GRACE AND GRIDS
Review Ready
PERFORMANCE REVIEW &
PAY CONVERSATION PREP
WORKBOOK
PAY CONVERSATION PREP
WORKBOOK
Phone Keyboard • Computer • Printable — All Three Included
Performance Review & Pay Conversation Prep Workbook
A prep workbook for your performance review and pay conversation — gather your evidence, write your self-evaluation, research current pay data yourself, and practice the conversation before you walk in
Work through it in the weeks before your review, then carry the finished pages into the room with you.
A performance review should never be a test of your memory. Yet that is what it becomes for most people: twelve months of good work, squeezed into whatever you can recall the night before. The work was real. The evidence is scattered — in old emails, in finished projects, in the heads of people who watched you do it. This workbook gathers it into one place, in your own words, before you walk in.
It also prepares the second conversation that rides along with the first: the one about pay. Not with pressure tactics and not with borrowed scripts — with preparation. You will look up current public pay data yourself, write down what you found, and practice saying plainly what you are asking for and why. Calm, factual, and ready is the whole strategy.
An evidence file — your wins, your numbers, the praise you received, and the projects you carried, all dated and written down.
A self-evaluation — your real duties, rated honestly, each rating backed by a line of evidence.
A pay-research page — current market data you looked up yourself from free public sources, with the source and date recorded.
A conversation plan — sentence starters you will practice and make your own, plus calm responses for the hard moments.
A review-day kit — checklists for the week before and the day itself, notes pages, and a follow-up tracker for whatever gets decided.
This is a working document, not a keepsake. Start two to four weeks before your review if you can; if your review is tomorrow, start with the evidence pages and the review-day checklist and fill in the rest as you go.
One promise this workbook will not make: it cannot decide your review for you, and no workbook can. What it can do is make sure the person deciding has your real record in front of them — because you brought it.
A planning and practice tool — not career coaching. Promotions and pay decisions are always your employer's.
Managers promote and reward the work they can see and remember. That is not unfairness — it is human nature, and it has a practical answer: keep the record yourself. An evidence file (many people call it a brag document, though there is nothing boastful about it) is simply a running, dated list of what you did and what changed because you did it.
Dated. “Helped with the spring rush” is a claim. The same line with a month on it is a record.
Specific. Name the task, the size of it, and the result in whatever units your job honestly uses — customers served, files closed, shifts covered, errors caught, hours saved.
True. Record only what you actually did. If a win was a team's, say so and name your part in it. Accuracy is the whole value of the file; a record your manager can trust is worth more than a longer one they cannot.
The next pages give the file its shape: a snapshot of your job, six win-record pages, a page for putting honest numbers on your work, two pages for the praise other people have given you, and pages for projects, extras, and skills you have grown. Fill them from your calendar, your sent emails, your schedule, and your memory — in that order, because the paper trail remembers better than you do.
From now on, add one line a week. Five minutes on a Friday keeps next year's file already written.
Start with the frame everything else hangs on. Write what is true today; you will rate yourself against this page later.
My job title:
My department / team:
My manager's name:
How long I have been in this role:
My main duties, in one line each (the short version):
The tools, systems, or machines I am trusted with:
People who rely on my work (inside or outside the company):
One win per page. A win is any piece of work that went well because of something you did — big project or small save. Write it while the details are findable.
When (month and year, or exact date):
What happened — the situation in two or three lines:
What I did — my part in it, plainly stated:
The result — what changed, in the most honest numbers I have:
Who saw it, or who said something about it:
Where the proof lives (email, report, schedule, file):
One win per page — keep them coming. Small and specific beats large and vague.
When (month and year, or exact date):
What happened — the situation in two or three lines:
What I did — my part in it, plainly stated:
The result — what changed, in the most honest numbers I have:
Who saw it, or who said something about it:
Where the proof lives (email, report, schedule, file):
One win per page — keep them coming. Small and specific beats large and vague.
