You get the feeling that you're going to get the raise that you're going to get no matter how hard you work.

At some point, you do end up getting to the top end of the company's range for your position.

There's also the vagueness of what they're comparing you against - people in your department, in your company, or some generic group of people in your boss' head. One previous company made it clear: B people are in the top 5% of company and A people are in the top 5% of the industry. WTF? It was clear the only people getting B's and A's were golden haired angels.

quote:

Originally posted by PASig:
Of course this affected my merit increase and bonus.

I see it the other way around. I think the merit increase and bonus affected your review.

Cheap bastards don't want to give people raises they've earned so they review people low purposely in order to "justify" the low/no raise.

quote:

Originally posted by V-Tail:

We finished lunch and I left, never to return. That was a Wednesday. I took the rest of the week off and started my new job the following Monday.

That is awesome.

quote:

Originally posted by CoolRich59:

quote:

Originally posted by V-Tail:

We finished lunch and I left, never to return. That was a Wednesday. I took the rest of the week off and started my new job the following Monday.

That is awesome.

I kept in touch with some of the folks who were on my team. After I walked, with a lot of the design in my head and not yet committed to paper, it seems that the project was delivered late, failed to meet the committed delivery date, and failed a bunch of acceptance test criteria.

The company had to deal with penalties that were far in excess of my annual salary. It would have been a heck of a lot cheaper for them to have given me a raise commensurate with my performance review of 10 in every category, instead of the miserable 1.5% that they offered.

It was a very profitable company for the four owners, sharing some of the profit with the workers who made it happen would have made sense, but greed precluded that.

quote:

Originally posted by PASig:
I felt like I worked my rear end off this year and went above and beyond in my job duties and the actual review text spells this out, but the final rating score does not and is basically a "C" for what I thought all year was "A" work....

I give you an "S" for Schmuck...

But then, I got an "S" for Schlimazel.

Oy R2!

Worse part about working for 'The Man' is you have to supply your own K-Y.

I just looked at it again, and every category has comments from my manager just glowing with “PASig has gone above and beyond” “PASig exceeded XYZ” “PASig continues to be our go-to person for XYZ”

Then they give me effectively a “C” and a pittance of a merit increase, WTF

Literally the lowest merit increase in 15 years and the company had their best year ever in 2018.

I’ve been with this company 15 years now in various roles, going on 7 in my current one and would like to keep going with them, just not under this guy.

Need to get my resume updated ASAP and start looking, there are a ton of other openings in this corporation.

That stinks.

A former company massaged my entire offices numbers so the high performers were downgraded in order to pay us less while the low performers were upgraded in order to give them actual raises. One of many reasons I left.

My current employer has done away with reviews and switched to a system of "coaching". We're supposed to meet with our coaches at least quarterly and set goals for growth and what not. These meetings with our "coaches" are supposed to be be a way to discuss everything we do, what we want to do, what we do well, etc. They aren't supposed to be any kind of performance evaluation. Riiiiiiight. My "coach" is my less than competent manager. The program is designed for about 85% of our workforce. I'm in the 15% that it serves no real purpose except for my "coach" to offload their work on to me as a goal towards professional growth. I've opted out. Haven't heard a word from HR.

quote:

Originally posted by CoolRich59:

quote:

Originally posted by RogB:
Do what my employees used to do when they didn't get the Outstanding rating they expected. Ask what you can do so that your next rating can be higher. Put the ball in their court.

I have to disagree with this - at least as far as my experience goes.

Example #1: Nailed everyone of my performance goals. My internal clients raved about me. My colleagues raved about me. My manager raved about me. Then I sat down for my review with the Dept VP and was told that the corp was looking to cut costs, so he was changing my score from "Exceeds Expectations" to "Meets Expectations" which meant I did not get a raise.

Example #2: Had my performance review. Was told that I was "invaluable", I "excelled in every performance category", and that I had "single-handed turned an unhappy client into a happy client that was sending more business to the firm", etc. At the end of the review, my rating was "Meets Expectations".

In my experience, the whole performance review process is bullshit.

