The stuff of management legends

The dreaded performance review is usually an ineffective method of motivation in the hands of an inept manager. Ineffective managers who fail to provide leadership in the workplace generally attempt retrospective actions in a performance review instead of undertaking regular and ongoing coaching. 

If the manager feels the employee is exhibiting poor attitudes or behaviour, this once a year meeting to fix these alleged behaviours will pretty much waste of an hour of work time. The ineffective manager focuses on negative behaviours and the most recent efforts instead of building on positive actions whilst also providing constructive feedback on negative issues. 

A lack of a regular performance review is just lazy, many employees are unfazed by a lack of performance management as the manager has already proved themselves to be a manager in title only; lacking the respect of the individual employee and team in general. 

The manager in such situations is usually unprepared, having not put the effort into preparing for the performance management meeting. I have attended meetings after been given just 10 minutes notice. We all know this 10 minutes is preparation time for the manager to quickly review my performance prior to the meeting - that's a joke. 

I have even had a manager put the wrong name on my performance review, did he perform a simple copy and paste from other people's reviews or was he unsure who was sitting in front of him?

The purpose of a performance review is for the manager to ensure the job is performed well, to improve their productivity by removing obstacles to productivity and streamlining task functions - it's that simple.