Urgent question about performance plan

[MazJ1994]

Hi all,

Any advice help would be appreciated, I've tried to keep this as brief as possible

Last year I took a job for a civil service agency. Pretty much immediately I thought the job was not for me but tried my best and feel like I had a good attitude to it. I hold a guanrteed position but if I complete a qualification I move onto a higher role.

I applied for jobs, due to my skill set I've applied for jobs in civil service. Hearing back from these is taking so long so I eventually had to tell my boss I was struggling with the traineeship and I did not want to continue.

I get on well with my boss and they said the traineeship could be paused for a number of months whilst I have a think about my situation. This sounded ideal. They have now said to justify this they need to put me on a performance plan, I have read this plan and some of comments seem generic and do not apply to me in my honest opinion. I am slightly behind where I near to be but this is largely not my fault due to a number of reasons.

I am now worried this performance plan will effect any civil service jobs if I get offered them. A quick scan on Google suggests I would be ok but I just can not see a new agency not wanting an up to date performance record.

Any general advice or simliar experience very much appreciated. I took a huge back cut for this job so stupidly did not join a union.

I am thinking of telling my boss I do not want to pause I revert back to my original thoughts but I feel the improvement plan may still remain as I'd still be working in a similar role.

I should have added my big worry is that If I tell my boss I'm looking at other jobs it could put my in a really difficult position. I prefer to be honest with these things but obviously I may not get the jobs and could be waiting many months to hear more.

I don't know what to advise I'm afraid but wishing you luck and bumping this for you.

Is it a performance improvement plan? Or a traineeship improvement plan? I think there are implications if you’re in performance improvement with regards to applying for jobs. And yes agree recruitment in cs takes ages. Even slower now with getting challenged by government to reduce head count. It’s much quicker if you go for expression of interest roles.

Thanks for reply So I've spoke to manager and it seems it's more a traineeship improvement plan more than general poor performance. Im new to civil service so still quite sceptical, it feels like one of these odd situations where I've tried to do right thing and it's backfired somewhat.

Coming up to six months since I applied for another role and still waiting to hear back from an interview.