Work situation - need advice

[worksucks2023]

Have name changed for this.

I've worked in financial services for the same company for over 20 years, been in current role for 5 years. Mid management level. Never ever had any performance issues in all of that time.

I've just had my mid year review and have been put in a category which effectively means I'm not performing. This has come completely out of nowhere, no previous conversations about issues with my performance. I'm very angry and upset. The summary that my manager has put together of the first half of the year is inaccurate and unfair. There have been some development needs flagged, which I'm ok with, but I'm not ok with being put in an underperforming category. Manager isn't very good, doesn't motivate, basically made me feel like shit to the point that I was in tears in the meeting and had to cut it short. He suggested next steps are that I work on pulling things back during the second half of the year.

BUT: I don't want what will effectively be a black mark on my record. In the business I work in, this marks you as first out the door if there are redundancies.

I haven't changed anything about how I work, but the business I work for have become more and more demanding around performance and you have to do a lot more now just to be seen as having a good performance.

My instinct says I need to challenge this with HR but I don't know if that will do me any favours in the long run. I also feel like I want out - I'm in my 50s and just don't feel able to cope with these kinds of demands any more. But I can't afford to leave unless I get a pay off.

Any advice?

@rookiemere it's a difficult one. I feel less able to meet their increasingly high expectations of me because a) I only work 4 days (but have to cram in 5 days work in that time) and b) I'm just less able to concentrate for long periods of time due to lack of sleep/brain fog. But I get your point, that I'd be effectively agreeing with their assessment of my performance.

I would focus a lot on the reduced time you are working. You are getting paid 20% less so your workload should reflect that.

Good luck today!

It's tomorrow....but thankyou 🙂

hmmmmmm OP have you heard of 'quiet quitting'? How about fighting this rating, also raising menopause issues with HR, but at the same time easing off the pedal a bit for your own mental health. Can you put less in until they do pay you off?

22 years is not to be sniffed at !!!

Change the goalposts. New goals - wind up male crappy manager as much as you can. Be a pain to HR about menopause stuff - do they have a policy - why not? Dail it in at work until the offer you volunteer redundancy.

Sounds like they want you to jump - DON'T JUMP ! Cling on but see them as the bastards that they are.

Sorry to read this OP. Good luck. An annual appraisal shouldn't be a shock, if they are bringing up things you don't know about then it proves that core parts aren't being done properly.

Quiet quitting - I like that. Have tried to fight rating but HR basically don't want to know. Am waiting on manager to respond to my challenges and questions - he said he would do that by 12 today to give me 24 hours to review before we meet. He has 20 mins...

Yeah I suspect HR will have been more receptive to his request for support- if he has asked them to help with documentation- than yours.
They are on one side only and that's the business.

I had this experience once. It was just a crap job in a supermarket when I was doing my masters. But the manager didn't really like me much, I think because I didn't simp over him like some of the other staff. I was a supervisor so I did work closely with him.

It felt like he was using the appraisal process to bully me. Just stuff that I didn't think was true or accurate. But it's quite hard in that type of role (or in lots of jobs) to disprove things like that.

Now having much more experience and having moved on in my career, I'd recommend you look for another job while raising this with hr. One thing I always think is worth remembering though is HR are there to protect the company not for you. I know it's cynical but it's tried. So don't expect much from them. I just feel once a company is prepared to do shit like this they're not worth the effort anyone and will likely get worse to work for.

Good luck. I've not a clue about financial services - but I do know what it's like to have a crazy busy job and struggle because of the bastard menopause.

For me magnesium has been literally life changing. I sleep, my anxiety (which didn't exist pre meno) is gone and I don't have brain fog. Maybe worth looking into ?

Thankyou @Dinopawus - yes I take magnesium as well as being on HRT. It definitely helps. But I'm not the person I was 10 years ago, that's for sure.

Keep playing this by the book. Refuse to accept anything or comment further until your manager has put further explanation to you in writing.

Make the little shithead squirm!

Well that further explanation in writing was promised by 12 today. Am still waiting.

@worksucks2023 did he respond in the end?

I've read your updates op. A few things stand out, I've been told loads of times in line management training etc that nothing in an appraisal or review should come as a surprise. So it's really bad management practice to just pull this on you.

I feel like I don't understand if you don't have objectives how you can be under performing. On what?

Also were you waiting for him to get back to you before you raise a formal grievance? I feel by him nit doing so in the time scale you agreed is not fair enough to kick up to the next stage.

So he did respond to me. But didn't really answer any of my challenges. It was just a copy and paste job from what he'd already said.

HR have said I can't raise a formal grievance, it's apparently not appropriate as this is only a mid year score.

I'm at a loss, to be honest. I've been told that where I need to develop is around 'behaviours' and 'displaying leadership' but it's all so subjective and woolly. There's a piece of feedback on some work I did which someone else is claiming they did most of, which is blatantly not true. But he's choosing to believe the other person over me.

It's a shit show, and I feel done with it all.

Oh, and in our last 1-2-1 around two months ago he said I was on track for 'good' performance. But is now completely denying that he ever said that. He never documented it so it's just my word against his.

I feel for you. I think you should speak with an employment lawyer or a union rep, assuming you are a union member.

Bookmarking this thread as I’m interested. I hope it goes well OP.

I don't have a union. And could an employment lawyer actually help? They haven't dismissed me or anything.

The impact on me if I can't change the performance rating by the end of the year is that I don't get a pay rise or a bonus. So right now I don't know if there's anything I can take action against. Apart from the impact on me. I actually told my manager that that this is keeping me awake at night. It's all I can think about, because I don't know how to put it right.

I would take some legal advice. Even if you don’t do anything right now, just to give you some peace of mind - where you stand and your options.

A solicitor will also make sure you’re documenting everything and raising objections correctly and not missing any deadlines for an employment tribunal.

It’s unlikely in finance that it would get to a tribunal but if you miss a deadline you lose some of your bargaining power for a settlement.

I’ve recently gone through similar working in financial services but I managed to get another job and decided to hand in my notice rather than fight, as the new opportunity was better.

I was expecting my employers to see sense, why does a previous high performing employee suddenly have performance issues but I realised that they were sticking to their story no matter how vague and lacking in evidence.

Also I believe you can raise a grievance at any time about anything so I’m not sure why HR are saying that.

Sorry for the essay, it’s horrible when this happens at work x

I think I have to take a massive step back and care less about this for the sake of my mental health. Awake again at 5.30am worrying about this. I'll do my best, but if that's not good enough then so be it.

For context, my full time equivalent salary is £65k. I'm not on 6 figures. It's really not worth this level of stress.

Hi OP, I don't know about financial services. But I did experience a similar situation in a different industry and I feel strongly that this is not about you at all but about things that are going on in your company, with your manager or with his manager. Yes, you are the target (this time), but it's probably not personal.

I was also part time and doing a full time job "lite". You are part time because of something or someone you care about. That's what's important. Not bananas companies who don't know what they want their employees to do, why or when.

No businesses (or even charities and the public sector in my experience) care about you being a "bargain". They should but they don't. The most senior managers are invariably full time and they just fundamentally don't get the issues around being part time (or often, being female...) because they've never done it.

An employment lawyer or a good union will be able to guide you through the grievance process (what does your grievance policy say by the way?)

I left and from my perspective in my new job (where they treat part timers decently) my old employer were just bats -- but I'd stopped noticing because I'd been there too long!

@Phineyj I think you're completely correct. The company are under a lot of pressure financially and are applying that pressure to their workforce, expecting more and more of their staff year on year. There has to be a breaking point.