Writing a Fair Review for Someone Who Was on Leave During the Cycle

Writing a review for someone who spent part of the cycle on parental, medical, or other leave is genuinely different from writing any other review. The instinct to simply compare their output to a full year of work is the mistake to avoid, and it's an easy one to make by default rather than on purpose.

The Checklist

Work through it in order. Tick things off as you go and your progress is saved on this device, so you can come back to it over the days before the conversation rather than doing it all in one sitting.

1. Work out what the cycle actually covers for them

   Before writing anything, get precise about the real working window this review is meant to reflect.

   • Confirm the exact dates of the leave against the review period.
   • Check your company's specific policy on how leave is meant to be handled in reviews - this varies and shouldn't be improvised.
   • If there's no clear policy, ask HR directly rather than guessing at what's fair.

2. Prorate the review, don't penalize the gap

   The output from a shortened working window will naturally be smaller than a full year's. That's a fact about time, not about performance.

   • Assess the quality and impact of what they delivered in the time they worked, not the total volume against a full-year peer.
   • Avoid any language that reads as "less than" purely because of the reduced time - the comparison should be quality-for-quality, not quantity-for-quantity.
   • If your company's rating scale doesn't naturally account for this, flag it explicitly in the written review so it's clear to anyone reading it later.

3. Gather evidence from before they left

   The working period, however short, still deserves the same specific evidence any other review would get.

   • Pull whatever notes, 1:1 records, or logged achievements exist from before the leave started.
   • Ask peers who worked with them during that window for input you might not have firsthand.
   • Don't rely purely on memory for a period that may now be many months in the past.

4. Ask them directly what they want considered

   They know their own working period better than anyone reconstructing it after the fact.

   • Ask what they'd want highlighted from the time they were working, before you finalize anything.
   • Give them a chance to add context you might not have, especially if the leave started suddenly.
   • Make clear this is a genuine ask for input, not a formality.

5. Avoid rating them against a full year they didn't have

   This is the single most common way this review goes wrong, almost always unintentionally.

   • Double-check your own draft rating against the actual working window before finalizing it.
   • If you're unsure whether a rating reflects the real period fairly, get a second opinion from HR or your own manager.
   • Remember that a lower rating driven purely by reduced time, rather than quality, is not a fair reflection of their work.

6. Set expectations for re-entry, not just the score

   The review is also the moment to set a clear, fair baseline for the cycle ahead, which matters as much as getting this one right.

   • Talk through what a normal working period looks like going forward, without assuming anything about pace on return.
   • Set goals for the next cycle based on a full working period, clearly distinct from this one.
   • Check in more frequently than usual in the weeks right after their return, rather than waiting for the next formal review.

That is the whole checklist

Everything above is general by design, so it holds for most people in most companies. The specifics of your own case are the part it cannot cover.