What’s the best way to give an arrogant 38yr old man child a bad review when your an almost 10 yrs younger female supervisor who can run circles around his as does everyone else in the agency....

Jesus Christ you sound like a shit manager

Well, to begin with, you could try doing so professionally. You might seek HR's advice on how to proceed with this negative review, so you don't inadvertently put the agency at risk.

If he's had positive reviews in the past, you're probably going to need some documentation of his transgressions, and HR's probably going to want to know why you didn't initiate a PIP before hitting him with a bad review. They'll also probably want to know what conversations you've had with him regarding his poor performance over the last year, and exactly what steps you've taken to help him improve his contributions.

And since he's closing in on 40, best make sure your case is rock solid to avoid a potential agesim claim.

AD1: was that really necessary? Jesus I feel like we're all just fucked

And the next time you feel the need to use fb as an HR surrogate, you might consider posting under your title rather than your agency. Sounds like you've got a somewhat unique and identifiable team composition, and this would minimize the possibility of real HR calling on you, rather than the other way around.

I admit I was also rubbed the wrong way by the millennial spelling (you really need to pay extra attention to such details if you want to be taken seriously as a person and a manager, instead of getting judged negatively for it) and even more irritated by the equally arrogant assessment of the guy being an "arrogant man child", quoting his age, and how you can "run circles around him". You obviously think very poorly of him and very highly of yourself. Both are going to be a problem if you're giving this person a performance review. How long have you known and managed him? Is whatever he's being asked to do appropriate for his level and skills? Have you gathered factual feedback from others? So many unknowns right there and there are many more to consider. Also, one of the biggest worst flaws of annual reviews is that they're usually written based on the person's last 3-4 months performance because that's how far back people naturally remember. It's extremely flawed and it's ripe with bias. I assume you're doing an annual one. My suggestion without knowing full details of the situation is to start with what you can control which is you and your actions and attitude. Examine your frustration and make sure you're not doing the review under the influence of anger. Sticking to facts is the first step. Write a draft and consult your own manager for feedback and guidance.

If she is crowdsourcing how to do her job, then yeah she is in over her head.

Wow, everyone RELAX.

OP - My recommendation is to start by outlining what the responsibilities are at the next level. And use those as guide posts to show where he is failing and where he needs to get better and stretch. This was you can deliver the negative feedback, but wrapped in a positive light (i.e. I want to get you to the next level, and here’s what I need from you to do that)

On age... shouldn’t be a problem on anyone’s mind unless he is making it a problem? I too am super young for my position so frequently encounter having people report to me that are much, much older than I am. It doesn’t need to be awkward. They’ll get in line usually once you prove yourself.

Good luck!

Based on your grammar, I’m not sure “his” is the problem.

sorry op, what evidence do you have that justifies your assessment? did you get feed back from others on him ? have you reviewed and considered the performance framework & criteria for his role before you arrived at this conclusion? also the way you set up your question suggests you also need a fair and constructive assessment of your ability to supervise others. You sound young, arrogant, and wholly inexperienced at managing people. This right here is a fundamental problem with our industry. we don’t train people to manage properly. managing people is a completely different skill set and you don’t get it by osmosis.

@CW1 nice false equivalency. FYI a supervisor using gendered insults towards a subordinate, flexing an inflated ego, all while feigning ignorance about how to give her own director report a bad review, is fucking awful management, and not at all comparable to women not being believed when they report sexual harassment. Crazy enough, people not having sympathy for someone having to manage a “man child” isn’t sexual harassment, but going online to call your coworker a “man child” while providing details about where he works, his age, and context so we can figure out his identity... that actually is sexual harassment by every workplace definition. Get bent, you smarmy, virtue signaling, asshole.

Net-net: everyone hates a young female boss, and treats her the same way you treat women who come forward with claims of sexual harassment (sure YOU said this, but do OTHER PEOPLE agree?).
Guys SHE’S his boss so if she says he sucks, try something novel: believe her.

Do it IRL, not on Fishbowl? Bet he’s white as well.

@C1 really?? being young and female isn’t an excuse to be arrogant, and immature in your job! did it even occur to you that the advice being given above is coming from other young females?? leave bias out of it and address the question asked.

Just based on the way you posed the question, it sounds like you’re the arrogant one, and not mature enough to be a supervisor. Managing people not solely about handing out tasks, it’s about mentoring, and promoting growth and improvements in areas which are lacking, or properly documenting the issues so you can let him go and bring on an A player. The way you described him, yourself and made your company visible, likely makes it fairly easy to identify you by your colleagues; so I just hope he doesn’t read this because if you don’t have backup of your claims, you just committed libel, in other words written defamation. Personally as a woman who manages younger people of both genders, you’re an embarrassment, and clearly have no business managing people.

Copywriter1, I'm a female immigrant professional woman and please do not mix our fight for women's rights for what's going on in the post here. Comments like yours are not helpful to the women's cause and give validation to those (men) who think we're entitled stupid b.tches who think they deserve better simply for being a woman and cannot discern a business/management issue from a gender issue. There is absolutely a lack of training or support for new/young managers out there and talent performance and development is a real skill that needs to be and can be learned through formal training and through mentorship by more experienced managers further up the chain.
OP, on that note I recommend taking some management classes, lots of programs and books on the basics out there. It's also why I recommend you talk to your own manager for how to handle this, granted I have no idea if your manager is good...

Your spelling is unfortunate and should be fixed immediately but is irrelevant to this conversation. There isn’t an issue here - you need to come to his review prepared to give specific, constructive feedback and document it. He will have a chance to respond. Outline areas of improvement/how you want him to improve. Poster who mentioned HR would want to know why you haven’t put him on a PIP is jumping the gun- I’m assuming he isn’t at a fireable stage? Approach it with a sincere attitude of constructive feedback and you’re fine. If you just want to fire him, you’re setting yourself up for frustration to be honest.

You’re missing the point, you’re not just being ridiculed for misspellings, you’re being ridiculed for the lack of maturity in how you phrased your question. It seems you thought people would respond well to a rant and name calling of your subordinate, which is not appropriate way to gain helpful feedback (which by the way, you got plenty of). “I was in bed and just shot off a question without editing” nice excuse, kinda like “the dog ate my homework” so I missed that deadline. Next time you don’t want to be ridiculed, you may want to solicit feedback in a more professional manner, for instance providing the information you did so in your last response would’ve been a great start. You should have HR or your boss involved in the performance review as you go down the list of what he isn’t doing right. But if your boss is buddies with him, and won’t allow you to properly provide truthful feedback to him, then maybe your boss is setting you up for failure and it’s time to move on.

Only mentioning HR because age, gender and performance are in play... no need for trouble when this should only be about performance... stay on task 👍🏻

^Seriously. Some real ugliness on here

I genuinely don’t understand the above ^. She got a minimum of shit for poor spelling and a load of good advice on how to handle, which is what she asked for. What’s the issue?