The Evil of Performance Reviews

This is the second part of a series of articles looking at how America's Corporate Culture is destroying the soul of America's people. This is not to insinuate there is a conspiracy. It just means that the people responsible for the current and unhealthy trends of corporate life either are oblivious to the harm they do or worse, honestly believe they are doing the right thing.

In the last part, I said that Stephen R. Covey had brought Mormon spirituality into the corporate environment. I also said that I needed to read the books before actually making that criticism, but there is one aspect of modern corporate culture that is very Mormon in essence whether it was influenced by Mormon spirituality or not and I refer to the performance review. One Sunday many years ago, I attended a Sunday school class where one of the Stake counselors had an opportunity to speak. He quoted from the Book of Mormon about how god gave you weaknesses and as soon as you overcame one weakness God gave you another in your effort to achieve eternal progression.

The corporate performance review is very much a reflection of this, whether or not corporate executives have read the Book of Ether. Even the best Employee must have the section on his review filled out that says "areas that need improvement." It may be felt by the executives that it keeps employees humble, but despite all the buzz about doors being opened for concerns and complaints have you ever noticed that all criticism in a corporation flows downward? Almost never are employees privately and honestly asked to review the performance of the management. Every once in a while the managers may schedule a session for the employees to air their complaints, but this is more tossing the bone in order to keep them happy.

Performance reviews are a good thing right, as they let employees know there weaknesses, aren't they? Well, my problem is not so much with the existence of performance reviews as it is to how they are used and the insane insistence that managers need to find something to complain about even when it comes to their best employees.

Criticism is fine if it is constructed and deserved, however, the use on performance reviews may leave some people guessing what they did wrong or worse, lead to depression which in turn can lead to other problems. Much like the Mormon church I have compared the corporate environment to in this article, performance reviews cause an employee to think he or she can never be good enough as they are. Self-esteem is important and praise should be given when it is deserved. However, pointing out the ways an employee fails to be perfect leads to a dangerous spiral as the employee and th reviewer will never be perfect.

It is a cycle that leads to despair, which the Catholics have labeled as one of the Seven Deadly Sins. Despair leads to depression and depression if left untreated can lead to suicide. This is one factor of the high use of antidepressants and teen-suicide use in Utah. (Without further studies on the issue to say that Mormonism is the only factor in these rates would be responsible. The Mormon church is however the one factor that is unique to Utah.)

Performance reviews as they are done now are done more to keep employees in their place and keep them feeling not worthy of the salary they are given rather than actual tools for improvement. They can also be used as a tool to keep wages low or not give wages rather than admit that a company simply doesn't want to give a raise or does not have the money.