Like A Fine Wine Or An Angry Cheese

I had my year-end review at work today. We're doing 360 reviews now, which essentially means that in addition to my direct supervisor, now my colleagues and underlings can also criticize me and my work. FABULOUS!

I got the good feedback first: I am "smart as a whip" - a great compliment, if somewhat of a colloquial throwback. I have a passion for causes and am good at advocacy. Also I am creative, an outside the box thinker with awesome ideas, and I have great tits. (Okay, the last one is true, but unfortunately no one submitted that particular comment.)

The negative feedback was for the most part predictable, though it still stung a bit. I learned I am "acerbic" and "sharp". (I asked if perhaps the commenter might have meant sharp as in smart, but my boss said definitely not, given the context. I thought it was worth a shot to check at least.) I can be a bit last minute...yeah, that's true. I am also "hard to approach", a description with which I disagreed and, refreshingly, with which my boss also took issue.

The criticism I didn't understand was one that claimed I "look down on [the anonymous commenter]". That kind of surprised me, as I consider myself fairly egalitarian, but I realized it could perhaps mean that whoever wrote it senses that it's not the position s/he holds that I disrespect, but her/him as a lazy, inefficient individual. (I admit that I can sometimes let my true feelings for someone else's work ethic, or lack thereof, show quite plainly in my expression. I think I need to develop a poker face.) Anyhow, I'ma have to work on that, I guess.

My boss did say that while the commenters intended acerbic and sharp to be negative (though constructive!) criticism, she didn't consider those true negatives about me. She actually told me she appreciates my sense of humor (I believe her exact phrase was "dry wit") and that what others construe as sharpness, she views more as directness. She also said that she considers me a straight-shooter and thinks the Association doesn't hire enough people like me, which, thinking back, is pretty high praise. Hm.

In regards to the claim that I am hard to approach, I mentioned that since my office is on the far side of the floor and I have a back door at my disposal, I don't come through the front of the office very often and thus people might consider me somewhat hard to approach. (Or hard to find.) Her response to this was to ask me if I would be interested at some point in taking over a currently vacant office, adjacent to hers, which is about three times larger than mine. Uh, I said yes.

So despite some of the criticisms of me - which I admit were at least to some degree warranted - this was actually a really good review. My good karma continues!