After spending three years in the truly corporate world of the #1 Wireless company in the USA at the time, I cannot agree more with the review process commentary here. It was literally a waking nightmare of bureaucracy, apathy, and I-Don't-Have-Time-For-This-itis. HR announced the PEP (their name for an annual review) opener, and three days later every manager on the entire call center floor (easily 100 people) had to review their 20 representatives over the past year and provide feedback.

In my time as a front line representative, the review was a senseless waste. I had changed managers 7 times in the first year, so who actually knew how I was doing, with the exception of direct statistical data. My personality wasn't calculated or factored, my team dynamics, the time I spent helping everyone else, just the raw numbers.

That being said, I still got a great 'score' on the review, and was eligible for promotion after that (touching on that in a moment.)

As a manager, the review process was even worse. Peoplesoft made it nearly impossible to write a valid review, relying in full on the statistical side (thus explaining why my review the year before was wretched) and I ended up having to write a separate form entirely just to feel like I was giving good feedback to my people.

The worst part, however, about corporate reviews isn't necessarily the process itself, but the arbitrary assignment of promotion opportunities, raises, and ability to do -anything- else in the company. Annual reviews are a senseless platform that lock employees into a drone-like state for the next year in that world if they don't achieve a necessary score. I would have promoted half a dozen reps to management without the required 'acceptable' score because I knew their talents lay elsewhere.

I'm glad to be out of that world, freelancing and doing what I want most of the time... I feel sorry for everyone still locked in to it.