How to Deal With Bad Job Reviews
Many companies conduct employee performance reviews, detailing the strengths and weaknesses of an employee's work performance. You should never think of a bad performance review as a personal attack; it's simply a manager's perspective of your performance at work. Performance reviews can help you identify weaknesses and offer suggestions on how to turn those weaknesses into strengths. Understanding that the review is not an attack on you -- and taking steps to improve your imperfections -- can help you take a bad review and use it to your advantage.
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Instructions
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Remain calm. When you see a review that criticizes your work performance, it's natural to become emotional and feel an urge to defend your work. Looking at the review with a composed attitude allows you to fully take in the review and understand what you have to improve on.
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Look at each weakness pointed out on the review. Ask yourself if you feel that the weakness is legitimate. For example, suppose your review stated you lacked customer service skills. Think back to your interactions with customers and what you could have done better. Ask yourself if you truly put forth your best effort. If not, the criticism is likely legitimate, and you can work on that weakness.
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Assess your strengths. Unless your performance deteriorated, your review should highlight your strengths in addition to your weaknesses. Looking at your strengths builds confidence and shows that you can perform at a high level. Compare your strengths with your weaknesses and ask yourself if you can use your strengths to improve your weaknesses. For example, suppose your review said your teamwork skills were excellent but your customer service skills were sub-standard. You could likely take the techniques that make for good teamwork and apply them to your customer service skills.
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Talk to the manager who conducted the performance review. Express your desire to better your performance and ask him for help to improve your weaknesses. If you feel that the review consisted of illegitimate criticisms, explain why. Your manager can point out why he felt you could improve in certain areas.
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Create a list of ways to improve. A visual list, rather than a mental list, reminds you what to improve every day you come to work. Keep the list in your workplace, and look at it each day you come in. Make a conscious effort to improve each day. Your next performance review will likely reflect that effort.
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