Work probation review

[toogoodforthem]

I am sort of new to all these as I am only just starting my career in my 40's due to illnesses

I had my 1st month review yesterday and I am not happy about it at all and I feel I am not good at my job even though I have put in a lot of effort etc

In
•attendance and timekeeping
•Quality & accuracy of work (includes efficiency & competency in role
•meeting objectives
I was marked as satisfactory

In organisational behaviours
I was marked as Good

It is either improvement required, satisfactory or good.

I am not happy at all because I feel I have put in a whole lot of work and effort and I feel incompetent and that I should have done better in fact feeling ashamed🙈 it has really dampened my spirit.

Should I be worried about this in my 1st month? It's a 6 month probation period.

to be fair op
you seem to have no experience of working and certainly no experience of a probation review

so your concept of a “whole lot of work” may not be in line with this company’s version of a “whole lot of work” and, more importantly, “a whole lot of quality work”

yes Op i would be concerned but not seriously

but
use it productively

timekeeping is satisfactory? well that’s an easy win. Be. On. Time. and by that i mean at your desk, computer on and actually working at your start time. Not rocking up.

Agree. If you’ve only been working for 1 month in this role and this is your first job I think that’s fine. Of course everything needs improvement. A month is no time at all to learn and be competent at a new job.

assumingly they will revisit the review at 3 months. In which case work on the bits that need improvement if you feel it’s the job for you.

remember that if it’s not right for you the probation period works both ways.

OP use the information to make the changes necessary to pass the probation

your username…. is this what you believe?

This is all new to you and I think you’re getting your knickers in a twist unnecessarily.

You were rated either Satisfactory or Good for all aspects. You weren’t rated Needs Improvement for anything.

I would be concerned if I was in probation period and things were marked Needs Improvement. If I didn’t improve them, I could fail my probation.

Stop worrying so much and focus on doing your job well.

Of course, if you don’t keep focused some of the things may slip into Needs Inprovement (eg keep an eye on timekeeping as PP said, that’s an easy thing to do right).

You’ve got Satisfactory for the ‘objectives’ rating. You can use that to ask your manager ‘What would it take for me to be rated Good in terms of meeting my objectives?’

I can't see the problem.. you have a system of requires improvement, satisfactory or good. You have scored good / satisfactory on your first review.

Possibly reframe the scoring system as requires improvement / doing fine/ exceptional.

Normally very few people will get requires improvement or good. At ours the requires improvement is no surprise because other improvement plans are in place. Good is given out to one person in the team who is head and shoulders above the rest.

Is there anything wrong with your attendance and timekeeping? It’s ok for other things to be ‘satisfactory’ after month 1, but it’s not good to have issues with attendance and timekeeping this early. You need to sort this out, because issues with those will give them an easy out if they want to get rid of you.

It’s understandable to still be getting to grips with the actual work, but attendance and timekeeping are really basic things and it’s a big mistake if you’re letting those slip.

PS obviously satisfactory is better than needs improvement! But is there anything wrong with your attendance or timekeeping that might have stopped those being marked good? Because if so you do really need to sort that out.

Quality & accuracy of work (includes efficiency & competency in role)

In fairness to you, @toogoodforthem how can they possibly expect you to meet the "efficiency and competency" criteria after 4 weeks - assessing you in such a short space of time is unrealistic and puts you under the microscope (and hence pressure) far too soon. Having managed people for many years, the most I would do after that length of time would be to have a meeting to find out how you are getting on, is there any support you need and do you have any concerns that I can help unblock for you (eg any issues with other staff that need to be resolved).

You shouldn't reproach yourself, in general the criteria they've given you are very respectable. Also remember that you'll have 5 more of these to go, so they probably think they need to give you some latitude and motivation to improve the marks over the coming months. In other words, they won't give you 10 out of 10 in everything!

You’ve got Satisfactory for the ‘objectives’ rating. You can use that to ask your manager ‘What would it take for me to be rated Good in terms of meeting my objectives?’

this is a good point. @toogoodforthem has your manager given you clear objectives yet? Several roles I've been in where the first month I wasn't given formal objectives.

It depends on the type of work - but in my place if I was grading a new starter after a month I'd find it pretty difficult to say that they were top performing as I wouldn't have enough evidence for that. I know it all feels awkward if you aren't used to it but it sounds pretty standard.

I assume there was a general conversation around those levels, are they happy with your progress? Did they give you any steps to improve? I think satisfactory after 1 month is great. Don’t read too much into it.

In fairness to you, how can they possibly expect you to meet the "efficiency and competency" criteria after 4 weeks -

because the criteria will be the expectation for the standard of efficiency and competency at 4 weeks

Thanks all for your opinions

I don't know how they expect one to meet the highest standards at 4 weeks
Mi am new to all this so I am a complete newbie

It's an entry level job at a local council reviewing applications

because the probation review is based on expectations for a new starter at 4 weeks.

Honestly, I wouldn't worry about it. Many workplaces have a culture of 'good' meaning 'exceptional' when conducting PDRs, so expected or slightly above average performance is nearly always rated as 'satisfactory'.

You should meet the highest standards of timekeeping and attendance from day 1.
Why have you been marked down for this?