High-performing women more likely to receive unhelpful feedback

New analysis of more than 23,000 performance reviews across 250 U.S. workplaces shows that women at the top of their game are still put down on paper as abrasive and opinionated—and it doesn’t matter if their manager is male or female.

Textio, the AI-powered writing platform for HR teams that ran the study, found that women have to sit through reviews that are harsher and less constructive than their male peers—and more often than not, their feedback is based on poor stereotypes of their personality, not their work.

For example, nearly a third of women were described as opinionated in their performance review—just 4% of men were told the same.

“Language like abrasive, difficult, friendly, and helpful showed up in the majority of women’s reviews, but in very few of the men’s,” the report notes.

Over half of top performing men, on the other hand, are hailed for their confidence (54%) and ambitiousness (63%) in their performance reviews. Less than 18% of women received the same recognition.

Likewise, despite being more likely to be described as “nice” in their performance review, the majority of high-performing women recalled also being told they’re unlikable—compared to just 16% of men.

“If high-performing men are often told they are brilliant, and high-performing women are often told they are successful despite being unlikable, what impact does this have on their performance over time?” the report warns.

Despite the nonsensical feedback being conflicting, the report concludes that exhausted women are internalizing these negative stereotypes about themselves, and, as a result, watching their performance tank and their careers stagnate.

Even too much praise can be bad

It’s not just whittling women down to a stereotype that’s problematic. Even praise can be a problem, across the board for both genders.

The issue? It’s often exaggerated, perhaps for the purpose of backing up stellar scores in top-performers’ reviews. 

The report highlighted that it’s common to find statements like, “You always bring a curious mindset to every conversation,” or “You’re constantly looking for ways to improve things”.

In reality, no one is constantly looking for ways to improve—and top performers can see through this lazy effort to make them look…