Have you ever given (very) negative for a manager's 360 appraisal feddback?

[inncogneetow]

Have you ever given (very) negative for a manager's 360 appraisal feedback?

If so, did it all end happily ever after? I'm about to do it, but feel a bit nervous about it...

I have a strict pain/gain ratio with this one. Do you really think it'll get you anything (you - not your boss?). Will it lead to change? If so, what could the potential fallout be? Judge whether it's worth it.

I say this as:

• someone who believes (or maybe, used to believe) that 360 feedback was a really great thing... And who spent a lot of time and effort on it.
• someone with a dreadful relationship with her boss for 7 years

There was a time when I felt it was my responsibility to give strong constructive feedback but after too much fallout from well intentioned, badly taken feedback; my pain/gain ratio now rules!!

thanks. That's interesting.

I wouldn't unless i was prepared to leave the post.

I always knew exactly who had written which comments even when anonymous, so I would also say be careful. Make negative observations by all means but add potential solutions/improvements although they may well fall on deaf ears or lead to strife....

having said that, I would have trouble lying.

We all did once. We had these large forms to complete, which were supposed to be anonymous. I spotted a little code in the corner of each page - everyone received their form in an addressed envelope and every code was different. Paranoia struck and everyone snipped the coded corners off the pages and went to town on a boss who was very difficult to work for - quite rude, insulting, sexist, and because of whom a large part of our team had left (citing her to HR as the reason - nothing was ever done).

When the results were in she took us all out for a team lunch, where she brazenly repeated all the negative comments back to us... about us! So where someone had said that team morale was low due to leadership issues, she said 'I can tell it was X who wrote this (anonymous my backside!) and I can see that it means that she needs to handle her staff better'.

How we laughed...

You need to be very careful about how you write it.

If there are loads of negatives about this person, I'd focus on the top one or two most glaring ones and try to write it in a semi-positive way i.e if your boss is a bully who never listens to anyone you could write " I feel that X would get more from his team if he worked on actively listening to them."

Two reasons to do it this way. One - he/she may figure out who wrote it so best to couch it in a way that does not cause outright offence. Second - if it's a sea of negatives the person isn't going to take any notice of it - at least phrasing it as areas for improvement gives them some suggestions about how they could change any poor behavior.

Yes, but as others have said, be constructive. It's an opportunity to be honest but not to offload years of anger and frustration.