Good morning.

Thank you for reading.

And thank you to everyone who's been voting, replying and forwarding these emails.

Please continue.

It gives us something constructive to look at between notifications.

Now for today's uncomfortable question:

Did your manager write your performance review?

Let's get to work.

Imagine working for an entire year.

Projects.

Deadlines.

Problems.

Wins.

Mistakes.

Then your manager sits down to summarize your performance and types:

Write a professional performance review for an employee who generally did a good job. Make it constructive.

Congratulations.

Your career has entered autocomplete.

A 2026 survey of 913 U.S. employees found that 27% said their manager had used AI to write a performance review or feedback.

Another 13% reported managers using AI to help resolve conflicts or sensitive issues.

Twelve percent said it had been used for coaching or career advice.

Employees aren't thrilled.

In the same survey, 42% said managers who rely on AI appear less competent, and 36% said discovering a manager's AI use made them trust that person's judgment less.

There is an important distinction here.

Using AI to organize twelve months of notes?

Useful.

Summarize project outcomes?

Sure.

Clean up a clumsy sentence?

Nobody needs to suffer unnecessarily.

But performance reviews contain judgment.

Did this person do good work?

Did they grow?

What are they ready for?

Should they get promoted?

Should they earn more money?

Those are management decisions.

Employees expect the person managing them to have participated.

The trust problem gets worse because workers already suspect AI when communication sounds generic.

Forty-five percent in the survey said the biggest giveaway was simply that the message didn't sound like their manager.

Forty percent pointed to a robotic or generic tone.

Which creates a new workplace game:

Did my boss write this?

And perhaps an even more awkward question:

Did my boss notice what I did this year before asking the machine to summarize it?

AI can make management faster.

It can also make mediocre management look beautifully formatted.

That's dangerous.

Because polished feedback isn't automatically useful feedback.

“Continue leveraging your cross-functional strengths to drive strategic impact.”

Excellent.

What does that mean?

What did I do?

What should I change?

What would better look like?

If the answer requires another prompt, the performance review may have missed its purpose.

More than half of surveyed workers said they could tell when a manager had used AI in workplace communication at least some of the time.

Apparently AI detection technology already exists.

It's called:

Knowing how Dave normally writes.

The Wall Street Journal reports that unclear workplace rules around AI are creating new friction between coworkers.

Employees sometimes judge colleagues for using AI while privately using it themselves, and false accusations of AI-generated work can create additional mistrust.

Corporate policy:

Please use AI.

But not suspiciously.

A BambooHR survey of more than 1,600 salaried U.S. workers found that among employees using personal AI accounts for work, 71% had entered client data, proprietary strategy or other sensitive company information.

Your company's cybersecurity team has just stopped reading.

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If you're writing feedback for someone, start without AI.

Write:

What happened?

What was the impact?

What should happen next?

Use actual examples.

Then, if you want, use AI to organize or clarify the language.

The order matters.

Evidence first.

Judgment second.

Editing later.

A beautifully written review with no evidence is still a bad review. It just has better punctuation.

A performance review may eventually affect:

your raise
your bonus
your promotion
your next role

So when you receive feedback like:

“Needs to demonstrate greater strategic impact.”

Ask:

What specifically would demonstrate that?

Ask for examples.

Ask how success will be measured.

Ask what needs to happen before the next compensation discussion.

Vague feedback is irritating.

Vague feedback tied to money is expensive.

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MANAGER: You consistently demonstrate strategic alignment and cross-functional excellence.

EMPLOYEE: What did I actually do well?

MANAGER: Good question.

opens laptop

MANAGER: Give me a second.

It can remind them of patterns.

Organize evidence.

Help them phrase difficult messages.

But if your manager needs a machine to discover what they think about your performance after twelve months of managing you...

There may be a larger software issue.

Vote below.

Reply and tell us whether AI has started appearing in reviews, emails or management where you work.

And forward this to the coworker whose last performance review contained the phrase:

“Continue leaning into your strengths.”

They know who they are.

Subscribe → www.still-monday.com

Technically Thursday. Emotionally Monday.

See you tomorrow.

— The Still Monday Desk