When (month and year, or exact date):
What happened — the situation in two or three lines:
What I did — my part in it, plainly stated:
The result — what changed, in the most honest numbers I have:
Who saw it, or who said something about it:
Where the proof lives (email, report, schedule, file):
One win per page — keep them coming. Small and specific beats large and vague.
When (month and year, or exact date):
What happened — the situation in two or three lines:
What I did — my part in it, plainly stated:
The result — what changed, in the most honest numbers I have:
Who saw it, or who said something about it:
Where the proof lives (email, report, schedule, file):
One win per page — keep them coming. Small and specific beats large and vague.
When (month and year, or exact date):
What happened — the situation in two or three lines:
What I did — my part in it, plainly stated:
The result — what changed, in the most honest numbers I have:
Who saw it, or who said something about it:
Where the proof lives (email, report, schedule, file):
One win per page — keep them coming. Small and specific beats large and vague.
When (month and year, or exact date):
What happened — the situation in two or three lines:
What I did — my part in it, plainly stated:
The result — what changed, in the most honest numbers I have:
Who saw it, or who said something about it:
Where the proof lives (email, report, schedule, file):
Results are easier to hear when they carry a count. You do not need company secrets or anyone else's figures — only honest counts from your own work: how many, how often, how long it took before and after, how many people it touched. If you estimated, write “about” and say how you counted. An honest estimate, labeled as one, builds more trust than a round number stated as fact.
For each row: name the recurring piece of work, how it stood when you started (or last year), how it stands now, and how you know.
Piece of work
Before
Now
How I know
Piece of work
Before
Now
How I know
Piece of work
Before
Now
How I know
Piece of work
Before
Now
How I know
Piece of work
Before
Now
How I know
Piece of work
Before
Now
How I know
Piece of work
Before
Now
How I know
Piece of work
Before
Now
How I know
Piece of work
Before
Now
How I know
Kind words evaporate. Written down, they become part of your record — evidence that your work landed on real people. Save thank-you emails, customer comments, and anything a manager said in writing, and note where the original lives.
Who said or wrote it, and when:
What they said (their words, or a fair summary):
What work it was about:
Who said or wrote it, and when:
What they said (their words, or a fair summary):
What work it was about:
Who said or wrote it, and when:
What they said (their words, or a fair summary):
What work it was about:
Keep going. Three more pieces of praise, in the same shape: who, when, their words, and the work it was about.
Who said or wrote it, and when:
What they said (their words, or a fair summary):
What work it was about:
Who said or wrote it, and when:
What they said (their words, or a fair summary):
What work it was about:
Who said or wrote it, and when:
What they said (their words, or a fair summary):
What work it was about:
Reviews often cover only the job you were hired for. This page holds the rest: the project you carried, the shift nobody wanted, the new person you trained, the problem that kept breaking until you fixed it. Work beyond the job description is where growth shows first.
Project
My part in it
How it ended
Project
My part in it
How it ended
Project
My part in it
How it ended
Project
My part in it
How it ended
Project
My part in it
How it ended
Growth you can point to is growth a manager can repeat in the room where decisions happen. List what you can do now that you could not do — or could not do as well — at your last review. Beside each skill, write the proof: the day you used it, the person who taught you, the task it changed.
Skill I have grown
Proof — where it shows
Skill I have grown
Proof — where it shows
Skill I have grown
Proof — where it shows
Skill I have grown
Proof — where it shows
Skill I have grown
Proof — where it shows
Skill I have grown
Proof — where it shows
Skill I have grown
Proof — where it shows
Skill I have grown
Proof — where it shows
A self-evaluation is not a sales pitch and it is not a confession. It is your honest account of your own work, written by the person who saw all of it. Managers consistently rate two kinds of self-evaluations as the most useful: the ones that are specific, and the ones that are honest about the rough edges. Vague pride and false modesty both fail the same way — neither gives your manager anything to repeat on your behalf.
Rate yourself against your actual duties — the work you really do, listed first, not a generic idea of a good employee.
Back every rating with one line of evidence, drawn from your evidence file in section 1.
Turn your three to five strongest results into accomplishment statements, using the builder on the pages ahead.
