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Performance reviews bundle several pieces of feedback for each person. This page explains who sees which piece, when, and why — starting with the most important point.

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Windmill Admins and employee data

Windmill Admins manage workspace configuration and admin surfaces, but they do not automatically see all employee data. Visibility into stats, performance reviews, and connected-source content follows source permissions, org-chart scope, delegation, and feature-specific privacy rules. AI usage stats from Claude, Codex, and Cursor are an explicit exception: Admins can see those usage stats for everyone.

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You can’t read what others wrote about you

If you are the subject of a piece of feedback — the person it is about — you cannot read it. This holds regardless of who wrote it or what role you have in the cycle. Being a cycle admin does not change this. If a coworker writes peer feedback about you, you still can’t see that feedback — even though, as an admin, you can see everyone else’s.

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Beyond your own packet

What you can see in someone else’s packet depends on your relationship to them: If you’re their direct manager or skip-level — you see every part of their packet: their self review, peer feedback about them, upward feedback their reports wrote about them, and the review their direct manager is drafting (or has already submitted). If you’re a cycle admin — you see every packet in the cycle, across all teams, with the same level of access as the management chain. If neither applies — you don’t see their packet. Coworkers don’t see each other’s packets just because they’re in the same cycle. Calibration is governed separately. The pre-read, History, and calibration discussion are visible only to people added as facilitators or committee members. At submission, a facilitator can send unresolved comments to the relevant reviewing managers. Applied ratings flow into manager reviews, while recommended ratings wait for the managers to accept or reject them. The rule from the previous section still holds: if any piece of feedback in the packet is about you personally, that piece is hidden from you — even if your role normally would let you see it. For example: as a cycle admin you can read your colleagues’ manager reviews while they’re being drafted. The review your own manager is drafting about you, however, stays hidden — you only see it after your manager shares it.

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Cycle admins

A cycle admin can see every review artifact in a specific cycle. Cycle admin is scoped to a single cycle, not a global role. Someone becomes a cycle admin by:
  1. Creating the cycle — the person who creates a performance review cycle is automatically a cycle admin for that cycle.
  2. Being added in the Configuration tab — existing cycle admins can add other members explicitly.
Cycle admins of one cycle have no special access to other cycles. If someone needs visibility across multiple cycles, they need to be added to each one.

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Two ways to view a review packet

A review packet bundles self reviews, peer feedback, upward feedback, and the manager review for one employee. There are two separate paths into a packet:

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Standard view

The packet is available to the subject’s management hierarchy and to cycle admins. The rule above still applies — you never see items about yourself, even through this path.

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Calibration view

Inside a calibration, facilitators and committee members can see packets for the employees being calibrated, even if those employees aren’t in their reporting chain. This is how calibration committees compare employees across teams. Being a cycle admin does not automatically put you on a calibration. Calibration access is granted only when you’re added to that specific calibration as a facilitator or committee member. The reverse also holds: being on a calibration does not make you a cycle admin for anything outside that calibration.

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What changes when a review is shared

Before the review is shared with the subject, only the management chain and cycle admins can see it. After the review is shared:
  • The subject can see questions marked Visible to employee during cycle setup.
  • Questions disabled for employee visibility stay private to managers, skip-levels, and cycle admins.
  • Calibration comments, History, the pre-read, and internal rating changes are never shared with the subject.
Learn more in Sharing reviews.

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Where the same rule applies

The rule that you can’t read feedback about yourself extends to every surface, not just the standard packet view:
  • Your own packet, even via admin paths. Cycle admins can open any packet in their cycle, but when you open your own packet, your manager review and any peer or upward feedback about you stay hidden. Admin access doesn’t unlock your own restricted content.
  • Insights and Analytics. Managers and cycle admins use Insights to see aggregate responses and drill into specific answers within their access. Feedback written about you is excluded from aggregates and drill-downs. Being a cycle admin doesn’t override this. Learn more about Insights.
  • Calibration participation. A person cannot be both a participant and a reviewee in the same calibration. Use separate calibrations when a committee participant also needs to be reviewed.

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FAQs

Yes. Peer feedback goes into your manager’s view of your review packet so they can incorporate it into your manager review. You, the subject, never see the peer feedback written about you.
Yes. Your colleague never sees it — only their manager, skip-levels, and cycle admins do.
No. Your manager never sees upward feedback written about them. Their manager (your skip-level) and cycle admins see it.
No. The rule applies to cycle admins too — you never see feedback written about yourself. The upward feedback about you is visible to your manager and other cycle admins, but not to you.
Only after a manager explicitly shares the review, and only the questions marked Visible to employee during cycle setup. Calibration notes and internal adjustments are never visible to the employee.
The person who created the cycle, plus anyone added in the cycle’s Configuration tab. Cycle admin is scoped per cycle — it’s not a global role.