Received low performance review yet all goals almost achieved. Should I challenge?

[Sillybreebree]

Hi everyone,

I am about to go on mat leave and received a low performance review of ‘partially achieves expectations’ which outlines that goals were achieved between 40-80%. However, my manager has rated my goals between 80-100% yet I was not given the ‘Achieved Expectations’ assessment. Also all comments were positive with no areas of improvement. I am left feeling baffled and almost can’t help but feel this is borderline discriminatory as I am about to go on mat leave in a couple of months.

Should I contest/challenge this/seek clarification from my manager? Part of me wants to fight but part of me takes this as a sign to look for another job.

Thank you

What you should do is request a meeting with your manager to discuss.

No drama. Just professional.

And ask for absolute clarity as to why below expectations. And then respond accordingly

Why would you think discriminatory?

It won’t impact your maternity entitlement whatsoever

yes, and take your union rep

a union rep won’t attend when the op hasn’t once actually discussed with manager!

Talk to your manager OP. I wouldn’t rate my staff as ‘achieved expectations’ if they only had 80% completed goals though.

mine would

If it's anything like where I work, you get to a certain point and something or someone unexpectedly creates a workflow pause, so you can still say someone has met reasonable expectations even though the project is not complete.Otherwise no one would ever get any positive results.

I hate this time of year, so much pointless box ticking.

So yours attended a meeting with you when you’d received a low performance review and had made no attempt to discuss first with your manager?

Because it will impact her pay award? It is very common that companies give women the motherhood penalty as soon as they request time off for maternity. It is done simply by just always giving lower pay awards each year. Then the lower pay awards means you can’t get promotion as you’re not earning at max of your current job so perceived to be underperforming.
it is insidious

I will schedule a meeting but as I’ve helped the company successfully through a recent restructuring and have had no negative feedback throughout. just a poor overall rating, I feel I strongly need this down in writing.

What if the goals were not achieved fully due to other factors in the business and not down to your employee’s performance?

Do the meeting and follow up with an email confirming what was discussed.

not me personally, but he does, and offers to , and this has been the case throughout my entire career - that is what you pay unions for

Challenge it especially if this against trend - ie you normally are meets expectation.

Where I work if you take a year off for mat your rating for the mat year is based on the prior year so this will impact you financially next year if bonus are paid out based on ratings.

Also being cynical as this was said to me - pregnant staff are not a flight risk - ie we are less likely to leave as we need our mat benefit from the company. Thus if your manager had to decide who to put in that box - you are an easy option.

Finally it may have nothing to do with maternity. Again where I work we are Ona. Forced distribution for rankings so X% of employees must be below expectations. So although you let your goals - your performance is still below your peers which has put you in the box.

Make sense?

“Very common” no

”Common” yes, 5 years ago

Now… it is an utterly stupid employer that plays around with anything maternity related as they will come off worse and we all know that.

how senior are you?

are you saying all feedback has been verb?

how long have you been at the company?

How big is the company and have HR been involved?

He must have a very very light workload if he’s happy to accompany union members to the first meeting with a manager following poor performance review

I would request a meeting and state the purpose.

" I would like to understand my rating was not "Achieved expectations "as all my goals have been met to the standards required for this rating, and I have received no areas for improvement during the course of the year."

If you are in the union, I'd make them aware just to understand if this is a common issue in this appraisal season. I probably wouldn't invite them to the first session with your line manager, but do make sure you take notes about what is said and replay it back by email in case you needed to escalate.

@Ursuladevinia82 her bonus though and for the next one, you get the same grade as last time given you weren't there whilst on Mat Leave.

Anyway OP, have a chat with your manager.

Ask as to what you didn't achieve to get meets expectations or similar. If not good enough, escalate to her/his manager and continue the discussion. Stay calm and focussed. No point in going into such meetings angry.

In my company… the nano second declares they are pregnant…. HR and management pull on their soft velvet gloves

I am mid-senior level and have been at the company for 3 years but recently went under restructure and I report to a new manager. The feedback I was referring to is the feedback given to me by my manager on the assessment itself. There is no negative feedback and nothing for me to improve. This is why I am confused and feel it’s unfair. Surely if there is more to achieve, then this should be highlighted and made measurable against goals, if that makes sense. It’s all documented on our HR system.

Thank you for your suggestion, I prefer this approach.

So you have never had any negative feedback
go a new manager
and put on a performance action plan? On the basis of what precisely? How long after the new manager put you on an action plan?

Yes this is a major eye opener and makes perfect sense. I never looked at it that way. Thank you