Name your real growth areas yourself, with a plan attached. A gap you name and address reads as strength; a gap your manager has to name for you reads as a surprise.
A note on rating scales: employers use many — numbers, words, exceeds-meets-needs language. Use your employer's scale if you know it. These pages use a simple 1-to-5 (1 = not yet, 3 = solid and reliable, 5 = among the best on the team) so the thinking gets done; translate your finished answers onto their form afterward.
Write the job as it actually is. Start from your job description if you have one, then correct it against your real weeks: the duties that grew, the ones quietly added, the ones only you do. If a duty takes real hours every week and appears on no list, it belongs here — unnamed work is unrated work.
One duty per row, copied from your real-duties page. Rate honestly: a 3 you can defend is worth more than a 5 you cannot. The evidence line is not decoration — it is the part your manager can use.
Duty
My rating (1–5)
Evidence — one line from my file
Duty
My rating (1–5)
Evidence — one line from my file
Duty
My rating (1–5)
Evidence — one line from my file
Duty
My rating (1–5)
Evidence — one line from my file
Duty
My rating (1–5)
Evidence — one line from my file
Duty
My rating (1–5)
Evidence — one line from my file
Duty
My rating (1–5)
Evidence — one line from my file
Duty
My rating (1–5)
Evidence — one line from my file
Keep going until every real duty has a rating and an evidence line. If a duty has no evidence yet, that is useful information too — write what you will gather before the review.
Duty
My rating (1–5)
Evidence — one line from my file
Duty
My rating (1–5)
Evidence — one line from my file
Duty
My rating (1–5)
Evidence — one line from my file
Duty
My rating (1–5)
Evidence — one line from my file
Duty
My rating (1–5)
Evidence — one line from my file
Duty
My rating (1–5)
Evidence — one line from my file
Duty
My rating (1–5)
Evidence — one line from my file
Duty
My rating (1–5)
Evidence — one line from my file
A duty says what your job is. An accomplishment statement says what happened because you did it. Build each one in three parts:
What I did — the action, in a strong plain verb: built, fixed, trained, caught, organized, covered, finished.
How I did it — the method or effort that was yours: the system you made, the extra step you took, the people you coordinated.
What changed — the result, counted where you honestly can: time saved, errors down, customers helped, a deadline met that used to be missed.
“Reorganized the supply shelf by day of the week (what and how) — restock trips dropped from daily to twice a week, and we stopped running out of gloves mid-shift (what changed).”
“Trained the three newest team members on the closing routine (what and how) — closing now finishes on time even when I am not on shift (what changed).”
Write yours on the next two pages — three to five strong ones are plenty. Pull the facts straight from your win records; the words here are just the frame.
What I did:
How I did it:
What changed:
In one sentence, ready to say out loud:
What I did:
How I did it:
What changed:
In one sentence, ready to say out loud:
What I did:
How I did it:
What changed:
In one sentence, ready to say out loud:
What I did:
How I did it:
What changed:
In one sentence, ready to say out loud:
What I did:
How I did it:
What changed:
In one sentence, ready to say out loud:
What I did:
How I did it:
What changed:
In one sentence, ready to say out loud:
Every honest worker has edges. Naming yours — plainly, without drama, each with a step you are already taking — is one of the most credible things you can bring to a review. It tells your manager the self-evaluation in front of them can be trusted, including the strong parts.
The area itself, in plain words:
What it looks like when it costs me:
What I am already doing about it:
What would help from my manager (training, a chance, feedback):
The area itself, in plain words:
What it looks like when it costs me:
What I am already doing about it:
What would help from my manager:
Now write it the way it will actually be read: a short, honest account of your year, in your own voice. Use the prompts, pull your facts from the pages behind this one, and keep it to what you can stand behind. Draft here first; copy the clean version onto your employer's form afterward.
This workbook prints no salary tables, and that is deliberate. Pay figures printed in a book go stale, they belong to some other city and some other job, and a number you cannot trace is a weak thing to carry into a serious conversation. What does not go stale is a method: look up the current, public data for your own occupation and your own area, write down what you found and where you found it, and bring that.