I would agree with your VP you met his expectations as well as those outlined in the goals.

To exceed would mean you are picking up your bosses tasks or some other org or person's. Or going outside your job description in some other positive way.

Now, what I hate is when we have to get together with the other managers/directors and do a level set with the understanding that only 10% of the total resource pool can be "exceeds expectations"....then comes the wheeling and dealing and some people get screwed.

And as far as raises, at least in my company I get a set budget...normally 3-4% of my total resource budget and I get to spread that around as I (and HR) see fit which is very difficult if you have several high performers.

quote:

Originally posted by Lord Vaalic:

quote:

Originally posted by RogB:
Do what my employees used to do when they didn't get the Outstanding rating they expected. Ask what you can do so that your next rating can be higher. Put the ball in their court.

At my company I am not allowed to answer that question. Seriously I cannot tell my team what they need to do to get the highest rating. Just keep working and producing and Ill let you know at the end of the year if it was enough. (Spoiler Alert... It wont be)

That's BS...total BS

If Einstein, Da Vinci, and Edison are all on the same team...

They are just average. Because they are all genius level, they are all just average to each other.

Here's another stupid example:

If I tell you your goal is to get a gold medal, and you do, you just met expectations.

If I tell you get a gold and you get a silver, you suck.

If I tell you get a Bronze and you get a silver, you exceeded your goals and get a higher rating than the gold medalist even though you are not as good as the gold, but he was expected to get it, so he just did what he was supposed to do.


And if by some miracle you do get a high rating, you wont get it the second year because now you are expected to be Outstanding, so when you are, your just doing what your supposed to be doing.



Worker A makes 10 parts an hour
Worker B makes 5 parts an hour

Worker A gets tired of always kicking ass so he slows down to 8 parts an hour, and worker B ups his game to 7 parts an hour.

Worker A is a piece of shit because he dropped to 8, even though he is still outperforming worker B. Worker B is a hero because he is making more

And then there is the age old question:

If you have an account where things are smooth and easy and there are small issues but things are well established, are you better or worse than the guy who had a new difficult account with lots of issues and problems to overcome?

quote:

Originally posted by Lord Vaalic:
And then there is the age old question:

If you have an account where things are smooth and easy and there are small issues but things are well established, are you better or worse than the guy who had a new difficult account with lots of issues and problems to overcome?

Who was more profitable for the company is the answer.

quote:

Originally posted by RHINOWSO:

quote:

Originally posted by Lord Vaalic:
And then there is the age old question:

If you have an account where things are smooth and easy and there are small issues but things are well established, are you better or worse than the guy who had a new difficult account with lots of issues and problems to overcome?

Who was more profitable for the company is the answer.

You would think so, I agree, if anything money should talk.

But not in the messed up world of bizzaro corporate review criteria

I have been on both sides of the merit review process. Let me tell you, the supervisor's job is not easy. Upper management determines what the annual raise pool is and distributing those funds fairly is a bitch. Sometimes management even imposed artificial requirements such as X% had to exceed expectations and Y% had to be below expectations or even get a zero raise. Delivering that message to people you have known for years is tough.

Utter bullshit.

I don't even have words for how stupid our system is. It's so stupid and complicated, NEEDLESSLY--NONE OF OUR RAISES ARE EVEN TIED TO THE GODDAM THINGS--that our HR trolls are months, MONTHS!, behind in processing them.

There are dozens of people that are months behind in receiving their merit raises in my organization. Raises that are guaranteed as long as they are funded, and they are funded currently (assuming they aren't on performance probation). All because this 12-step performance system that some jackwagon making $200,000/year thought up to make themselves look good.

It takes me several days to do one for my employees, among my other duties. And it is for nothing, then causes them to have to wait an extra 3 months to actually get their raises.

I had a guy due in November. I think we finally finished his the first week of this month. He put his resignation in a week later. When he left he still hadn't received his raise.

It is infuriating.

quote:

Originally posted by V-Tail:
The last review of this type that I had, was many years ago. My manager took me to lunch and at the appropriate time he opened a folder and took out my review form.

