<p>Does anyone have tips for me? </p>
<p>Dos and Don’ts?</p>
<p>I hate this kind of thing.</p>
<p>No tips, since I no longer work outside the home, but will just say, this is H’s least favorite time of the year for that reason. Well, and he has so many performance reviews that he has to do for others as well. My sympathies are with you.</p>
<p>I admit it’s been sometime since I had to do those.
A couple questions.
At your last performance review, did you set measurable goals?
Do you want to change the criteria/ bar?</p>
<p>In the past when I had trouble writing about me… I would pretend that I am writing about someone else or write it tongue in cheek- “I am so wonderful that I know everything there is to know about project x, y and z. I saved $xxx because of my terrificness”. Other than that, I hate this time of year. Good luck. ;)</p>
<p>It’s a college scholarship essay “why should we give you a bonus?” - so treat it as such. Promote yourself honestly and willingly - how would you portray your accomplishments this year if you were your own PR agent? Don’t lie, don’t exaggerate but don’t belittle anything. I tend to a self-deprecating humor - but I keep that in check completely and take on the persona of my own agent, telling people how super special I am.</p>
<p>This is one of the reasons I left Corporate America. </p>
<p>For a project once, when I was in my early 30s, I had to read about 6,000 performance reviews in our company and come up with recommendations. My favorite comments were in the “Goals for Next Year” part, when supervisor after supervisor would say such illegal and inflammatory things as, “Ms. Smith is 62 years old.”</p>
<p>As far as advice is concerned, I agree with emeraldkity: Take last year’s goals and show how you’ve knocked them out of the park. Also, use this opportunity to tell management of all the things you’ve done that they don’t know about and that can’t be measured – eg, how you helped move the committee forward, how you kept the peace at the meetings, etc. Such a leader!!</p>
<p>I’ve only been at this company for five months, and it is far from a corporate setting.</p>
<p>I will try amandakayak’s approach, try and stick to the facts to show I’ve done a good job.</p>
<p>Misery loves company, so I’m glad my sentiments about this sort of thing are shared.</p>
<p>Go for a just the facts approach. Look at your calendar and to-do lists for the past few months and state what you did to accomplish your goals and what the outcome was.</p>
<p>they probably like metrics… b/c they are easy to measure and don’t require management to think.</p>
<p>do you know what was done in your position in the previous 5 months? If you do, you can do a comparison: produced X% more widgets over the same time period, etc.</p>
<p>Did X, Y, and Z which lead to blah blah blah.</p>
<p>Don’t tell the truth. Self-evals are not for that. Rather, list ways you aided progress in your workplace. Also, talk about ways you can increasingly improve, especially in areas you know your boss or employer needs you to. This is not the place for any mea culpas or critiques of the system. Add some adverbs and adjectives that resonate within your work tribe. Keep it short. </p>
<p>Great suggestions! I will use the “did X, Y, and Z which lead to blah blah blah” formula and keep it short!</p>
<p>Fortunately my boss requires a “weekly update” on my tasks, so I have a good record of everything I’ve done.</p>
<p>Years ago I was manager and the company I worked for required this. The other managers and I noticed that almost all of the women undervalued themselves. I recommend being honest, but do not be too modest</p>
<p>I like amandakayaks advice.</p>
<p>My DH calls these his “I love me” evaluations…so that’s how I’ve started treating them. You need to toot your own horn. One, it makes you look empowered and two, it makes it harder for the supervisor to dismiss what you say.</p>
<p>Be your best friend. Focus on your strengths and accomplishments.</p>
<p>Someone once said to me: This is not the time to be bashful.</p>
<p>Back in my working days, my bosses would lift sentences, and often paragraphs, verbatim from what I wrote for my annual reviews. So, do take it seriously, make it well-written, and do promote yourself. I agree with the post above that women tend to undervalue themselves, so don’t fall into that mode. </p>
<p>For 19 years I was detailed and exact, not boastful. This year I decided to be direct, exact and positive about myself…yes I am female, made absolutely no difference. Next year I am not doing one. </p>
<p>Ah, performance evaluations … my least favorite thing in my current job. Raises are community-wide (we all get the same amount, every last one of us, as a %'age of our income). They can let us go at will. What is the point of writing up a whole bunch of stuff no one will ever look at or care about? It’s not like anyone will change what needs to be changed, actually pay me what I am worth, or otherwise use the info constructively. </p>
<p>I did it my first year, but this year I was far too busy. I told my boss she needed to tell me specifically what I should NOT do in order to do the performance evaluation. She never got back to me, and I never did it.</p>
<p>I am normally not like that, but when there is nothing to be gained by spending time in a pointless exercise, I will only do it if I have time. I always did it in a timely manner in previous jobs, but in those cases the info was actually relevant to something (raises, possible promotions, etc) - no hope of a promotion, since I already do everything there is to do!</p>
<p>Can you tell I am feeling a bit overworked and underappreciated?! ;)</p>
<p>“I love me.” Good advice going into this.</p>
<p>I have since been invited to contribute to the performance evaluations of two co-workers.</p>
<p>Since the company is very small (less than 30 employees), I will be exceedingly cautious in what I say.</p>
<p>Look, I hate it like crazy. But dang it, I just tell it like it is about myself. Why not?</p>