I'm approaching ten months' employment at my present job. It's in a 24-hour/7-day office environment where dozens of decisions have to be made daily. We are primarily a supportive function (transportation) which, unlike our retail outlets, has little direct contact with the public, but we do face constant pressure from those "internal customers" (never liked that term), not for efficient operation, but for special attention.

The problem here is that it's very difficult to individually identify and quantify your work in a positive manner; the only time you're noticed is when something goes wrong. I've avoided any specifically-cited mistakes for the past couple of months, but the most recent feedback from my supervisor mentions "a reluctance to become more directly involved in the decision-making process"

One of the reasons for that reluctance is because I've seen too many of those decisions picked apart by "morning quarterbacks" who weren't present at the time the choice had to be made. I came here from a call-center job where there was constant pressure to prune away senior employees, and I learned there, by astute observation, that I was being subjected to additional evaluations in the hope of documenting enough to justify termination -- I finally quit to avioid the trap, but the experience has left me gun-shy, and a little paranoid.

On the surface, at least, things are quiet.  I sincerely like most of the people I work with. But I want to enter my next performance review with some solid proof that I'm learning, and carrying out my responsibilities. Unfortunately, the process seems structured to focus much more on attitudes than upon well-defined perfomance measures, and I have no idea how respond to that expectation without seeming like a poseur and a phony.