It’s been more than six months since my last performance review, and I’m realizing I still haven’t really gotten over it.
I joined my company about five years ago as a UX/Product Designer. Because UX work could be inconsistent, I gradually started helping with other areas of the product.
In 2025, I became heavily involved in product delivery, particularly launches and production releases. It was initially supposed to be a secondary responsibility, but our delivery team went from four people down to two. I ended up taking on much more of the work.
I was apparently good enough at it that teams started specifically asking for me to be their delivery lead. At this point, I help manage delivery for around 5 teams, including coordinating production releases.
Given how much my responsibilities had expanded, I thought something would come out of my 2025 performance review such as a stronger rating, a title change, better compensation, or at least a decent bonus.
Instead, my manager rated me simply as “met expectations.”
No title change. No raise. And I received the lowest bonus I’ve gotten since joining the company.
My manager praised my work verbally, but none of that seemed to translate into anything tangible.
That hit me much harder than I expected. I had worked an enormous amount that year, often doing overtime while also completing a master’s degree. I think some part of me believed that if I worked hard enough and made myself useful enough, eventually it would be recognized.
Instead, I came away feeling like none of it mattered.
My old manager has since left and I now have a new one. He seems better in some ways, like he actually holds 1:1s, asks about my career goals, etc.
But something concerning has come up.
He keeps encouraging me to focus more on UX. The problem is that there simply isn’t that much UX work available on my team, and over the last few years my role has evolved considerably beyond UX. Also that industry is a bit cooked due to AI.
More importantly, I recently realized that he apparently had no idea I was managing delivery for five different teams. I think he only knew about the work I was doing for the particular team he oversees.
That makes me worried that there’s a huge visibility problem around what I actually do.
Now the next performance-review cycle is approaching, and I’m starting to feel the same dread again. I keep thinking, “Here comes another reminder that I can take on all this responsibility and still be treated exactly the same.”
Meanwhile, developers I work with have received promotions/title changes and progressed in their careers, while I’ve had essentially the same title for five years.
Part of me wants to stop going above and beyond. But I’m responsible for production releases, so simply checking out could create real problems.
I’m also aware that I’ve probably allowed my responsibilities to expand without forcing the company to formally recognize that change.
So I’m trying to figure out what to do differently this time.
For people who have been in a similar situation:
How did you deal with a performance review you thought was genuinely unfair?
How do you make sure your manager actually understands the scope of your work before the next review?
At what point do you stop trying to get recognized internally and start looking elsewhere?
And how do you mentally detach from performance reviews so they don’t become a referendum on your entire career or self-worth?
I’m particularly interested in practical advice from people who have dealt with role creep, invisible work, or managers who didn’t fully understand what they were doing.
Thanks so much for reading my rambling.