Top marks in every category. Everything was a 10. Then he told me what my raise was. 1.5%

I looked at him and asked if this was some sort of sick joke. He looked embarrassed and said that's the number that came down from top management (owners of the company).

I said, "If the company doesn't think I'm worth more than that, there's no point sticking around. Do you want me to finish out the day, or should I just leave now?"

He tried to tell me that I shouldn't feel that way. I just pointed out the new cars that each of the four owners was driving, and asked if they would be able to afford these luxury vehicles without the efforts of the troops who were doing the work. "Good luck finding somebody to finish the project on which I have been the lead designer."

We finished lunch and I left, never to return. That was a Wednesday. I took the rest of the week off and started my new job the following Monday.

Wow!

There have been times in my career where I wished I had the balls to do this. But I am not in so much demand that I can guarantee I could get another job paying as much or more than the last one.

I once worked for a company where they put a salary freeze on everyone who had a salary above a certain level. I was above that level. I got 4/5 most years on my review, and one year I got a 5/5. At that company, '4' means you walk on water, and '5' means you walk on water, and everyone saw you do it.

My manager's comment was, "Too bad it won't do you any good regarding a raise". Of course, he was in the same boat, getting zero raise himself.

It turns out the reason for the salary freeze was they were trying to sell the company, and they were trying to keep a tight lid on expenses.

I stayed almost five years at that company, because I enjoyed the work so much. When I stopped enjoying the work is when I started wondering why I am staying, and I finally left. Haven't looked back since.

quote:

Originally posted by btanchors:

quote:

Originally posted by V-Tail:
The last review of this type that I had, was many years ago. My manager took me to lunch and at the appropriate time he opened a folder and took out my review form.

Top marks in every category. Everything was a 10. Then he told me what my raise was. 1.5%

I looked at him and asked if this was some sort of sick joke. He looked embarrassed and said that's the number that came down from top management (owners of the company).

I said, "If the company doesn't think I'm worth more than that, there's no point sticking around. Do you want me to finish out the day, or should I just leave now?"

He tried to tell me that I shouldn't feel that way. I just pointed out the new cars that each of the four owners was driving, and asked if they would be able to afford these luxury vehicles without the efforts of the troops who were doing the work. "Good luck finding somebody to finish the project on which I have been the lead designer."

We finished lunch and I left, never to return. That was a Wednesday. I took the rest of the week off and started my new job the following Monday.

Wow!

There have been times in my career where I wished I had the balls to do this.

Well, I have to confess. I sort of cheated a little.

I had received recruiting phone calls from a competitor, a month or so before the review. Just out of curiosity, I did interview with the competitor, and I had an offer letter in my pocket. The offer was for more bucks, a little more autonomy in my work, a better benefits package. I was on the fence, trying to decide. I did like the old company, liked the job assignments, etc.

I wasn't really sure whether to accept the new offer or stay where I was.

The excellent performance review coupled with the 1.5% raise offer, along with the fact that the four owners were really raking in the bucks that were brought into the company by me and the other project leaders at my level and not doing any of the promised "profit sharing," made the decision for me.

I just thanked my manager for his good review, told him that 1.5% was not adequate, I was taking the rest of the day off, and if the company wanted me to come back to work the next morning they could contact me before end of business that day. Otherwise, they would not see me again.

He looked as if he did not believe me, and I never told him that I had a confirmed offer letter in my pocket, so it was really not a gutsy move on my part. It was sort of a no-lose situation, with lucky timing.

I was given the eval forms to distribute down to my staff a week or two after the ownership had advised everyone was getting 3% raise with the exception of the newer staff, who got nothing.

I never distributed the evals to my team and pushed back up the chain. Who has time for that fucking nonsense?

Mine was a joke also, all my numbers improved over last some quite dramatically, in 2018 I rated 4's and 5's, 5 being the highest score.

This year I was 2's and 3's

For instance in one category the average score was a 61, I scored in the 80's = 3

So what you are telling me is this is a complete farce and has no relevance at all on my personal performance, some corporate cog is just handing out random numbers.