The Performance Review

My review quoted a message I sent at midnight

Praised for the work. Written up for the timestamp.

The review starts well. Strong quarter, good instincts, a real asset. Then comes a section called communication style, and in it, in quotation marks, is something typed at eleven fifty-one at night while a release was on fire. It was not rude. It was tired. It reads worse in a document with a header. The manager says it is not a big deal, which is why it has been printed. Someone asks whether the midnight part is the problem or the message part. The answer is a long one about visibility. Ratings do not change. What changes is that nobody on that team types anything after nine again, which is presented at the next all-hands as improved boundaries.

What's your verdict?

Share the gossip

Your office is worse, isn't it?

Tell it badly. We'll make it good, and take every name out.

Spill something