From the start, my boss at Company B was very dismissive, with very little interaction with me. Not because I didn't approached him or because distance (we sited one desk appart).
Then, despite a very positive interview with him, he quickly decided I wasn't a 'fit" and at the two-month mark, he let me go, citing my 'lack of Data Science expertise' as the reason. This happened even though the two major stakeholders, for whom I was doing 90% of the work, were super happy (as happy as you can be in two and a half months of work) with my performance.
The situation was frustrating. It was just two and a half months into the job (the first being holiday-heavy, with half the team out), and I was making progress. My role wasn’t to be a Data Scientist. I understand data, but my expertise lies elsewhere.
This was not a new job, but I got re-orged. There were a bunch of personnel changes and my manager's manager was also new in the role, but he was an old hand in the product we were building. The grand-manager controlled everything, and my manager did not have much say (at least in the beginning). 100% of our interaction was our 1:1s where he will either defer to his manager, or say "you are senior enough to manage this decision". Zero decision making.
Then one fine day he blew up at me saying "I did not do any work". He "watched my emails and slack conversations and did not get a feeling I was working". Long story here which I will omit. When we finished the meeting, which was in a conference room, I did not exit the conference room until I had reached out to a couple of teams who were hiring. I left shortly thereafter.
I know of one "Tech Lead" whose only hability was to suck it up.
He is now CTO or something like that. I really don't get it.
Another time, at another job, while we had hiring and expense freezes, my manager walked up to my cube with a 12% raise -- out of the blue. Because my previous management had screwed me (causing me to accept his internal hire offer) and I was "doing the job" he'd hired me for.
Performance reviews, of themselves, are bullsh-t and serve primarily to generate a record that your management and HR can use to accomplish and "legitimize" whatever they want.
Once you know this, and if you're still in a position subject to them, it feels like a hostage situation. Any information you provide to them is subject to use against you or someone you care about (and/or just in violation of your own ethics -- "s/he's not my friend, but this just isn't right" -- if you have them).
Mr. 12% and I learned, through experience, to trust each other. No management process is going to replace that.
P.S. And, in my experience, if you don't "provide them enough ammunition", they will actively "guide" you in rewriting it until you do, refusing to accept otherwise. They are not really soliciting your feedback. They are soliciting your tacit endorsement of what they are hoping to accomplish -- regardless of how and whether that aligns with their and the business's public statements and objectives -- internal and external).
Sorry, my language went a bit into the weeds, there. Stated shortly, I've had managers insist I write what they want, contrary to my own actual opinions and feedback. The process was entirely rigged. Glad I don't work for them, anymore.
This is pretty much the only thing that matters (unless you are really at one of the far extremes of the ability bell curve).
>>About a year ago, I finally came to the conclusion that I would not put anything on a performance review writeup for a coworker that could ever be used against them.
When I was a contractor, I was occasionally asked for feedback from permanent employee managers. As if I would say anything bad, even if I hated them.