Ninety days
The first ninety days
The standard you are assessed against is almost never written down, and the window in which you can see the place clearly closes at about week eight.
What the people on this page had to find out, and where from
What your manager actually wants from you
you asked8Asked directly in week eight, and the answer was two sentences
That your probation review happens in week twelve
written down1In the contract, and read once you went looking
two things you had to know · nobody told you any of them · the median arrived in week 8 · all two you went and got
Two standards that applied to the whole quarter. One was asked for in week eight and could have been asked in week two.
What You Are Actually Judged On
The standard you are assessed against in a first quarter is almost never written down, and asking for it directly is both allowed and rare.
The Review You Should Ask For
Nobody will volunteer an assessment of your first month. Asking for one at week four, specifically, gets an answer that is worth acting on.
When It Is Not Working
Several things commonly go wrong in a first quarter, all of them are fixable, and the only thing that makes them permanent is not saying so.
The Window That Closes
For about eight weeks you can see an organisation as it is. The ability goes away on its own, and nobody tells you it is going.
What to Say in Week Twelve
A twelve-week review is mostly a conversation about things nobody wrote down, and the person with notes is the only one who can say anything specific.
Staying New On Purpose
Two habits from the first quarter are worth keeping deliberately, because they stop being natural at about the same moment they stop being easy.
If You Are Not the Only New Person
Another new person is the most useful colleague you will have in your first month, and the relationship has to be started by one of you.
What This Is Actually About
Fifty notes reduce to one sentence: nobody can see you, so you will have to say, and saying sooner costs less than it feels like it will.