Why performance reviews and feedback can feel like physical threats.
There are few things in modern work life that trigger as much dread as a performance review. They aren't just uncomfortable; they can feel like a full-blown danger response to our identity and sense of safety.
In South Africa's high-pressure and economically uncertain work environment, performance reviews can feel less like professional development and more like survival exercises. Understanding why this might be can be the key to making them effective workplace tools instead of anxiety-provoking processes that are often perceived as a waste of productive time.
Most of us don't talk about how threatened we feel about feedback, but we feel it in our bodies. Before or during reviews we may experience racing hearts and tight chests which may lead to shallow breathing. There's a strange mix of defensiveness and anxiety that we can feel like cold and hot sensations throughout our bodies, even before the meeting starts.
And here's the fascinating truth: these physical reactions aren't weaknesses. It's biology.
When we receive negative feedback, the brain doesn't neatly categorise it as helpful information. Instead, it often treats it as a stress response; not unlike hunger, pain or even physical danger. Which raises an important question: If feedback is...
