Assessment grade out of the blue in email

[RoseWei]

Email today entitled 'Monitoring of performance) from the Exam Board I work for (verifying exams, not quite marking but similar, includes supporting centres). More like a contractor but they take NI and tax off earnings - have a contract but it ends for 2 - 3 months a year so continuous employment isn't an issue.

Anyway, this email told me that I'd been awarded a poor performance grade for this past year and went on to say:"There may be a range of reasons for this and we understand some of these may have been out of your control."

This must be a reference to the incredibly poor administration, largely centred around deployment. At the start of this past year's contract, I had about 8 centres allocated to me but in the end only visited a couple because, in spite of hours and hours of almost forensic work by me trying to track down centre contacts, admin procedures at the Board are so poor - wrong allocations; double allocations; centres not existing; not running courses ...

I've had no end of probs with the admin side of things at the Board - it's a disgrace. When I finally got through to someone at the Board, was told that he grade would be a result of various factors including allocations - how many offered, how many turned down, that sort of thing.

What little work I had this year, I did well - wrote timely reports and was, I have to say, a good support for my centres.

At NO time did the Board or my immediate supervisor (who isn't returning my phone messages), tell me otherwise, contact me about any problems etc. So this is right out of the blue and a massive shock because it is, frankly, deeply unjust. The email concludes by saying I'll have less work next year (that would be difficult - they was so little this past year) and it'll be closely monitored (by the guy who never communicates with me anyway - hasn't returned my calls or email today).

There is an appeals process but of course it is internal and I'm pessimistic. I asked about a face to face meeting if that doesn't work out and was told, no, they don't do that. But I think it's mandatory? Gutted - worked hard and well and had to spend a massive amount of time dealing with the Board's admin cock ups. Any thoughts? I'd be pleased to hear ... feeling low right now.