Why it matters, in plain arithmetic: prices rise a little most years. A yearly raise smaller than the rise in prices is, in real terms, a small pay cut — the paycheck grows while what it buys shrinks. You do not need to argue economics in your review. You need to know, for yourself, where your pay stands against your market, so the conversation you plan in section 4 is built on facts instead of feelings.
Work through the next pages in order: where to look, a log for what you find, and a fairness check so you compare your job to the right thing — the same duties, the same area, the same kind of hours.
One caution that protects you: public data describes a whole occupation, not your exact desk. Use it as a well-informed starting point for a conversation — never as a claim that a specific figure is owed to you. The strength of research is that it is calm. Keep it that way.
Every source below is free and public. Start with the first two; add the others as they fit your job.
The federal government's own labor statistics. Two parts matter most: the Occupational Outlook Handbook, which describes what workers in an occupation actually do, the training it takes, and the occupation's median pay; and the Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) pages, which publish wage estimates by occupation for the whole country, for states, and for metropolitan areas — including yours, most likely.
Most states publish their own occupational wage pages, often drawn from the same survey data with a local view. Search your state's name plus “occupational wages” to find the official page.
Employers increasingly print pay ranges right in their postings. Collect several current postings for work that matches your duties, in your area, and note the range each one prints and the date you saw it. A range in a live posting is a fact about today's market, stated by an employer themselves.
If your company is hiring for your role or the role above yours, its own posting — and any range printed in it — is the most relevant posting of all. Save it, with the date.
Choose the occupation title that matches your duties, not just your job title — titles vary by company; duties are the comparison that holds.
Set the area to your metropolitan area or state, not the national figure, unless your work is fully remote across regions.
Record every figure with its source and the date you found it, on the log pages that follow.
Collect at least three sources before you draw any conclusion.
Write the figures exactly as the source published them, and always with the date — an undated figure cannot be used, because no one can tell whether it is current.
Source & where found
Occupation & area
Date
What it showed (as published)
Notes — duties / hours / level
Source & where found
Occupation & area
Date
What it showed (as published)
Notes — duties / hours / level
Source & where found
Occupation & area
Date
What it showed (as published)
Notes — duties / hours / level
Source & where found
Occupation & area
Date
What it showed (as published)
Notes — duties / hours / level
One row per source. If a posting or page gave you more than fits in a row, continue it on the Notes page at the back — with the source and date repeated, so nothing floats free of where it came from.
Four more sources. Job postings count here too: name the employer, the role as posted, the range as printed, and the date you saw it.
Source & where found
Occupation & area
Date
What it showed (as published)
Notes — duties / hours / level
Source & where found
Occupation & area
Date
What it showed (as published)
Notes — duties / hours / level
Source & where found
Occupation & area
Date
What it showed (as published)
Notes — duties / hours / level
Source & where found
Occupation & area
Date
What it showed (as published)
Notes — duties / hours / level
One row per source. If a posting or page gave you more than fits in a row, continue it on the Notes page at the back — with the source and date repeated, so nothing floats free of where it came from.
Research only helps if the comparison is honest. Before you use anything from your log, walk it through this page. If a figure fails a check, it may still be interesting — but it does not belong in your conversation.
Same work? The occupation or posting describes duties close to mine — not merely a similar title.
Same place? The figure covers my area, or I have clearly noted that it does not.
Same shape of job? Full-time compared to full-time; hourly compared to hourly; the same rough experience level.
Current? I found it recently and wrote the date down.
Counted honestly? I am using the middle of a range or a published median as my reference — not the very top of a range, which describes the most experienced workers.
The pages in this section hold sentence starters — beginnings of honest sentences, offered for practice. They are not scripts, and they are not magic words. No sentence, said in any order, can decide a pay decision that belongs to your employer. What practice can do is simpler and real: it can keep you calm, clear, and complete on the day, so that what you meant to say is what actually got said.
Read each one, then rewrite it in your own words. A sentence that sounds like you will land; a borrowed one will not.
Keep them short. One thought per sentence, then stop and let your manager answer.
