Performance reviews are necessary for working women for several reasons. However, they are only useful when the reviews are done properly and the company has a proper system in place.
Some can go wrong and hurt you by losing your job, a pay cut, room for bias , deny you a raise, affect your performance and productivity among others..
How Performance Reviews can Go Wrong
1. Negative Reviews can Trigger a Pay Cut
Payment is a very necessary element of performance reviews and appraisals. The results of the performance review , can be used to determine this. Many companies attach pay rises to performance. Therefore you are at risk of getting a pay cut if you get a negative appraisal.
Read: Questions you Should Ask your Manager during Performance Review Meeting
2. Can be Manipulated to Deny you a Rise
Some companies and industries use performance reviews as a form of cost-cutting or cost-saving measure. In most companies, pay rises are tied to the results of a performance review. A good performance review will be determine if you will get a pay rise and the percentage of increase that you will get.
On the other if your employer wants to avoid giving you a rise, a negative performance may be manufactured. As such a performance can go wrong for you and lead to a reduction of your salary.
3. May mean a Warning for Firing
The results of performance reviews can also be used by employers to determine if to let an employee go. Some managers exploit this aspect of the performance review and use it to fire employees who are not necessarily bad performers but who they want to fire.
To be safe on the legal side, employers may give you a bad performance review, and put on a Performance Improvement Plan before you are fired to protect themselves. This way the employer can prove the reason for the firing was a bad performance and not any other reason.
The performance reviews are a trail of documentation that is admissible in a court of law in case you decided to sue your employer.
Read: Signs you are About to be Fired
4. A Negative Review can Stall your Career Grow
The purpose of a performance review is to evaluate what worked and what did not during the past year. It is necessary by indicating your current career position and the trend. A performance review can therefore go wrong on your career if it turns out negative.
If you receive a negative appraisal, it implies that you have stalled in your career. You are left unsure of the direction of you career. The feedback tends to be less insightful and valuable for improvement on your end.
Read: How to Create a Strong Career Plan
5. Creates Room for Bias & Prejudice
Effective performance reviews should be fair. All employees should be treated equally. However, it can go wrong when this is not the case by creating possible bias where the manager plays favorites.
Further when the systems for performance reviews are not well implemented, they go against the employee. In some case, you may notice that an exemplary performance review is denied no matter what your performance has been.
Probably your manager is using a quota system and only a certain number can get an exemplary rating. These quotas compromise the quality and honesty of the reviews and the feedback that you get. This HR practice has made many working moms hate and dislike performance appraisals.
6. May Affect your Motivation at Work
Good performance reviews always leave you feeling good about themselves. However a bad one will leave your demotivated and demoralized. You will feel that your work has not been noticed, appreciated, and valued.
Therefore a review may go wrong by failing to direct you on how you can improve on your work. The uncertainty makes you uncomfortable at work, less confident and less productive. It leaves you unsure of your role in your company vision.
When you are not aware of the input of your work on the organization, you become less interested in doing more. Naturally, you will become less motivated and seek less opportunities in work.
This is What to Expect your First Performance Review
7. Poor Performance
When done improperly, the performance reviews may fail to remain objective and hurt rather than improve performance. The reviews can go wrong by being in-objective, biased, and dishonest. Some managers look for faults/weaknesses and do not focus adequately on the achievements/strengths of their employees.
Some performance evaluation goals, characteristics, and metrics used during performance reviews do not deliver additional value to the company. The results of the performance review may hence fail to link with actual performance of the employee.
Also, the goal-driven metric setting is impractical and unrealistic to some moms. Performance evaluations outside of certain fields where metrics are very straightforward, such as sales are not effective for evaluating performance.
In addition, they hurt teamwork and team cohesion, especially when peers are made to evaluate each other.
Read: How to Get a Positive Performance Review
8. Performance Reviews are Stressful and Mentally Draining
Preparing for the performance review and going through the review meeting is mentally taxing. It makes moms anxious which in return affects their performance. Many also feel like a performance review is confrontational and a personal attack to their weaknesses.
