Should employee feedback reviews be visible to the employee?

Question

At the company that I work for, we are routinely asked to provide feedback on each other for annual and semi-annual reviews. There's something about this process that makes me uncomfortable - possibly the idea that my coworkers are examining what I do and reporting to my manager, rather than telling me directly.I wonder if making this process public would alleviate the stress and create a more open environment. You'd always know where you stand with your colleagues.There are 2 downsides that I can think of:1. You lose out on your manager filtering the feedback, which could be useful when an employee gives feedback in an insensitive way, or when some feedback is just inaccurate or not useful (such as knocking an employee in an area that they're not expected to excel at).2. People might be less comfortable giving feedback if they know their co-worker will see it.In my mind it would require somewhat of a culture shift, towards a more open culture. Curious to hear what people think about this idea.

NaughtyShiba · Accepted Answer

I always thought that&rsquo;s how it&rsquo;s supposed to be. You write it directly, and his/her/its managers can see it too (optionally - yours too).I can see why that&rsquo;s done - usually it&rsquo;s to understand who gave the review (if we talk about anonymised ones) and could potentially cause sparks. But that&rsquo;s whole other issue, people should know how to accept praise and criticism.I would disagree with first point though. Feedback is exactly that - telling how you see someone else. When done only once or twice a year, I see no issue reading some unrelated feedback. (I might be biased - Out of 6 last review cycles, haven&rsquo;t received such feedback yet)