So you’ve been at the job for a while, and it’s finally time to find out what your boss really thinks of you. The door closes behind you as the air gets sucked out of the room. It’s just the two of you now. You pray it’s NOT a bad job evaluation.
And then it happens. Your boss says you’re not pulling your weight. Or you didn’t take enough initiative on that last project. You’ve taken too many sick days. Or been late too often. Maybe work quality is below par. Or simply you’re good … but not as good as you could be. Ouch!!
If you get a bad job evaluation
The most important thing you can do is enter that room with a willingness to hear what’s being said. I know it’s hard. It’s only natural to want to protect and defend ourselves — especially if we feel we’re being unfairly judged.
But the worst thing you can do is walk into the room ready for the fight. It’s a bad move. When you are in fight mode, you can’t hear the words as they are being said. And you might actually wind up hearing something useful for your own career — if you really listen.
Listening harder than it seems
Whether you know it or not, even when we think we’re listening, we often have internal filters going big time. Sometimes we only hear what we want to hear. Or our words get colored in a way that reflects what we think the other person feels about us — or how we feel about them.
Words that may be fairly harmless can come in and get processed in a way that turns them into big-time button-pushers. Oh yeah! You think I can do better? Well that’s what my mother used to say. And I hated my mother! (Although usually the buttons aren’t that obvious.)
So more often than not, we’ve walked away from a bad review not having heard what was really said. Or having incorrectly interpreted the real meaning behind it. All the while interjecting lots of our own thoughts and associations into every word.
Improve listening during feedback
- Make a deal with yourself to truly listen from a place of knowing nothing and wanting to learn. Even if it turns out to be a bad job evaluation.
- Let your boss finish his thoughts before even trying to respond.
- Don’t run a script of automatic responses in your head while your boss is talking. While you’re doing that, you’re missing a lot of what is being said.
- Ask clarifying questions. (Allowing your boss to finish the point they are making, of course.) Rephrase what you think you heard so you can be sure you got it right.
- Show a willingness to listen by assuming a friendly, welcoming posture. You want your boss to know you’re willing to hear what they say. And if you keep your arms crossed in front of you, for example, it shows you are defending.
What else to do during poor review
- Let your boss know you appreciate the constructive criticism. (As hard as it is to say that.)
- Discuss any points you think are unfair. But do so as calmly and intelligently as possible, making solid points for yourself by drawing on concrete examples — rather than simply saying it’s not true while looking all upset.
- Don’t bring up coworkers and point to how they are treated in comparison to you. It won’t help your poor job evaluation. And it makes you look like a cry-baby.
- Do calmly come up with things that you have improved on or accomplished over the last year that your boss may have forgotten to mention.
- Ask your boss for a few specific things you can work on over the coming year.
- Make sure they know you want to improve and are taking their words seriously.
- Thank your boss at the end, smiling, looking directly into their eyes, and shaking hands. You want to walk out with an air of positive strength. And an honest commitment to improve. Even if not everything said feels fair, there’s always something you can work on. None of us is perfect.
Afterwards, send your boss a short email note thanking them again for the constructive criticism and outlining the things you intend to do. Ask for any additional suggestions. This not only serves as a contract of sorts between you, but provides you written proof should there be more going on than just a less-than-glowing review.
Bad job evaluation or wake-up call
It’s important to keep your perspective. I’ve known people who walk away devastated (and show it in their work attitude) just because the didn’t get “excellent” in every category. That’s way out of proportion and only hurting yourself.
But sometimes, a bad review is your boss’s way of putting you on notice that you better get your act together if you want to keep your job. If, during the review you get any sense that it might be the latter, then make sure you ask your boss directly whether you should be worried about losing your job. Better to know than not know.
But as I said, in most cases, bad reviews are just a wake-up call. The most important thing for you to look at is whether any of it came as a shock to you. If so, you might want to improve your office radar. And also ask your boss for more regular meetings that help you know how s/he feels about your work.
In fact, after a bad review, I’d make it a point to connect more regularly to discuss how things are going. And also, make sure your boss finds out about things you do well. Sometimes we have to be our own PR agents — in a non-annoying way. 🙂
We all get bad reviews now and then.
