Employee Evaluation - Private vs Public

What is the name of your state? Alabama

I recently was given an evaluation by a manager who misrepresented my capabilities and my performance. At the time I received the evaluation I showed the document to others in my group just to make sure I wasn't missing something significant. I was later told by my management that it was wrong for me to show my evaluation to others and that it should never happen again. Managements concern is that because of this, the others in our group will lose confidence in the management chain. The company doesn't have any policies regarding the issue. My question to the forum is this -- If it's my performance evaluation, can't I show it to whoever I please?

Legally, you can show it to the New York Times if you want to. However, management has said that they prefer you not to, and they are perfectly within their rights to control your job behavior. Honestly, if I had been given a poor performance review, I certainly wouldn't have been sharing it with my co-workers. It doesn't matter what your co-workers think of your performance unless the company is using some type of peer review or 360-degree performance evaluation process.

Can you explain peer reviews and 360 performance evaluations? I think my place of employment must use some kind of form of these. Are they obligated to let us know that they use these type of evaluations?

They are not obligated to tell you in advance, no. But a 360 review involves your participation; it would be impossible for you to receive a 360 review without being aware that you are being reviewed.

Just adding to cbg's post. 360 reviews allow your peers, suboordinates, supervisors and in some cases outside venodrs to paticipate in evaluating your performance. The 360 can be an extremely useful tool if used properly.

Are they breaking any rules/regualtions if they do not inform that they are using a 360 evalutaion format. I got one a couple months ago, and was totally blind-sided by it.

strongwoman said:

Are they breaking any rules/regualtions if they do not inform that they are using a 360 evalutaion format. I got one a couple months ago, and was totally blind-sided by it.

Click to expand...

How could you not know?? Self perception is part of the 360 evaluation.

There are no laws whatsoever regulating performance evaluations. So no, they are not violating any regulations if they don't tell you they use a 360 format. They are not required by law to tell you a damned thing.

And if they did tell you that, what would it mean to you? C'mon, get real.

Alright I did not come here for a fight, but to try and get some real answers to questions. I got an eval, that was based on peer, (co-worker) input. many of which I have very limited contact with. Truthfully, I was NOT involved. I only knew about it when they sat me down to let me know about it. So I was GENUINELY curious about a 360 evaluation when I saw it posted here. I read this to be a forum to ask questions about work related issues.

it probably wasn't a true 360

sounds like you got a peer review, not a true 360, which we did at my last company. a peer review can be highly subjective and unfair if not executed properly, since it gives peers (often without the benefit of training on how to perform a valid review) a chance to offer subjective and sometimes unqualified assessments of your performance. if you were truly unaware that this was a 360, then it wasn't, since there are guidelines and usually training sessions to educate employees about the process that you would have to be aware of.

On the issue of showing your evaluation to peers, one of my employees did the same thing and I consequently wrote him up for unprofessional conduct. It was likely regarded as not only unprofessional, but also an attempt to undermine the relationship your manager has with your peers. I doubt your manager gives you performance counseling in front of your peers - that's between the two of you - so for you to show them your evaluation out of context is entirely inappropriate.