Annual Review Time!

Last week, I had my annual performance review. It's no secret that I hate any kind of evaluation and I always have. My nerves always get the better of me no matter how confident I feel about my performance.

Lately, I've been thinking about the line between confidence and arrogance. This came up because before every annual evaluation, each employee is asked to fill out a self-evaluation. Self-evaluations are always tricky.

Is it ok to list tasks that you've completed and their impact in all their glory or should you temper it so that you do not appear arrogant? I think this is especially a conundrum for women. Many women are raised not to be "braggers." And in effect, a self-evaluation is exactly that - a place for you to brag about yourself.

It also gives you the chance to remark on where you can improve. But, I think that people tend to focus too much on listing improvements. They don't want to be seen as someone who cannot recognize their own faults. However, they then run the risk of being too hard on themselves and listing weaknesses that might to be considered weaknesses. They can hurt themselves in the long run. Maybe in the end it's better to focus on the positive.

So is self-evaluation time the one time a year that you should throw all thoughts of decorum to the wind and let loose and brag about yourself? I suppose so because if you do not promote yourself to your employer, no one else will.