A review is basically structured feedback about someone's work. It can be very indepth and detailed, like the dreaded "performance review", or it can be as simple as a sentence or two and a rating. With review templates, we give you the flexibility to ask for and give reviews in pretty much any format you like.

Technically, there is no difference. You can just think of a review as structured feedback, meaning it is organized into topics that are meaningful to the aspect of your work that is being commented on. You can also think of feedback as being typically private, only between two coworkers, while a review may be shared via your profile.

There are a few differences. First off, a testimonial is, practically by definition, a positive endorsement of someone. There's nothing wrong with that, but everyone understands that it is all about singing someone's praises, so it has limited value. With our review and feedback functionality, you can get a more realistic and complete picture of your work performance. Potential employers want to know about weaknesses as well as strengths - it shows that you are human and are working on improving yourself.

Secondly, Coworkers.com gives you the ability as a reviewer to remain anonymous. This is important because it encourages honesty.

Finally, we give you the flexibility to either keep your reviews private, or share them via your profile. Sometimes you just want to know "how did I do on that presentation yesterday?", and other times you want to tell the world, "look at what my coworkers are saying about me."

Your rating is the average of the public, confirmed reviews that have been submitted about you by verified users. To be more specific:

• Every review (feedback) is assigned a score of 1-10. Those that meet the criteria below are averaged to determine your rating.
• A public review is one that the reviewer has marked as public, not private (only visible to you).
• A confirmed review is one that you have looked at and marked as confirmed. Until and unless you confirm a review, it is never visible to others, and it has no effect on your rating.
• A verified user is one who has registered with Coworkers.com and we have verified by email address. Reviews submitted by unverified (not logged in) users are not applied to your rating, and they cannot be seen by others.

Note that your rating is only visible to others if you have a public profile.

No, we provide a safeguard against this. Reviews and feedback about you are never displayed to other users unless you confirm them. You also have the option of simply using Coworkers.com in "private" mode, ensuring that nothing about you is publicly exposed (see the profile FAQ).

When someone submits a review about you, whether you asked for it or not, you are the first person who gets to see it. If you feel that it is invalid or unfair, you can dispute it, which means that it will not be seen by anyone else. However, you may receive a review that is valid, yet contains some negative points. While you can of course dispute the review, we recommend that you confirm the review and allow others to see it. This shows that you are aware of the areas of your work that require some improvement. Employers like to see honesty, balance, and motivation. And if you receive a more positive review at a later point in time, you now have demonstrable evidence of your professional growth!

Because the truth helps! By asking for the unvarnished truth about your work, you will learn some things about yourself that you didn't know, and you will be able to address any weaknesses that you may have. You can also use reviews and feedback to strengthen your professional reputation, validating the skills that you know you possess.

No. You can request feedback from anyone, as long as you have their email address. When you do this, they receive an email that lets them easily submit feedback about you. They are also invited to join Coworkers.com, but it is not required.

It depends. First of all, you can specify whether the feedback is meant to be private or public (this is in the last step of the Get Feedback wizard). If you say it should be private, the feedback will never be exposed to anyone other than you. Otherwise, it will be made visible to other users only if you confirm it. If you do nothing or dispute the feedback, it will not be made visible to others.

Sure, you can ask as often as you like! In fact, the more feedback you get, the more likely you are to get an accurate picture of your work performance. So ask away!

No, you can also ask past coworkers for feedback. This is a handy way for you to build up a permanent track record of your work performance, which you can show to potential employers.

Because you're doing them a favor! Even if you are brutally honest and tell them some things they would rather not hear, it will benefit them in the long run by letting them know how they can improve their professional skills.

No. You can review anyone, as long as you have their email address. When you do this, they receive an email notification and are invited to join Coworkers.com, at which point they can view the review.

No, you can send reviews and feedback to anyone, whether they solicited it or not. It also doesn't matter if they have signed up with Coworkers.com or not.

It depends. First of all, you can specify whether the review is meant to be private or public (this is in the last step of the Give Feedback wizard). If you mark it as private, it will never be exposed to anyone other than your coworker. If you mark the review as public, it will be visible to other users once it is confirmed by your coworker. If your coworker disputes the review, it will not be made visible.

When you submit a review of a coworker, we notify them via email and give them the option to confirm or dispute the review. An email address or Coworkers.com username lets us accurately identify your coworker, whereas less unique information such as someone's name would more likely lead to a mistaken identity.

Yes, you can. In the last step of the Give Feedback wizard, under "My Identity", you can select "I wish to remain anonymous". If you do this, you are the only person who will be able to see that you sent the feedback.

Yes, you can, but only before it has been confirmed by your coworker. After that point, the review cannot be changed or removed. Note that you also have the option to save a review as a draft, then come back later to finish and send it.

