What Can a Supervisor Say About You on a Performance Evaluation

[SunMoon]

My question involves labor and employment law for the state of: CA

Is "does not respond well to change" a valid criticism for a manager to write on a performance review, without giving examples?

[cbg]

I don't see why not, assuming that it's true or represents the manager's honest opinion. Examples would be nice but are not required.

[Taxing Matters]

My question involves labor and employment law for the state of: CA


Is "does not respond well to change" a valid criticism for a manager to write on a performance review, without giving examples?

The law does not regulate performance reviews in any way unless you work for the government. If you do work for the government, it matters very much what agency employs you as the rules will vary. If you are employed by a private employer then your manager can write as much or as little as he or she wants on your performance review; the only limitations on the manager will be those that the manager's superiors impose and of course I have no way of knowing what policies your employer has for that, if any.

[budwad]

Writing performance reviews for subordinate employees is not something that higher-ups look forward to (it takes their time away from doing their work) and they may not be giving the employee a fair evaluation or explanation of the performance just to get through it.

Have you asked your report why they wrote what the wrote? You may want to have that conversation.

After you have that conversation, ask if you can put a response in your personal file for the record. Some companies allow it and some won't.

[Taxing Matters]

Writing performance reviews for subordinate employees is not something that higher-ups look forward to (it takes their time away from doing their work)

That attitude would be a huge part of the problem. Reviewing subordinate employees IS doing their work; indeed, for a supervisor it's an important part of their work. A supervisor who writes something in a review "just to get through it" has no business being a supervisor. He or she is not doing his/her job and ought to think of a different line of work if he/she can't stand to do a proper job of it.

[comment/ator]

The comment we used to hate most was "has a bad attitude." How general can that be? "Doesn't respond well to change" is pretty general. I don't see why the OP is so torn up about it, unless it's directly correlated with monetary raises or something.

[jk]

Doesn’t respond well to change could be the start of establishing a basis for terminating them. It’s not that they need a reason to do so legally but it may be preferable within their company

or maybe the supervisor themselves want the op gone and is establishing a basis to do so that would satisfy their superiors questions of why.

[cbg]

Or, maybe the employee does not respond well to change. It does happen. It doesn't HAVE to be a set-up.

Had a co-worker like that. She absolutely could not adapt. If a policy changed; if a law changed; if a form changed, even; didn't matter. It completely floored her, and it affected not only the work of our team but the work of other teams we were related to, as well. There was no need to give examples; she knew perfectly well.

[jk]

Or, maybe the employee does not respond well to change. It does happen. It doesn't HAVE to be a set-up.

.

Absolutely true.

I was responding to commentators statement that unless it involved money raises or something op shouldn’t be too concerned. My statement was meant to suggest there could be a serious issue affecting op even if it resulted in no immediate negative actions.

[cbg]

Fair enough.