I know one person who got a rotten review — so bad he felt like quitting. And he went around sulking and angry at everyone. But after we had a long talk, he stopped obsessing about everything he doesn’t get enough appreciation for (the list was long).
Instead he decided to take an approach that might actually do him some good. Whether he was right or wrong in fact, his way just wasn’t working.
So he sat down with his boss in a professional manner and sincerely acknowledged there was room for improvement — and that he would do whatever was necessary to the best of his ability. He also discussed areas he wanted to get into that he hadn’t yet been given the opportunity to take on.
His boss was happy about the improved attitude and willingness to change. They made a deal that if he buckled down and improved on his assigned tasks (and attitude) and did what the company needed from him, he would be given a chance to take on a some of the new things he really wanted.
He did. They did. And he is now in a new role doing what he loves.
Recovering after bad job evaluation
All he had to do was switch from his perpetual “they don’t appreciate me” mode to a new, improved “I am taking charge of my own career” mode. Plus, he moved himself out of victim mode by treating his boss as an ally and not an enemy. Ironically, the bad evaluation became the beginning of his new career.
If you wind up getting one of those bad evaluations, try your best to let any resulting negative feelings go as soon as possible. See it as the beginning of the rest of your career — since it can be. If you get stuck in being pissed off, you’ll only prove your boss’s point.
Focus on what actions you can take now —
and show your boss (and yourself) how good you really are!
A few more thoughts
We usually have at least two choices: accept things as they are or change. Since you’re already at this job, it really does pay to give it another chance by seeing what you can do to make things better for yourself. You might surprise yourself.
But of course, if it’s really time for you to go … then see this as your ticket to something better. Sometimes when bad evaluations happen to good people it turns out to be a blessing!
[Article updated in 2020]
About the author…
Ronnie Ann, founder of Work To the Wise and Work Coach Cafe, bases her real-world advice on her many years as an organizational consultant where she helped interview and hire people, added to a certificate from NYU in Career Planning & Development, as well as her many adventures as a serial job seeker.
Some posts to help:
How Changing Your Attitude Can Change Your Job!
How To Change Your Job Without Quitting
When Emotions Take Over In the Workplace
What To Do If Your Job Makes You Miserable
Help! My Boss Wants To Get Rid of Me
My Boss Has a Favorite and It’s NOT Me
Why It’s So Easy To Get Mad at Your Boss
Workplace Culture: Putting a New Perspective To Work
Do You Feel You’re Not Appreciated at Work?
Why Do I Always Pick the Wrong Job?
Boss Won’t Let Me Transfer To a Different Department
How To Deal With a Bully Boss
My Boss Has a Favorite and It’s NOT Me
Are You Afraid To Talk To Your Boss?
My Boss Never Says Thank You
Why Are Receptionists So Undervalued (and Underpaid)?
And just in case you do need to leave
⇒  How To Quit a Job (Without Hurting Yourself)
Your suggestions are great–they just didn’t work for me. In my case, I was transferred to another office in which I was supposed to be the savior (or something) due to the fact that the other office was TOXIC. So, after my first review, things were fine…and then, I switched heart medications. My previous supervisor told the new supervisor about what I was taking, how sometimes I may be a wee bit slow, but otherwise fine. The new supervisor was on his way out, and there was yet ANOTHER supervisor coming in, and I don’t know if she was ever told anything, because I didn’t say anything. I know that it’s one of the stupidest things to do, but instead of getting things in writing, I did what I usually do, and let things go. And they went. After noticing that my review said things like “confusion about what time to come in,” “forgetting names of professors, students, etc.” and other memory problems, I STILL didn’t mention the medicine problems, so no surprise when I got the beige slip on May 31, 2013. The HR guy looked confused as he asked did I have anything to add, and I said, “I guess I don’t–it won’t matter anyway.” took my milk crate o’ stuff and left.
What have I learned in the year since? Document, document, document. Even though the previous worker was the devil incarnate, spread rumors, lied constantly, yelled at her superior, and tried to get her fired, she still has a job, whilst I wait for an assignment from a temp agency (fingers crossed!)
Whoever said life was fair was a liar, and whatever I was thinking when I didn’t get any documentation was probably due to the fact that the side effects of the medicine were clouding my mind. So, live and learn!