Annual Review

My first work review was last week. I was quite worried about it; my boss speaks no English and is 59 years old - needless to say we do not have much interaction. I try my best to make sure to have casual conversation in Japanese with him so that he realizes that I am (hopefully!) improving my language skills, and to try to form some sort of relationship, but I had no idea whether it was working or not. Since work-related issues always go through the filter of a co-worker, it is easy for things to get lost in translation.

I am glad to report that on the whole I had a very positive review. There wasn't much to it when we started - I got a raise, I should work on communicating better. Then I started to ask questions - is this the normal raise? Well, no it is actually twice the normal amount. Why is that? Well, we want you to work hard this upcoming year, and you have done your job properly this past year. Is there anything you would like me to improve? No. And by the way I noticed that you are helpful in the X project.

Basically, what I finally figured out was that my boss doesn't "do" compliments...But he does think that I am doing well.