Say them out loud in practice — to a mirror, in the car, to a trusted friend. The voice practices what the eye only reads.
Choose the few you will actually use. A conversation held to three clear points is stronger than one that tries to say everything.
Under every starter is space to write your version and, where it helps, the evidence line from your file that stands behind it. That is the pattern of the whole conversation: a plain sentence, and the record that backs it.
Every growth conversation starts with the same honest move: saying, out loud, that you want to grow here. Managers cannot plan for an ambition they have never heard. These starters open that door without pressure and without apology.
“I want to do well here, and I would like to talk about what growing in this role looks like.”
In my own words:
“I have been thinking about my next step in this team, and I would value your view of it.”
In my own words:
“Before we finish today, I would like to ask about the path to the next level in this job.”
In my own words:
“I am asking because I plan to stay and build here — this work matters to me.”
In my own words:
Evidence is presented best the way it was collected: plainly, briefly, one result at a time. Let each accomplishment speak once, with its number attached, and then stop. The file in section 1 is your supply — pick your strongest three before you practice these.
“One result I would like on the record this year is…”
In my own words:
“This year I took on …, and what changed was…”
In my own words:
“The feedback I received on that work was… (from my praise pages).”
In my own words:
“Of everything this year, the work I most want to be remembered for is…”
In my own words:
The pay part of the conversation goes best calm, brief, and built on the research in section 3. State what you found, state what you are asking for, and let the silence after it do its work. You are presenting information and a request — nothing more, and nothing less.
“I did some homework before today. Looking at current public data for this work in our area, I found…”
In my own words:
“Based on that, and on the results in my review, I would like to ask about bringing my pay to…”
In my own words:
“I understand these decisions involve more than this room. I wanted my request, and the research behind it, to be clear and on the record.”
In my own words:
“If an adjustment is not possible now, I would like to understand what the path and the timing could look like.”
In my own words:
The most useful question in any growth conversation asks your manager to describe the target. Their answer turns a vague hope into a list you can work — and it gives you the exact words to check against at your next review.
“What does ready for the next level look like, in this team, in your own words?”
In my own words:
“Of the gaps between where I am and that level, which one matters most to close first?”
In my own words:
“What would you need to see from me, and over how long, to support that move?”
In my own words:
“Could we check in on this again in a few months, so I know whether I am closing the gap you named?”
In my own words:
Whatever your manager says to these questions is the most valuable thing you will carry out of the room. There is a page for it in section 5 — bring this workbook and write their words down the same day.
Reviews do not always go the way the evidence says they should. Budgets are real, timing is real, and sometimes the answer is “not yet.” Planning your response now — while you are calm — is what keeps a hard answer from becoming a bad day. None of these are tactics. They are ways to stay clear, keep the door open, and leave with useful information instead of regret.
“Thank you for being straight with me. What specifically would need to change?”
“Is the obstacle my readiness, the opening, or the budget? Each one has a different next step.”
“When could we look at this again — and what should I be able to show by then?”
Ask, calmly, for the specifics behind it — an example you can learn from beats a label you cannot.
Offer your record once, briefly: “I brought a few results I would like considered — may I walk you through them?”
If you still disagree, say so once, without heat, and ask what would change the picture next time. Then write everything down the same day, on the pages after this one.
Ultimatums, threats, and comparisons to named coworkers all cost more than they buy. Write your own calm closing line here — the sentence you can say in any outcome and be glad you said:
Everything in this workbook narrows to this page. Fill it in the week before, and read it the morning of. If you bring one page into the room, bring this one and your evidence file.
Saying it out loud a few times is the difference between planning a conversation and having one. Log each run-through: who you practiced with (a friend, a mirror, a recording on your phone all count), what felt solid, and what you will adjust.
