Marked as Under Performing what can I do ? :-(

[SquashySponge]

I work for a large company and have had my end of year performance review. I marked myself and my other reviewers all marked me as Good Performance (which is the average score). In my mid year review there were no issues and during my regular meetings with my manager there was nothing to cause undue concern. My manager actually gave me more responsibilities and suggested that next year I should seriously think about going in for a promotion, and when I was going to leave a few months ago, they persuaded me to reconsider. However, out of the blue and at my year end review, my manager has marked me as under-performing. I am shocked and I actually feel like crying. It is completely dented my confidence in my abilities as I have never had such a poor performance in my entire career history.

Please can I have some advice how to take it forward from here?? The score will prevent me from taking other roles in the company, affect my pay, and I fear leave me open to redundancy.

Any news squashy?

Ciske - your steps outlined are very helpful.

It's taken a while to come back as my manager only saw me this week after repeatedly cancelling my prevous meeting requests. By which time the official grades have already been submitted. However, I still had my follow up meeting. My manager alluded to being disappointed with his own grade and he also stressed whilst I did my job well - there were people in the department that had to be marked down - and unfortunately I was one of them - and that I shouldn't take it too personally . There were no specific examples given of my underperformance, no measures to improve by, no examples what 'good' looks like either. The whole process seems so unfair.

On a more positive note, I have been actively interviewing elsewhere and already through to second stage for 2 companies - so it's good to know that my skills are valued elsewhere

I know I could fight it - but I really think the whole appraisal process that has been managed in my company is awful as its only the senior managers decisions that count. Finally I reckon even if I did stay I have lost all trust in the managers above me.