Challenge Performance Review?

akl0506 · July 2013

I would like to ask for a portion of my review to be worded a little differently. My supervisor told me 2 wks ago that she rec'd feedback from one employee that I "scared" her. This employee is younger than I am and is in a support position. I work for a small company (approx 20 "office" employees).

I certainly would never intend to scare anyone and always thought I had an ok working relationship with this person. I will, of course, be sure to be aware of this in my workings with her and others going forward.

However, on my review, rec'd today - this feedback was given more focus than I thought it deserved. My supervisor cited it as a reason that I am not in a leadership role. I beg to differ, frankly. The reason I am not in a leadership role is that I work for a small company and my boss and I are rather duplicative within the company. I have reported into her for 5 of my 6 years there. We get along brilliantly and have a great working relationship. When she retires, I will likely be in her current role, with perhaps a lower level title. The fact of the matter is that there simply isn't an opening higher up than I am in our company that I would be at all qualified for. I have not been passed up for a supervisory position by another colleague or outside hire, for example.

A little background...I have been with the company for 6 years, have always managed our largest accounts & have rec'd positive feedback in every other review regarding my ability to mentor, lead and train. I would rather not have my review state that I was passed up for a role that didn't exist based on feedback of one junior level employee, to be quite frank. I would say this nicer, of course. However, is this appropriate to comment on? In the review form, there is a space for employee comments & for me to sign my review, which I have not done yet.

Additionally, our company is new to "pay grades", but I am not. Is it just me or is it customary for a Senior title to be in a separate pay grade than the non-senior level of that same position? For example - Accountant would be pay grade 4 and Sr. Accountant would be pay grade 5.

Thanks in advance for your help!

winminpin08 · July 2013

I would say definitely site your disagreement before you sign the form. Additionally, I think you need to have further conversation with your manager about your review and what came up. I don't know your situation but if her job is your only way up she may be getting nervous about her position and could be swaying your review to the negative. I had a review a few years back that I strongly disagreed with but I was switching departments so I just sort of let it go but I have always regretted not making sure my disapproval and thoughts had been properly documented. You never know when the review could be pulled out and used against you. We don't have pay grades at my company. I wish we did to keep things more fair and to help eliminate all the raises for the losers who are getting rewarded for keeping a seat warm but who's titles never change.

Edit: I wanted to add, I wouldn't request your manager change her review or remove words, I would just say you want to further document the situation so it is clear that there are no supervisory roles in consideration that you were passed up for, etc, so there would be no confusion if someone reviewed your file in the future.

hopefulmom81 · July 2013

I think it depends what, exactly, is written.

One issue with challenging is that it looks like you are being hyper defensive about a piece of negative feedback that you were given, which can raise a red flag for a supervisor. If that was the only negative on the entire review and you make a big deal out of it, I think that reflects really poorly on you.

I think like PP said, it is important for the future that it doesn't look like you were passed up for a promotion or anything and that it isn't worded like you are this total bully, but other than that I would let it go.

It is kind of like the feedback is someone says they are scared of you and then you become aggressive about the feedback, then it kind of supports what they said, kwim?

Neener73 · July 2013

I would ask to add your own comments to the eval. The comments can be used to add additional information. Make sure you keep the comments professional, as well as clear and concise.

As for the pay grades, I can't say if it is common at other companies but where I work the "senior" titles have a higher pay grade than the "no suffix" titles.

financialdiva · July 2013

LibraryChica:
Can you have a conversation with your boss about the review? Tell her that you were not aware that this was something that played into your lack promotion. You were under the impression that it was due to a lack of openings, could she reword that? You are afraid it gives the false impression that you were passed up.

Also, we have pay grades and they work as you describe. Senior is a level 3, no suffix is a level 2.

I agree with this.

Also, do think maybe they might be planning to create a new leadership position and they are trying to prep you that you might not get it?

We have three levels of staff accountants, so levels 1 to 3, seniors are 4, managers are 5, etc.

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