30 Reasons Employees Hate Their Managers: What Your People May Be Thinking and What You Can Do About It

Chapter 22. My performance reviews are useless

Fifty-four percent of employees say their performance reviews are useless.

A high-tech manufacturer outside of Boston had been spun off of a much larger company and was now privately held. Within the first three months more than one-third of the workforce was laid off. Needless to say, the survivors were extremely unhappy and feared for their jobs. We conducted an employee survey and found that employees were dissatisfied with just about everything (i.e., management, their supervisors, communication, teamwork, their pay, and their performance reviews).

I advised management to begin with tangible and visible changes that would affect all employees. One of my recommendations was to make sure all employees ...