Aspies For Freedom

I've just had my Annual Performance Review at work. Not always the most enjoyable of experiences. Although it didn't go too badly this year. Apparently I'm 'meeting their expectations' (whatever that means).

They did say that I'm inconsistent and easily distracted. And seem to get overwhelmed and stressed a little too often (Well, I could have told them that).

They also told me that I'm 'a team player'. I find this rather surprising as I've deliberately spent most of the year trying to ignore the team. As indeed I did the previous year when I was told I 'wasn't a team player'.

They did say they were going to have a word with one of my colleagues, who'd made some offensive comments about me. Nice of them to make the effort I suppose. But it's been a long time since such comments have bothered me.

Does anyone else get an Annual Performance Review, at work?

Yeah, in fact I have to go through it once every 6 months!  I find it useful to keep a running list of all my achievements at work, as and when they happen, so that when Performance Review time comes around, I can just copy and paste my achievements into the official template - just a bit of formatting and then it's done!  Then there isn't a mad panic.

I also print out copies of any complimentary emails I receive, and copies of work that I have produced, and store it all in a nice portfolio folder.  I take that into the Performance Review session as well as the official template - it serves as a good conversation starting point, when I have to discuss my achievements with my supervisor.

I hate these performance reviews. They are not necessarily a reflection of reality.
It so often happens that the very best reviews are given to personal friends of the reviewer, while poor reviews are given to people who are not friends of the reviewer, or who are not liked by the reviewer's friends.
I have seen this happen many times, and have received both good and bad reviews for the above reasons.
I have also seen people who base their own self-image on the reviews they get.
One woman in particular, was so totally destroyed by a bad review (which she did not deserve) that she gave up a good career and took a very mediocre job in a completely unrelated field.

Yeah, we have them but they're generally just an indication of how we've gone in the past year and usually a formality. My current boss is really good and takes them seriously.

He's said I wasn't any trouble and doing well but sometimes I wonder if he's talking about a different person as I've had a few depressive episodes during the year when I thought I wasn't working up to par.