Several years ago, I was working from home and my “cube”-mate is my next-door neighbor. Every morning, I sit at my desk – a three-monitor setup with a Logitech keyboard and mouse set to contrast my MacBook – and begin to work at 8am. All is well. Around 10am, that’s when it starts. The music. The loud music. The loud EDM music. What is going on right now? By 10:05am, my apartment becomes an Earthquake. I’m ready to kill my next-door neighbor.
Don’t worry, I’ve never actually killed my neighbors, or anyone else. But, I think we can all relate to letting something go on for way too long and bottling up anger, anxiety, or other forms of distress. This is exactly what traditional, annual performance reviews do and why companies should adopt ongoing performance management conversations.
After the first week of music, had I knocked on my neighbors’ door and said, “Hey, I’m Micole and I live next door. My office is right on the other side of that very-thin wall and it’s very difficult for me to work with the blasting music. Can you please turn it down or move the speakers to the other side of your apartment?” it’s a possibility that I would not have been tortured every day for the past year and a half. Hell, this bottled-up anger sends me into a rage over people I hate but don’t even know!
The worst part about this, is they don’t even know what they are doing and how it impacts me. I hate them for something they don’t even know about. How can they change if they don’t know what they are doing and the impact it has on others? They can’t. The best part is because they don’t know what they are doing, maybe, just maybe, if I share my concerns with them, they will change their behavior.
HR – don’t let managers wait until annual performance reviews to provide feedback. Don’t let little things bottle up into Earthquakes because no one spoke about the problem for an entire year. Use consistent and ongoing messages to update employees on how they can better work and impact others around them. Maybe, if we ask, we shall receive.