Most managers treat performance reviews like an obligation.
Most employees treat them like a formality.
No one leaves the meeting thinking, “That was helpful.”
Instead, you get vague feedback, recycled goals, and a weird sense that your real work wasn’t even part of the conversation.
Why do reviews feel so broken — and what can we actually do about it?
Reason #1: Performance Reviews Are Too Infrequent to Be Useful
Quarterly. Biannual. Annual.
By the time the review happens, the context is gone. Wins are forgotten. Struggles have festered.
What you get is a summary, not a story.
And summaries rarely lead to growth.
Employees need feedback while they’re still in the middle of the challenge — when there’s something to adjust, not just reflect on.
Reason #2: They Rely on Memory — and Memory Fails Us
We assume that managers will recall key contributions, tensions, or progress over months of work.
But humans are biased toward recency. What happened last week matters more than what you quietly solved two months ago.
Worse, managers often remember what was loudest — not what was most impactful.
That means invisible work goes unnoticed. And feedback becomes skewed.
Reason #3: They Feel One-Sided and Performative
For many employees, reviews aren’t conversations. They’re verdicts.
Delivered from on high. With little opportunity to question, reflect, or shape the outcome.
When reviews become checkboxes, they stop being meaningful.
People disengage. Or worse — they game the system.
And none of that leads to better performance.
The Real Fix Isn’t Just More Reviews — It’s Better Reflection
Here’s the shift: performance isn’t something to review quarterly.
It’s something to observe continuously, and understand in context.
What if managers had richer signals — not just dashboards, but actual patterns in effort, collaboration, and contribution?
At Libra, we’re building the tools to surface this — without bias, burnout, or surveillance.
Because performance doesn’t happen once a quarter. And neither should visibility.
Perhaps you’re not yet sold to the idea? Let’s see if this post can convince you:
https://makegreatworkvisible.com/introducing-libra/