This is a bonus issue of the newsletter on a timely topic: delivering unfavorable performance reviews. It’s also an attempt to revive the infrequent community threads: focusing on timely topics where we can all benefit from each other’s experiences.

Performance reviews have been more aggressive than usual at plenty of companies. For managers currently at a company with stricter targets, this most likely meant more difficult performance calibrations, and then needing to deliver ratings they might not have agreed with.

Q: What is your advice in delivering unfavorable performance reviews as a manager, or dealing with an unfavorable review, as someone receiving it?

For managers of managers:

• How have you helped first-time managers prepare to deliver performance feedback - especially when delivering negative performance feedback?

• How do you ensure your managers know and follow the basic “rules” of delivering performance feedback, like not sharing details from inside the calibration?

• How do you respond if you learn that your manager report communicated a performance review poorly, and now one of your skip-level reports is an attrition risk?

For managers:

• What is your advice to deal with being ‘pushed’ to a calibration outcome you don’t agree with?

• How do you communicate performance ratings you are not entirely in agreement with?

• How do you communicate unfavorable performance reviews: when you expect your direct report to disagree with the assessment?

For people who have gotten worse than expected performance reviews:

• How have you digested a decision that felt very unfair?

• Outside of going out and looking for a new job, what other actions have worked for you in the past?

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A few recent situations

I’ve observed four recent situations through conversations with engineers, which all relate to this topic.

1. Getting a worse performance review than expected