How to deal with poor performance review?

Parent Cafe
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<p>Thanks everyone for your opinion.</p>

<p>I know I have made several mistakes in my job. I am not denying that nor am I saying that I am the best employee. My only complain is that the performance evaluation put so much weight on one category, and that is following a rule that is NOT implemented fairly and consistently. </p>

<p>They call me out for doing something that sometimes you can’t help but doing. However, if someone else does it, you don’t hear anyone talking about it. </p>

<p>I haven’t even gotten a copy of my 30 day evaluation yet. Also, during my first team lead evaluation, it took my team leader several days before giving me a copy to acknowledge electronically. During the time when we talk about what grade she gave me, she deducted some points off during the discussion. She graded me in 19 different categories when it was only 45 minute long observation of me doing my job. Some shouldn’t even be there, but because she discussed it to me, she gave me a 2/5. For being innovative, I was given 3 out of 5. Why isn’t that a bonus? Make it 3/0? </p>

<p>When another TL from another division was doing the observation, I was only graded in 7 categories. Nothing has changed, there is nothing new that day, and it is also in the afternoon. Don’t get why it was different at all.</p>

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<p>I hate employees evaluations. I have to give them to my nursing assistants and they are created to identify deficiency. Like, there is a large space where you have to identify what the employee needs to improve upon. My own boss said I needed to improve my attendence at meetings. That was the only thing she could think I needed to improve…which is good considering I am a direct care nurse and I am there to take.care of the patients and not attend constant meetings…</p>

<p>But anyway, our evaluations at tied to our raise and sometimes I feel like if they can identify one thing wrong, however small, they can give you a poorer raise.</p>

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<p>nutridame, I’m sorry you got an evaluation that you didn’t think was fair. Please go back and read your post 21. Beginning with your comment that your “only complaint” is they put too much emphasis on one category, count how many complaints follow that “only complaint”. What you’re doing is usually viewed in the business world as whining.</p>

<p>You work for these people. You do not get a vote. You cannot whine, argue, or disagree with an evaluation. Either you accept the evaluation, try to learn from it, and move on; or you truly move on to another job.</p>

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<p>I worked at my last job for over 20 years with generally excellent performance reviews. One year, I had a lot of personal issues going on and although my work was still well above average, it was not what my boss had come to expect of me. I acknowledged that, said that I had put the issues aside and we agreed to start afresh. Three months before my next review, my boss called me in and said I was back and my new review was going to reflect that. One month later, my boss was fired (downsizing) and replaced with a horror show from another office. This person and I had been on the same level but she chose to go into management and I opted out to have a family. We had long despised each other personally but it never mattered because we didn’t work together. Now she was my boss. It gave her (I believe) great pleasure to recycle the bad review and add to it. She said that I was rated the worst in the office by another department that we interacted with based on a survey. When I asked how many people in that department had rated me poorly, she actually had the nerve to say that ONE person had answered the survey (out of about 50) and my negative review was based on that one response. Anyway, I knew the writing was on the wall and I got my act together soI was ready when, 6 months later, I was fired along with a number of other competent, qualified people. </p>

<p>In your case, you might try doing the printout each day if that’s what the company wants. They may want it because it gives them a standard measue with which to compare employees by… as for keeping notes, just do it and don’t mention it.</p>

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<p>Wait, you have a job, don’t you? They didn’t fire you, did they? Just be happy you have a job for goodness sake. Evaluations are the real world stuff, whether they’re good or not. Many employers aren’t nearly as knowledgeable about how to deal with people as you’d think. </p>

<p>As others have said, they may be looking for reasons to fire you. The fact that they’re focusing on the one area where you didn’t do your best may not be because that’s oh-so important, it’s because they’re trying to find weaknesses so they can fire you.</p>

<p>But it does sound as if you’re having troubles getting used to be on the low end of the totem pole. Just do what they say, and follow their methods. It may seem like madness, but get used to it; it’s not worth trying to change.</p>

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<p>I agree with OhioMom. Management plays games and its probably worse than ever in this economy. My husbad was in management for several years at more than one company and wound up in a sickening situation where he was told for every employee he rated as “exceeds”, it must be balanced by a “below expectations” given to someone else in his group. Never mind if all of them were exceeds employees. If he wanted to give someone a raise he had to s$*% all over someone else that didn’t deserve it. He left that company and wound up at another where one year, one of the annual goals he was given was to find two people to fire and do it. Even if no one deserved it. The company felt that the occasional firing kept everyone on their toes. I don’t think anything necessarily this scary is going on with the original poster’s job, just saying that corporations play games and don’t deserve our loyalty anymore.</p>

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<ul>
<li>because I am doing things differently.
-They also think that I am doing other people’s job. I am trying not to, but what if my co-worker is really slacking off?
-I feel that I was being unfairly criticized because of what my co-worker said to them. </li>
</ul>

<p>After many years, I used to say: they’ll chew you up and spit you out. But, really, who says they have to be fair? It’s business. They want you to do x and you like y. You didn’t like or undertand the review, so you took it to your coworkers. You seem to feel you do more than the others, that you have to- and I’m here to tell you: business doesn’t always like self-designated heroes. </p>

<p>So, you got one part lower on the review- or several ok and several not. What’s the result? Did they put you on warning? Did they cancel some expected raise? Any real threat here? Any advice from the boss?</p>

<p>Or, is is possible (just askin’) that you mentally “shut down” when you saw it wasn’t what you expected? Got freaked and didn’t hear it all or digest it?</p>

<p>It is possible to go into a review and- for umpteen reasons- see some unfair remarks. I was very good at what I did and still had review areas where “improvement” was needed. Sometimes, this is because they can’t mark everyone all-perfect or nearly-perfect all the time. (So, they look for a couple of weaker spots.) Sometimes, it’s reality. Sometimes, the boss doesn’t realize you’re better at some task than he or she thinks. Yeah, sometimes it’s something unfair going on.</p>

<p>What do you do? It is a life lesson- something to learn for all the rest of your working life: you man up, so to speak. You don’t fall apart. You show willingness to listen and improve. You don’t expect a star for every good deed. You think about your other goals- family, money, dignity- and keep at it, in the ways they want and per the standards they set. And, you smile.</p>

<p>It’s business. Its a company that has to do things to stay afloat. You are just one part. The most successful people- anyone here will tell you- are resiliant. If it’s an impossible situation, you do what you can to move on. But, to understand if it IS impossible, you have to take a cold hard look at yourself.</p>

<p>Good luck. These things always sting. The strong keep going.</p>