Employee walks out of performance review after being told they don't respond well to feedback, internet is divided: 'I was stunned…'

Brad Dickson • Managing Editor

Sep 5, 2024 10:00 AM EDT

Giving honest feedback is tough, but the only thing harder is receiving it. Especially when the content or implications of that feedback catch us off guard, we might think we're doing everything right and are contributing far above our pay grade and described role, and yet, the visibility of our contributions may not be what we think it is… and we might have fallen afoul elsewhere within our supervisor's expectations.

See, it all comes down to perception, which never quite matches up with the reality of a situation—that being the case for both our own perception of our work and our boss's perception of our work. As with anything like this in life, the reality is that the truth often lies somewhere in between.

This manager was troubled when one of their team members, who they found wasn't that receptive to feedback, walked out of a performance review after being told that this was the case and that they weren't performing to as high of a standard as they thought. They shared their experience with this online community for managers, hoping to see whether or not there was something else they could have done and to get more help with the situation. Members of the community were torn; some felt that the worker could have been blindsided by the feedback and felt that the manager should have been giving more feedback leading up to the review if this was the case.

Below are selections from the original post along with some of the key responses from the community where it was originally posted.

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