A review template provides the structure for a review. It is similar to a survey form. A template consists of topics that are divided into categories. Topics can be of many different types - for example, a standard topic presents the reviewer with a slider that can be adjusted from 1 to 10. A multiple choice topic lets the reviewer check off multiple answers. A text topic allows free-form entry of text or HTML.

The beauty of review templates is that they allow you to customize your feedback to your exact needs. Templates can be as simple or as complex as you want them to be. They can be specific to your industry, job, location, or even a particular project. They can be shared publicly or only for your own private use.

When you ask for feedback or give feedback, you are first asked about the subject of the feedback. Based on that, we suggest a review template for you, which is the most popular (highest voted) one for the subject you have chosen. You can easily switch to a different template, or create your own.

If you are asking for feedback, respondents are presented with an input form that is driven by the template you have specified with your request. If you are giving feedback, you immediately see the input form corresponding to the template you have chosen.

Yes, you can create a private template that you own, which is only visible to you and the people you send feedback to or request feedback from. To do this, simply create a template and keep the default setting for visibility (do not mark it as public).

When you send feedback to a coworker, a score ranging from 1 to 10 is produced for the review (feedback). This is a quick metric that provides a snapshot of the content of the feedback. In the case of public reviews of work performance, it is used to calculate the average score that shows up in the reviewee's profile.

This score is calculated as follows. Every review template is broken into categories that contain topics. In many cases, there is only one category. However, if there is more than one, each category can be assigned a relative weight. When a review is submitted, its score is the weighted average of all of the categories from the associated template. Likewise, each topic in a review template can be assigned a weight, which determines the relative importance of that topic to all the others in the same category. The category score, then, is the weighted average of the scores given for each topic. If a topic is left unanswered, it is simply ignored. Also, certain types of topics, such as free-form text, have no impact on review scores.

By default, review templates are assigned a weight of 1 for all categories and topics, so the review score is the simple average of all the topic scores that have been provided. You would only need to assign non-default weights in scenarios where more complex feedback is required.

To become a registered member, we require only the following:

1. Email address, so we can communicate with you.
2. Unique username, which is used to identify you to other users (in addition to your actual name and other information, if entered).
3. Password that is used to protect your account.

You are free to enter much more information to fill out your profile. However, you can get started with the bare minimum fields listed above.

It's up to you. Please see the profile FAQ, which covers this topic.

No. We allow you to associate multiple email addresses with the same account. So, for example, if you are a freelancer who has email addresses with multiple clients, you can merge all of your feedback together from the different clients.

If this happens, your coworker will be notified after some time that you have not viewed the review, and hopefully he or she will realize what happened and resubmit the review with your current address. Beyond that, there's nothing we can do, because you must be able to verify the email address that the reviewer used to identify you.

There are two things you can do to forestall this problem. One is to proactively request reviews and feedback, rather than waiting for it to come to you. The other is to create a public profile, so people can easily search for you and submit feedback from your profile page, rather than identifying you by email address.

When you register or log in, you have the option of saying "keep me logged in for 2 weeks". If you do this, your browser saves a cookie - a small file stored on your hard drive - to "remember" your login information. The cookie only stores your username and a uniquely generated code, not your password. This gives you a convenient way to return to Coworkers.com on a regular basis and do things like check out your recent activity, without requiring you to log in every time. Note, however, that if you want to do anything that requires extra security, such as modifying your account settings, you are required to provide your password.

Yes. We hope you will not choose to do so, especially since you have the option of using the site privately without displaying anything about yourself publicly, as described in the profile FAQ. However, if you really want to cancel your registration, you can do so from the account page.

When you sign up with Coworkers.com, you have the ability to create a public profile (or not). If you choose to do so, this profile makes the following information visible to other users:

• Information about what you do and where you work.
• Links to other social networks that you belong to.
• Details about your past work experience, which others can optionally comment on.
• Reviews that have been submitted about you (only public ones that you have confirmed).
• Reviews that you have submitted about others (only public ones that your coworkers have confirmed).
• Pictures that you have uploaded.
• Links to the profiles of your coworkers.
• Comments about yourself, which others can optionally reply to.

By filling out your profile on Coworkers.com, you can market yourself and increase your visibility on the web. This is especially relevant if you are looking for work - by showing the world how you are rated by your peers, you put valuable information in the hands of potential employers, without requiring them to go out of their way to get it. A profile can also be very valuable if you are a freelancer or part of a small team that finds new projects by word of mouth. The public profiles on our site are regularly indexed by all major search engines, so we can play an important role in your overall networking strategy.

No problem! When you sign up, you are not given a public profile by default, unless you ask for it. This allows you to remain discreet, and if anyone tries to go to your profile page, they will be told that you have a private profile. Otherwise, you can use all the features of the site, just like anyone who has a public profile.

No. We do not expose email addresses anywhere on the site. They are only used for communication between us and you.

Yes. In fact, there is no need to turn it off because it is not turned on by default. You can control this setting from your profile page by clicking on the link that says "allow comments" or "don't allow comments".

