Normally, annual job reviews come at the end of the year or just after the new year starts. Because of a few different things happening at my main day job, our annual reviews were delayed so that they would be a bit more accurate. The executive team knew that looking at our performance during a time when things are not normal and we were doing different tasks wouldn’t be the best way to review us. So we were told in January that our reviews would be delayed until April.
I didn’t mind the delay since I wasn’t worried about how my review would go. I know I’m not perfect, but I have been feeling more secure about my job as changes have happened and I’ve been given more responsibilities. I handle a lot of things now that were done by someone higher up than me. I also have created a lot of different projects of things that I have noticed needed to be done. And I’m always being trained on new procedures so I can take that task off of someone else’s agenda. I know that being given extra responsibilities doesn’t necessarily mean that you don’t have to worry about your job being safe, but it is a reassurance that things are going well and that the people higher up than you have trust in you.
Before my annual review, there was a self-assessment that I had to fill out. It was almost the same as past assessments I had to do for this job. Most of the questions were about how I felt like my work was going and if I felt like my time was being used efficiently. There were also questions about how communication was going with those higher up, but I tried to focus more on questions that I had more control over such as how I was doing. I tried to be as honest as possible about where I had setbacks or difficulties. I didn’t say that I was doing everything right, but I also tried to problem-solve a bit when mentioning a problem such as what steps I was waiting on from others to be able to do my work. I had to turn in my form a few days before my review, but I finished earlier since I used some free time I had to get it done.
And when I had my official review, it went pretty much how I expected it to go. My main concern was if my boss felt my self-assessment was accurate or if they felt like I was too hard or easy on myself. Fortunately, she said that she agreed with everything that I wrote and that I had a good grasp on how I was doing with my job and as a part of the company. Even though I felt pretty certain this would be how my review went, it was a relief to hear her say that. I’ve been doing better about not being worried about being fired whenever I have a meeting coming up, but I still have that fear in the back of my head from time to time. I’ve been lucky that it’s been a very long time since I lost a job randomly, but I will probably always worry a little bit that it will happen again. But I just try to tell myself that I wouldn’t be doing the things I’m doing within the company if I was going to be fired soon.
Because I’ve had some job responsibility changes recently, there weren’t a lot of other things to go over in my annual review. My job title isn’t changing since I’m already at a senior staff level and right now we aren’t getting raises because that will hopefully be coming at the end of this year. But last year I had more than the average number of raises, so that makes sense to me. And I know that I’m making more than I did before the pandemic with my other jobs, so I’m happy. Of course, I think everyone would like to make more, but I’m lucky that I’m comfortable right now.
I know that things can change quickly, but after my review, I feel even better about being in a good spot with my job. The higher ups recognize the work I’ve been doing and they have been happy with the results. And hopefully, when I have my next review, things will be just as positive as they were this time.
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