In the context of performance appraisal I have an option to sign the document electronically to acknowledge that performance has been discussed. I can Agree, Disagree and also have an option to enter a comment.
My plan is to click Agree, since the appraisal is considered to be an accurate reflection of performance from management standpoint due to being vetted by more than two upper managers, even when listing some of the unfavorable characteristics of my performance. I am not sure that Disagree will help me, I do not have a good defense to disagree.
My question is in regards whether to leave comments on the appraisal, and if yes, what exactly do I comment.
The review in question in particular has the following in management comments:
- Completes assignments thoroughly, but often behind schedule.
- Improvement Opportunity: make more accurate schedules to completion. Establishing and meeting deadlines.
^ This does not go into detail, but aside from a general concept of "being behind schedule", I know that there was a particular project X that took most of the year and was very late due to many various things, and not all entirely due to my contribution, but my partial contribution to it being late was that I made a decision to use new technology to implement the project, rather than reuse old technology. This resulted in extra delays to the project that could have been avoided had I used old technology instead. I did not properly communicate this technology change to other team members, and their expectations were that project should be completed sooner on my part, not later like it turned out to be. This project being so big (& prominent) likely resulted in general manager frustration with deadlines, and likely is a big contribution towards the above comments on my performance review. I could be also wrong however, in a sense that review may be targeting "everything" and not this one specific project, or maybe that is a way to direct my attention in general towards deadlines, and schedules. I'm not sure.
My question here is:
Since that project X was NOT mentioned by name in the review despite likely being a major reason for this review comment, do I need to explain myself for the purpose of the review like I am explaining myself here now? Or do I instead just sign with Agree, leave no comment, and "move on with my life"?
If I do need to elaborate, what do I say, and if I do say anything at all will I only be hurting myself in the process by bringing attention to project X or to me knowing where I was behind schedule. In legal-speak, if I comment the way I envision commenting now, it will fall into the category of "Guilty with Explanation", where my Explanation may be used as cause to "incriminate me". This is why I am questioning if I should comment at all.
P.S. My performance Review also states that I need to be available during core hours and that I often fail to be at my desk during the entirely of core hours as it hinders teamwork. I am not sure at all how to comment on that either, or if I should comment at all. Thus I have basically the same question on the "core hours" as I do on the "scheduling and deadlines". Please let me know if that warrants me to ask a separate question for that.