What do you do when you have a job performance review? Posted by Max Bergmann

You spin. You put things in the best possible light. You fail to mention those four hours you spent devoted to fantasy baseball research, those two hours you slipped out to watch Arsenal play Liverpool in the Champions League (I can't believe they scheduled these damn hearings today!), and that 1 hour period every day after lunch when you sit at your desk in a massive food coma. You don't mention these things, because they call into question your job performance. You highlight the good stuff that you have done, or you highlight the reasons why you haven't produced more good stuff - ie you lost internet connection when you were about to write that article or those pesky Iranians keep interfering.

So what we are watching today is a job performance review. This is what I have accomplished and here are the reasons (excuses) why more has not been accomplished, and this is why I deserve to keep my job. Job performance reviews are important and worthwhile but they must be put in context.

Update: Ilan wrote this same post last May...we clearly spend too much time together.