Performance reviews are bad for your health
~ June 30th, 2010I know they’re stressful and unpleasant but I didn’t know performance reviews are bad for your health!
On the New York Times blog, Tara Parker-Pope tells us about the impact of performance reviews on our health. At first, I was surprised to find an article entitled “Time to Review the Workplace Review?” in the Health section, and not in Business. But now I understand why it’s there.
Parker-Pope presents data from a number of studies suggesting that job satisfaction is way down and unhappy workers are at higher risk for heart problems and depression.
According to some researchers, performance reviews play a big role in making people more stressed and less happy. Parker-Pope interviewed a CEO who stopped doing reviews at his company because of the “emotional havoc” they create. This CEO describes the blurry line between professional and personal at review time: “If [people] get a review saying, ‘You’re not effective at work,’ they would hear, ‘You’re not effective as a person.’ ”. Here are some of the other ways they can impact your health:
- Increased risk of heart attacks. A 15-year study of 12,000 nurses found that nurses struggling with excessive work pressures had twice the risk of a heart attack.
- Increased risk of heart disease. An 11-year study of 6,000 workers found that those who regularly worked more than 10 hours a day had a 60 percent higher risk for heart disease than those who put in 7 hours.
- Increased stress. According to the Conference Board, only 45 percent of workers are satisfied with their jobs, down from 61 percent in 1987.
Yikes! But I’m not surprised. Through the intellectual, emotional and even physical energy we exert in pursuit of success, we’re putting a lot on the table – and making ourselves vulnerable. To be criticized for something we’ve put so much time and energy into is demoralizing, to say the least.
Probing and insightful questions from a good manager are tough to bear, but they’re helpful. When managers cross the line and make it too critical, they risk making their feedback personal. Bundle it all into one review, once a year, and you can see how things can quickly get out of hand.
Parker-Pope cites UCLA professor Samuel A. Culbert’s book Get Rid of the Performance Review, in which Culbert suggests that: “There is a very bad set of values that are embedded in the air because of performance reviews.” Culbert argues that: “Annual reviews not only create a high level of stress for workers…but end up making everybody — bosses and subordinates — less effective at their jobs.”
Culbert told Parker-Pope that he’s heard from: “countless workers who say their work life was ruined by an unfair review.”
One solution is to replace the annual review with more frequent conversations. Parker-Pope spoke with Dr. Gary Namie, Director of the Workplace Bullying Institute, who suggests that performance reviews “should be replaced by daily ongoing contact with managers who know the work and who can become coaches.”
I love it! One of the reasons I haven’t had so many performance reviews is that I’ve been fortunate enough to work in environments where frequent conversations between managers and employees happened naturally. Until reading Parker-Pope’s article, it never occurred to me quite how fortunate I’ve been.
Stress ball photo by Amy McTigue. Licensed under CC.
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