How to Deal With a Bad Employee Performance Review

So you've had your yearly review from your employer, and things didn't go quite the way you planned. Maybe you're stressing about whether or not you'll get a raise, or not wanting bad marks to appear on your permanent record. Whatever your situation, here are some helpful tips for closing the gap between you and your reviewer.

Things You'll Need

• Guts
• A clear and honest account of your accomplishments and shortfalls.
• Time to cool off
• A spirit of negotiation

Instructions

1. The bad news has been delivered. Your boss' appraisal of your performance was not quite what you had been planning on. There is still hope! Most employees have to write a self review before their supervisor in turn writes a review of the employee. They know what you think of your performance over the past review period, and then they put in their two cents. Now your mission is to close the gap between their opinion and yours.

2. If there seems to be a large gap between your assessment of yourself and your supervisor's evaluation, it's time for a reality check. If you were completely honest and objective about yourself, could you see that what the employer is saying is true? Are they being honest and you are just hurt over the truth? Or do things seem pretty harsh and unfair?

3. After you've done the quick questioning in your head, I want you to remember the single most effective question for this type of situation. No matter if you did deserve those negative comments or not, the most useful question you can ask at this time is, "Do you feel that [the mistake you referenced] has overshadowed all of my other work for the past review period?" Most reviewers, in good conscience, could not say yes. Usually, unless your performance has been completely awful, the bad will not outweigh the good. I want you to memorize that question, because it will be the single most effective bargaining tool that you can take with you into your boss' office for your review.

4. The main thing is that you would like to keep any negative comments from your supervisor away from your permanent file in the HR department. This file will follow you for the rest of your employment with that company, and once something becomes set in stone, it's awfully hard to get it removed. I would highly recommend using the above referenced question to do any bargaining before your review is finalized. Once your review is finalized, most likely it will be forwarded to HR by your supervisor and become part of your permanent file.

5. One last thing you can do is, after you have had time to cool down, compose some sort of response to the bad review and speak with your reviewer about it. Perhaps they will be willing to compromise. If not, and you still feel that your review was totally biased and unfair, you can request to speak to someone from HR, or ask the HR department if you could forward your response to your review to them. If you end up having to write a statement such as this, remember to keep it professional. If you are faced with a situation where you've been with the same company for a long time but just got a new boss, make sure to mention that all of your reviews in the past have been favorable up until now - that might help them see that the standards you are being held against have changed.

6. In closing, if you are committed to your job and your company, try not to let this bad review destroy any work relationships or get in the way of your future performance. If you intend to stick with your current employer, no matter how difficult it may seem, try to view the bad review as a chance to improve and take the bad marks as constructive criticism.

Tips & Warnings

• If your initial bargaining does not work, remember to take time (a few days or a week maybe) to cool down before approaching the subject again.

• Try not to become overly emotional when facing the criticism of a bad review.