I don’t want to say that I am preparing for the worst, but I think it’s important to be prepared for anything that might come up in one’s end-of-the-year performance evaluation.  My evaluation is on tuesday, and I am a little nervous about it.  The biggest raise that I can get really isn’t that much, but it’s better than nothing.  If I am graded as “performing on average” than my raise will only be about 3% which is basically keeping up with inflation.  What I am going to do is think of at least three different strengths or things that I have improved on this past year.  Then, when we start talking about negative aspects of my evaluation, I’ll have some back-up ammunition to fire back in my support.

I don’t believe that a performance evaluation is complete until the meeting between you and your managers is complete.  There is always time to sway their decision or make them see something in a different light.  One characteristic that we are graded on is being a team player.   I think there is a lot of room for error in this category, because many times managers do not see employees helping each other out.   This is something that you can bring up during the meeting to point out specific instances where you helped so-and-so finish their project before the deadline.  Does anyone else have a performance evaluation coming up?  Got any tips for making it go smoother?  Leave a comment if you have anything to share.