I just… I just had to write this down, like, right now, before I explode or something. I’m sitting here, it’s like two in the morning, and I can’t stop thinking about what happened today. What even *is* this, you know? Like, I’m a manager, a *mid-level* manager, been doing this for years, climbed the ladder, got the degrees, all that jazz. I *know* how to write a performance review. I’ve written HUNDREDS of them. Good ones, bad ones, ones that made people cry, ones that made people happy. I’ve delivered them in person, over video, via email. It’s part of the job, right? It’s not always fun, especially the tough ones, but it’s what you do. But today… today was different. I had this review, for… (let's call him Mark, whatever) and it was a really sensitive one. Not, like, fireable bad, but definitely "needs major course correction or he’s never gonna get promoted" bad. And I sat down, opened the template, and just stared at the screen. I typed out a sentence, then deleted it. Typed another, stared, deleted. It was like my brain just… seized up. I couldn't get the words out right. Every phrase sounded either too harsh, like I was kicking a puppy, or too soft, like I was telling him everything was fine when it wasn’t. I kept thinking, "How do I say 'your communication style makes everyone want to bang their head against a wall' but in a way that sounds professional and like, helpful?" You know? How do I make it sound like I'm on his side, but also tell him he's gotta fix this *now*? I worked on it for HOURS. My draft was just a mess of crossed-out sentences and angry notes to myself. "TOO BLUNT." "SOUNDS FAKE." "NOT ENOUGH ACTION ITEMS." I even tried walking away for a bit, coming back, getting coffee, everything. Nothing. I was just stuck in this loop of trying to sound like… a human, but also like a corporate robot. And the deadline was looming, and my boss was asking for it, and I just started to feel this PANIC bubble up. This is my job. This is what I DO. How am I failing at such a basic thing? And then… I did it. I highlighted the whole thing, the entire mangled, half-finished mess, and I pasted it into the AI. The one we use for… like, generating captions for social media sometimes, or rephrasing internal memos so they don't sound like they were written by an engineer (no offense to engineers). And I typed, "Make this sound professional, constructive, and empathetic. Focus on actionable feedback." And it spit out this… perfect, polished, absolutely impeccable review. It used all the right buzzwords, softened the blows where it needed to, sharpened the focus where I was wishy-washy. It sounded like something *I* should have written. Like the ME I used to be, the one who didn't struggle with this stuff. I sent it. I just… sent it. Didn't change a word. And now I’m sitting here, feeling like a TOTAL fraud. Like, I outsourced my *managerial judgment* to a machine. What does that even mean for my job? For *me*? Am I just… obsolete? Is this what we’re doing now? Are we all just gonna feed our messy human thoughts into a bot to make us sound like the ideal corporate employee? And if so, what's the point of any of it? I don’t know. I honestly don’t know. I just needed to say it out loud, I guess. Or, type it into the void. This feels… bad. Really, really bad.