to refuse to attend this appraisal

[Ionut]

I last had an appraisal 4 years ago, and nothing ever came of it (nor the previous 2) .. they have generic questions like "Mark yourself out 10 for time keeping" and "3 targets for the next year" - no targets were discussed at the meeting, nor any follow up on how those targets are going, no provision of training to meet those targets etc. they're all just filed away somewhere...
last 4 years, my line manager just never bothered with them, now all of a sudden they're calling me to an appraisal in 2 weeks.

AIBU to refuse to take part in the process? As it's clearly a pointless exercise.

Honestly they really suck but they are a normal thing most businesses will tell managers they have to do at least once a year. I grit my teeth and get through it. It's not worth creating bad feeling with your manager and the business over.

If you want to make the meeting more worthwhile, take your own things you'd like to talk about as well- e.g. any training you think would be beneficial.

If it's a requirement that everyone is doing then I doubt you can say no? If you're looking for follow up on training then certainly ask for it...

You're just going to look like you're being difficult or causing problems if you say "no it's a waste of time". Lots of things at work are purely box ticking exercises to say they're being looked at.

there's np point. I've asked for training for years. nothing happens. I'm looking to move on anyway.

Negative things that will happen if you attend = none
Negative things that will happen if you don't attend = questions, scrutiny on your motivation and performance, annoyance from your manager

Easy one.

You cant just refuse to do something you're paid for. Its part of your job.

It sounds like your manager is pretty rubbish, but appraisals should really be about your own career development and progress, and any objectives are really up to you to achieve (albeit with support from your LM, which has clearly been lacking).

I'd still go, but be very clear about what YOU want out of it - if you want follow up meetings, why don't you bok them in (this is how our company is structured, but we have 1-1s quarterly which are supposed to be employee-led).

What are you trying to achieve by refusing? It is a genuine question. It will be part of the process to do them and it is a shame that they are treated as a tick box exercise. If you refuse to go through it, it will probably generate more emails, discussions, scrutiny, invite manager annoyance, etc. If you want to make a point or to try to drive change, refuse and explain why. If you are trying to save time, just do the appraisal, it will be simpler than dealing with the fallout of not doing it.