Date
Practiced with
What felt solid
What I will adjust
Date
Practiced with
What felt solid
What I will adjust
Date
Practiced with
What felt solid
What I will adjust
Date
Practiced with
What felt solid
What I will adjust
Date
Practiced with
What felt solid
What I will adjust
Date
Practiced with
What felt solid
What I will adjust
Date
Practiced with
What felt solid
What I will adjust
Date
Practiced with
What felt solid
What I will adjust
The last section is short on teaching and long on boxes, because that is what the final week needs. Two checklists carry you in; three pages carry what happened back out — and what happened, written down, becomes the first pages of next year's evidence file.
Self-evaluation copied onto my employer's form, and a copy kept for myself.
Evidence file finished: wins, numbers, and praise all dated.
Research log finished, with sources and dates.
Conversation plan page filled in and read once out loud.
Practice done — at least two full run-throughs logged.
My questions for my manager written down.
Meeting time and place confirmed; this workbook and my evidence file ready to carry in.
A decent night's sleep the night before. It is a conversation, not a trial — prepare like it matters, rest like it will be fine.
Read my conversation plan page once, slowly.
Pick my three evidence points — and let the rest go. Three clear points beat twelve rushed ones.
Bring: this workbook, my evidence file, my questions, a pen, and a blank page for their answers.
Arrive a few minutes early. Rushing in flustered spends the calm you practiced.
Listen to the whole of what is said before answering any part of it.
Take notes — especially their exact words about what “ready” looks like.
Present evidence briefly: one result, its number, then stop.
Ask my questions, including the pay question, in the calm form I practiced.
Before leaving, repeat back what I heard: the decision, the reasons, and any next steps — and check I heard right.
Thank them for the conversation, whatever its outcome. The relationship continues after this meeting.
It happens to everyone. Open the workbook to your conversation plan page and say so plainly: “I prepared a few points — let me check my notes.” Prepared people are allowed to read their preparation. That is what it is for.
Write as they talk. Capture their words, not your feelings about them — feelings can be added tonight; their exact words cannot be recovered tomorrow.
Fill this page in the same day, while it is all still fresh. It is the most valuable page in the book: it turns one conversation into a plan, and it is the page next year's review will start from.
Decisions drift when nobody tracks them. Every commitment made in that room — theirs and yours — gets a row: what it was, whose it is, when it is due, and when you will check on it. Checking on your own commitments first is what follow-through looks like.
Commitment
Whose it is
Due
Checked?
Commitment
Whose it is
Due
Checked?
Commitment
Whose it is
Due
Checked?
Commitment
Whose it is
Due
Checked?
Commitment
Whose it is
Due
Checked?
Commitment
Whose it is
Due
Checked?
Commitment
Whose it is
Due
Checked?
Commitment
Whose it is
Due
Checked?
Commitment
Whose it is
Due
Checked?
A review ends one season and opens another. Whatever was decided, the gaps named in that room are now your work list — and the rhythm that fits a working life is the monthly one: thirty days to start, sixty to build, ninety to be seen doing it.
And from this week forward: one win recorded every Friday, five minutes, in my evidence file. Next year's review starts here.
However the conversation went, notice what you did: you did not walk in hoping to be remembered fairly. You gathered a year of real work, wrote it down honestly, researched your market like an adult, practiced saying what you meant, and brought all of it into the room with you. That is what being ready actually looks like — and it is a habit that compounds, review after review, job after job.
Before the review season: The 12-Step Climb — a 90-day promotion-readiness planner that builds the daily habits and alignment managers look for, thirty days at a time.
All year long: the Daily Alignment Tracker — ninety days of leadership habits and a wins log that feeds straight into this workbook's evidence file.
Earlier in the journey: the First 90 Days New Job Planner and the Job Search Tracker & Interview Kit — the rungs of the ladder that lead to this one.
A planning and practice tool — not career coaching. Promotions and pay decisions are always your employer's. Keep this workbook with your records — next year, its last pages are your first pages.
Thank you for choosing Grace and Grids. Buy it once — every upgrade free, forever. And we build what our customers ask for: if there is a planner, tracker, or workbook you wish existed, tell us — if we take your idea onto our shelves as a permanent sales item, your only cost is the listed sale price.
Extra pages for anything that does not fit elsewhere — names, dates, half-formed sentences, and the things you think of in the shower the day after.