Bulldozer00's Blog

Having recently finished the above two heretical books on the undiscussable joke that is “the Annual Performance Review“, I coincidentally stumbled upon this recent FastCompany.com article: “Why Year-End Reviews Are A Big Fat Waste Of Time”.

Alas, even though author Denis Wilson plants some decent advice for managers in the blarticle, it still reeks of a slight “tweak” to the notoriously bad, but eerily unopposed, APR practice.

After posting the link to the blarticle on Twitter, I had this interesting exchange with Adam Yuret:

Upon reflection on why such a horrendously demeaning practice like the APR still exists in the 21st century, BD00 has come to the conclusion that the guild of management collectively thinks:

• The APR actually “works” or,
• They know it doesn’t work but they have no motivation to attempt such a big and scary change to the org, or
• They know it doesn’t work but they have no motivation to explore alternatives for achieving what the APR is actually supposed to do.