Context Collapse in Performance Reviews: Why Your Calibration Meetings Are Failing
This article explores the phenomenon of 'context collapse' in performance reviews, where different managers interpret the same work differently, leading to unfair assessments and potential loss of talent. It analyzes various contributing factors, including domain-specific blind spots, technology bias, visibility bias, manager advocacy, anchoring bias, inconsistent rating scales, time constraints, and differing emphasis on growth vs. impact. Solutions are proposed, such as domain-specific calibrations, cross-functional pre-reviews, engineer co-authorship of performance narratives, standardized achievement formats, dedicated recognition tracks, continuous calibration, and decoupling feedback from evaluation. Ultimately, the article calls for rethinking the performance review system entirely, aiming for a fairer, more holistic process that accurately reflects engineers' contributions and prevents the loss of valuable talent.
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