# An AI Performance Review with Significant Impact

Today I completed our EU-mandated AI Literacy training. The discussion of AI risks made me want to tell my story.

I've been through a difficult year and a half at work. The excellent director that recruited me left the company and was replaced by a senior manager who failed. Every direct report they inherited left the team or the company, except me. To help the new manager write my performance review I summarized my impact for the year. They also had peer feedback from several colleagues.

My final review was bottom 3% of the company bad, costing me my annual bonus and any compensation increase. But what really shook me was finding the words "The Author" in my review. Who was "the author" of my review? The manager, right? But the sentence referred to _me_. No explanation fit the evidence but that they gave my impact summary and peer feedback to Gemini, with the performance review prompts.

HR told me that using AI to _help_ write my review is fine. While it's unfortunate that they failed to replace "the author" with my name, it doesn't violate policy. Embracing AI will include all kinds of tasks, including performance reviews. And I've since used Gemini to help write my own quarterly performance check-in.

So could I prove that Gemini wrote my review _without_ help from the manager? No. I gave the same documents to Gemini with the same prompts, but it gave me a _far_ more balanced review. The manager had edited the review to undermine me.

Having a toxic manager and a suffering team impacted my performance. It's hard to do your best work when someone might end your otherwise exceptional career. If I had gotten a moderately bad rating and balanced review, I could have called that fair. But _please_, if you use AI to review your employees, consider every word and correct _everything_ the AI got wrong. Your review needs to be _yours_.

When I saw the words "the author", and it dawned on me what it implied, I was deeply affected. The feeling of betrayal, injustice, and hurt were visceral. Don't do this to your employees. Don't do this to anyone. There are many documents where it's fine to have an AI co-author. Even a performance review first draft is justified. Like a screen reader for the visually impaired, AI is an assistive technology. But you owe your fellow human a performance review that's _your_ work.

That manager left the company and I spent the summer focused on my mental and physical health. I have a good manager now and I'm in a much better place. I should have gone on leave sooner, and should have considered my options when I soldiered through other difficult episodes. I will care for myself better going forward. My future here is uncertain, but I'm okay with that and I'm enjoying the challenge again. I'm grateful for the opportunity and ready to give it a go.

And I'll use Gemini to accelerate my work, but mindfully.