A contact is typically someone you have worked with in the past, or currently work with. But it doesn't necessarily need to be a coworker. It might be someone you are interested in hiring, or a potential vendor or business partner. It is anyone you are interested in sharing information or communicating with, or whose professional activity you want to follow.

A group is simply a collection of one or more contacts that you put together under the same name for the purpose of categorization. For example, a group may consist of project team members, or ex-coworkers, or people who you met at a trade conference. A contact can belong to any number of groups. There are various reasons that you may wish to create a group. For instance, you might create a private group of colleagues who you ask for feedback on a regular basis. You might create a group of people that you wish to be notified about when they are reviewed. Or you might create a public group to show other users who you are associated with professionally.

No. You can add someone to your list of contacts simply by entering his or her email address and name. They do not need to confirm that they know you. For example, a contact may be someone who you haven't met but are considering hiring, whose feedback you want to track.

No. You can add anyone as a contact, as long as you have their email address. If they have not yet signed up with Coworkers.com, we will send them an invitation.

LinkedIn is the world's biggest professional networking site. It is an excellent resource for finding and connecting with people, and keeping your professional network updated on your activities.

LinkedIn is primarily used for networking – finding and connecting with other professionals, with whom you may or may not have work experience. Coworkers is focused solely on the people you have close working relationships with. While LinkedIn has the concept of "recommendations", Coworkers goes much further, giving you privacy control, the option for anonymity, templates, analytics, and much more. Bottom line: LinkedIn and Coworkers have different missions and serve different purposes, and we think you should use both – which is why we've made it incredibly easy for you to do so!

If you have not yet registered with Coworkers.com, you can do so quickly, without a password, by signing in to your LinkedIn account. We will import some information, such as your name and work experience, from your LinkedIn profile, so you don't need to enter it again. After you have registered, you can log back in to Coworkers via LinkedIn.

If you have already signed up with Coworkers.com but have not yet filled out your profile, you can do so quickly by clicking on the "Import from LinkedIn" link on the Account page. This will instantly transfer information such as your industry, company, and work experience from LinkedIn.

Over time, we plan to add tighter integration with LinkedIn. We will continue to develop simple and effective tools for analyzing and improving your work, while leveraging the networking and messaging capabilities of LinkedIn, as well as other sites. We will keep you updated as we roll out new integration features, so be sure to sign up for our newsletter if you haven't yet.

Yes. By using this site, you agree to our Terms of Use. Please respect them.

If you use the site without registering, we consider you a visitor who is subject to our general Terms of Use. When you register, you become a member by accepting our Member Agreement, which is a bit more detailed in terms of the relationship between you and the site.

We have legally binding agreements in place with you, the user, for your protection as well as ours. While such agreements can be difficult to follow, we have done our best to make them clear and unambiguous, without much legal jargon. If there are any points in our agreements that you don't understand, you can always ask us to clarify.

With the utmost care and respect. Our privacy policy provides the details. Please make sure you read and understand this document.

The short answer is no. For a full understanding, please see the profile FAQ.

Wherever publicly visible content (text, pictures, or other types of documents) is displayed, we generally place a "flag for review" link next to it. If you follow this link, you can report the content and we will review it and take appropriate action if necessary. Otherwise, you can always contact us directly.

No! We will only send them email related to your request for feedback, and we will make it clear that it was initiated by you. We won't send them newsletters or any other unsolicited material. Furthermore, we will not share their information in any way with any third parties.

We are committed to respecting the privacy of our users. If you have any questions about how we handle personal information, please ask us.

Our mission is to help people be more successful through better interaction with coworkers. We believe that the best workplaces are transparent ones, where team members communicate with each other honestly and frequently. By using this site, you will be part of the next generation of professionals who are learning that openness and self awareness are career boosters.

Oh yeah, and it's fun too!

We are committed to keeping How's My Work absolutely free, with only minimal advertising to pay the bills. This will give you a taste of what you can do with our powerful feedback engine. If you are ready to take it to the next level, we offer many additional features for a very affordable fee, and this is what keeps us in business. So please consider an upgrade today!

To give you the best possible experience, Coworkers.com makes extensive use of advanced web technologies, including CSS, Javascript, and AJAX. Therefore, early generation browsers will not render some of our pages properly. However, if you have a major browser that was released since 2005, you should have no problems. Note that the site is intended for full computer displays with resolution of 800 x 600 or higher. At this point, the site is generally not usable on mobile devices.

We regularly test Coworkers.com against the following web browsers:

• Microsoft Internet Explorer for Windows 2000/XP/Vista, version 6 or higher.
• Firefox (and other Mozilla variants) for Windows, Mac, Unix/Linux, version 2 or higher.
• Apple Safari for Mac or Windows, version 1 or higher.
• Opera for Windows, Unix/Linux, version 7 or higher.
• Google Chrome for Windows, version 1 or higher.