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Hi all,

I'm a first year in NYC. All of my projects except one have been going decently (overall positive feedback or at worst neutral). But I've been getting extremely negative feedback on one major project, which unfortunately also takes up a large portion of my time. I'm doing my best to implement the advice, but it's not changing things the supervisor's extremely critical view of me. I don't care to be "above average" -- just good enough and not be the first in line on the chopping block, if the economy downturns.

(1) If you had any advice on mitigating this impending negative performance review, it'd be much appreciated.

(2) If you also had any advice on being able to avoid work with that supervisor after the major project, it'd be very much appreciated.

Anonymous User wrote:Hi all,

I'm a first year in NYC. All of my projects except one have been going decently (overall positive feedback or at worst neutral). But I've been getting extremely negative feedback on one major project, which unfortunately also takes up a large portion of my time. I'm doing my best to implement the advice, but it's not changing things the supervisor's extremely critical view of me. I don't care to be "above average" -- just good enough and not be the first in line on the chopping block, if the economy downturns.

(1) If you had any advice on mitigating this impending negative performance review, it'd be much appreciated.

(2) If you also had any advice on being able to avoid work with that supervisor after the major project, it'd be very much appreciated.

Sorry, that sucks. Make sure you are giving perfect work. Otherwise it sounds like they are trying to make it clear you are already on the chopping block. I would polish the resume and start enquiring about moving elsewhere

Is this supervisor someone with a reputation for being generally difficult to work with, overly critical of associates, or particular about how they would like things done?

This sounds like a situation where because you made some mistakes early on for someone, they are being overly critical of your work, which is causing them to discover the mistakes that as a first year associate you are bound to make because you are a first year. This leads to a negative feedback loop that is pretty much impossible to get out of. Eventually the matter will end and this person will no longer be able to ride you down with criticism. If they have a reputation for this sort of thing and you are doing good work for other people, then nobody else at the firm will take the negative review too seriously and you won’t be assigned to work for them again. (At least not until a few years have passed.)