What do you say during your performance review when you don't feel like growing anymore?

[thatswanlady]

There is absolutely nothing wrong with wanting to avoid managerial positions. Nothing at all - not everyone should be a manager, and good for you for knowing that you're not meant to go down that path.

That being said, this sentence in your post tells me that your company expects more from you than they're getting:

He did say that since I have a high salary the company would expect more out of me.

It's possible that you've somehow acquired a manager's salary without being a manager - if so, good on you for negotiating your way into that position over the years. But last year, your manager basically flat-out told you that you're overpaid for the position you're in - they gave you a year to figure out how you want to expand your skill-set and career-path. They likely aren't going to give you another year to do so.

What is it that you like so much about your current position that doesn't make you want to leave? Surely you can deepen your skills and become in expert in something related to your current position. If you don't want to manage people, have you considered mentoring new hires or conducting ongoing training sessions with colleagues? Those things can be incredibly valuable and a lot of people don't want to fill those roles. Either way, your review last year makes it pretty clear that you're going to be expected to pick something this year.

[slcity]

I didn't realize this thread had grown to 4 pages. I stopped getting email notifications after the first few replies.

I should clarify what I said. I certainly am willing to learn new things if I'm assigned tasks that require learning those things. Obviously I would have to in order to complete those tasks. It's when my manager asks if I want to sign up for any arbitrary training that's not necessary for our project that I don't have much desire for.

The review went well. My manager said I'm doing a great job and it's fine for me to want to continue along my current path. He even said it was good that I was willing to learn another area of the software that had been maintained by someone else, and suggested that I could learn another piece of software that I haven't worked on before. I'm fine with that. Training was discussed, although he didn't push for anything. One thing he said was that while I can become an expert at what I'm doing, the company would still expect more, in terms of taking more initiative and not just doing what I'm told. I can certainly try to improve in that regard.

As for my salary, I'm neither underpaid nor overpaid. My company did a survey last year of the salaries that similar companies in our area pay to their employees, and they determined I was one of the underpaid employees. They gave me a big raise last year to bring me up to the market level, and then a month later gave me another raise as part of my annual review.

[BobNJ1960]

Thatswanlady"That being said, this sentence in your post tells me that your company expects more from you than they're getting: "
Quote:
He did say that since I have a high salary the company would expect more out of me. "





I think this poster is spot on. You said your 1st raise last year brought you to market-which indicates the raise a month later pushed you past that. You can bet that means your corp expects more than median market performance. "Expects more" is not equal to corp being satisfied. He told you that via this vital statement, in a polite way.

[Rambler123]

If you have no desire to learn new things relating to your field, that's bad.

If you have no desire to "move up the company ladder like everyone should," that's understandable.

There's nothing wrong with wanting to remain a technical person, IMHO, but to do so, you'll have to be willing to learn new things in your field. I've seen companies and departments where there's always a pressure for "everyone to go into management / become a big-wig / manage some huge, high-stress position" - and such jobs aren't for everyone. There's no shortage of instances where good engineers (or similar people) have been turned into bad managers because of this practice and push to "move up or out."

That being said, you still have to want to grow in your field, even if you're happy in that field.

[eastcoastguyz]

Originally Posted by slcity

I have my annual performance review coming later this week. My company already told me I'm getting a 4% raise and they think I'm doing a good job (I've been with this company several years now and have gotten a nice raise and review every year).

This will be the second review I've had with my current manager, and last year the review meeting went pretty quickly (maybe 5-10 minutes) as he said he was very pleased with my performance and I said I was happy and had no questions or issues to discuss. He did try to ask if there were any growth opportunities or other areas I'd like to pursue and I didn't commit to anything. He did say that since I have a high salary the company would expect more out of me.

This year he's scheduled a one hour meeting. I'm guessing he'll be more aggressive in asking me how I want to grow and if there's any other areas I want to expand into, and how they can help me to do that. He'll probably ask if I want to take some training courses or even if I want to go for a Master's. But I'm an engineer in my 40s and at this point in my career I no longer have any motivation to grow or learn new things. I just want to keep doing what I'm currently doing, and that's it.

I don't think it will come across well for me to actually say that I have no desire for growth or learning new things, though. How should I answer these questions?

I know a guy who went back to school and graduated with his MBA from a top school at age 50. This is highly unusual for someone in engineering to not want to grow. You might want to change, but the environment will. Be prepared to be encouraged to leave by not getting anymore raises or as part of a layoff. Or have your responsibility diminished as you are assigned to train your replacement. Maybe you should look to get into another field, but you want to stand still and that's not a good position to be in for technology.

[BobNJ1960]

Originally Posted by slcity

. He did say that since I have a high salary the company would expect more out of me.

And in that year what have you done to meet that expectation? That will be the unspoken, true question on his mind.


Better be ready.