates the most with you?

- Annual self-assessments are not valuable for my career and I put minimal effort into writing them.

- Annual self-assessments are not valuable for my career but I put effort into writing them to reflect my achievements and my vision for next year.

- Annual self-assessments are valuable for my career but I put minimal effort into writing them.

- Annual self-assessments are valuable for my career but I put effort into writing them to reflect my achievements and my vision for next year.

- The organisation I work for doesn’t request self-assessments.

Please let me know in the comments.

Aileen·Nov 30, 2022

Annual self-assessments are not valuable for my career and I put minimal effort into writing them.There was a time I believed otherwise, and in other parts of the organisation, they are a useful tool for your career. Where I’m working, there will be 1 next to top grade, maybe 1 next to bottom grade (depends if there was a bad one last year), 0 top or bottom grades, and everyone else will get the middle grade. They introduced a matrix, 1-5 for What was achieved and A-E for How it was achieved. My management ignore the how and everyone gets a C, no matter what was done. In other areas, the way I work and my extra commitments would get me an A most years. The single 2C gets spread around the team, but doesn’t seem to be a reward for the work done, more like it’s your turn. My team is very high performing. While the performance review process is a tick box joke, the actual work is really good, challenging and rewarding. That’s why I’m still here.

PatriciaGestoso·Dec 01, 2022

Hi @Aileen,Many thanks for the detailed feedback.I'm curious about something you wrote: " the actual work is really good, challenging and rewarding. That’s why I’m still here." Question: What about compensation?Thanks, Patricia

Aileen·Dec 01, 2022

The compensation is reasonable. For a job here, it’s ok. For the industry it’s a little low. But, oncall and overtime allowances, really good (comparative to others here) pension, p re try good Ts&Cs. It’s also convenient. Were I to move, while I’d be paid more, I wouldn’t have sone of the other things.

PatriciaGestoso·Dec 02, 2022

Thanks. I have had my share of mediocre managers throughout my career but I still put a lot of effort into my self-assessment because: (a) I saw it as a way to tell my contributions to the company (not only my manager), (b) managers leave too. The next manager may be great and reading about your past achievements can be very helpful. It has been in my case.

Aileen·Dec 02, 2022

That’s a good point. To be fair, I do write in what I’ve done - both what/how I’ve achieved my objectives, and my relevant extra curricular - however I no longer spend time and effort getting upset and anxious about it. Sone day the culture may change, and everyone may be rewarded for their achievements. I can’t see it happening after many years and multiple transformations. Being in tech, in a company who is not a tech company (however much they try to say they’re a large tech employee, and how they couldn’t survive without it) means that their pay scales and performance review process doesn’t fit their tech departments. I care deeply about what my immediate management, and my exec (who was a techie & did my job back in the day) think, and they are well aware of my contribution. It just isn’t recognised by HR and the system sucks. It’s the same for everyone on my team, though not all the teams under the manager are as high performing. My team just love what we do more than most. 🤓🤓🤓

Candice142·Dec 03, 2022

Where I stand today: "Annual self-assessments are valuable for my career so I put effort into writing them to reflect my achievements and my vision for next year."That said, I can see why people feel the opposite.Previously, because of such small company size, I've never had to do long and formal self-reflections. They were usually short-form surveys or nothing at all. My current company is big enough that I ended up going through a formal performance review process for the first time.The main reason I put in a lot of effort this round is because I cared more about the resulting conversation with my manager than the compensation change. I wanted to make sure that my perceptions of my work matched my manager's perceptions. If I get to the point where I feel our perceptions are consistent enough, then I might put in less effort, because I trust my manager has a deep enough understanding of my work.Now, let's say I wanted a compensation bump and that my self-reflections play a key part in that process. I'd probably start by putting a heck ton of effort in, but if over time I don't see the changes I want, then it's likely I'll give up because I know the effort is wasted. Alternatively, if self-reflections happen more than twice a year, then I'll probably be too fatigued to put in so much effort each time.When I read about your situation, a couple questions popped into my mind:* Did your reports explain the root of why they feel self-reflections are a waste of time?* Are your reports aware that their own self-reflections play a key role in compensation changes? Have they confirmed whether compensation is a priority for them?And as a followup:* What are the consequences if the assessments you write about your reports are similarly low-effort? Does it impact only them or does it also impact you?* If it also impacts you, are your reports aware that their inaction negatively affects you? If so, then it seems to point to an underlying problem where the report feels uninvested in their work relationship with you.* If you don't face direct consequences for writing low-effort assessments of your reports, what's your main motivation for putting in the amount of effort you do? I think it's admirable for a manager to go to bat for their reports like this. Still, I wonder if it's the case that you're batting for something they don't want right now, and that perhaps that effort will be better appreciated if you redirect it to something that will motivate your reports more.I love your post because it addresses what seems to be a common yet difficult problem, and it sounds like you've put a lot of care into your career growth as well as the people you work with. Best of luck!

PatriciaGestoso·Dec 06, 2022

Thanks for your thoughtful reply.As I mentioned above, I do devote a lot of effort to writing their assessments because I know how crucial they are for asking for a promotion or justifying a salary increase.I have a strong work ethic and not because some of my reports don't do a good job that means I don't do mine.I have direct reports that have been in the company for 1 year and some for 30+ years. A couple of them write very impactful assessments and others mediocre ones. Interestingly those in the last bucket are not necessarily the new people. In my experience talking about this topic for years, it's that one of the main reasons why some people don't devote time is because we don't like to reflect. How many people do you know that enjoy self-reflection? Also, the process involves rating yourself, how many people enjoy that?So, whilst we can "blame" managers and find excuses about if it's worth it or not, for me, the key is first to rather explore internally our own resistance to reflection.Thanks again for your comments and questions.

melissajenkins·Dec 04, 2022

5) None of the above. I do not feel they are not valuable to me/my employer even though they may drive my renumeration etc. I'm not a reliable witness to my performance, especially over a year. There is no way I remember what I did 6 months ago, and in most cases I would probably do it differently/better now so I would downgrade my answers from then anyway. The few places I have done this I have dreaded the exercise for weeks and always been disappointed with the final output. The one place I had to review them I spent considerable time comparing their views with my observed impressions - and then everybody got the same grade anyway (see @Aileen's response)To me these kinds of assessments measure how good you are at talking yourself up and is unrelated to how well you do at work. I feel it would encourage promoting people of a certain personality type. Ironically it requires you to prioritise yourself (to dedicate time to do the exercise well) over your deliveries to succeed at work which may actually be a good thing. Finally, I think self-assessment & review is good - but let's make it regular and normal - something to help you get better and not just how you get a pay rise!

PatriciaGestoso·Dec 06, 2022

Thanks @melissajenkins for your candid reply.Regarding "There is no way I remember what I did 6 months ago", I have the solution for you. It's called "Win folder" and I've shared it with my coachees and mentees - of course, also with my colleagues. Create a folder in your inbox and every time you get an email praising your performance, move it there. Also, when you have achieved a meaningful project/task/activity, you can send yourself an email that you archive in that folder.What if the self-assessment was a moment of introspection to savour your wins and thank your past self for being willing to stretch yourself?I fully agree that we shouldn't make self-assessments and reviews a one-off annual activity - like the Christmas party - but it should be a continuum. Thanks for your thoughtful comments.

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