Poor Performance Review … What is the True Motivation?

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Take Action To Protect Against a Poor Performance Review
Reward and Punish words on a toggle switch or lever to illustrate disciplining a child, student or worker for good or bad behavior or performance

Most employees receive written performance reviews on a bi-annual or annual basis. The purpose of these reviews should be to set goals, keep track of employee progress by measuring objective criteria, set out resources, train employees, motivate poor performers to do better and to determine proper raises or bonuses. This is not always the case.

Performance reviews are also used to create a paper trail for employers to terminate employees. Performance reviews are used to set up an employee to fail and create a written record prior to terminating an employee.
Performance reviews that are not used properly make it impossible for the employee to succeed. They provide overreaching goals that cannot be achieved. They are not applied consistently. They do not allow employees an opportunity to respond to deficiencies within them. They do not follow the company’s policies or procedures.
Performance reviews may be used improperly to target employees that employers want to terminate for an illegal reason, i.e. race, gender, disability or perceived disability, pregnancy, sexual orientation, etc. They may also be used improperly to retaliate against an employee that has raised a claim of discrimination, participated in a workplace investigation, filed a claim with the company or a government agency, raised claims of impropriety or wrongdoing, raised health concerns, etc.
Performance reviews are also used to place employees on a performance warning in which the employee then has a set number of days to achieve unattainable goals or otherwise be subject to discipline, including termination.