Annual Review

We had our annual reviews this year and I have to say this year is the most disappointing year in all my working career. Before this year, I always received a rating of a 4 or 5 on a 5 point scale (5 being the highest and 1 being the lowest). Well, this year I received a 3. I was shocked and really upset. What upset me was that the review was full of criticism and “areas of improvement” mixed in with praise. I’m totally fine with feedback, but what upset me was that my boss never gave me any feedback all year, even when I asked him in our monthly meetings. Very frustrating! I pretty much refuted every point and pointed out that he wasn’t a very good manager this year (this is his first year being a manager and he’s terrible at delegating and training). I’m sensitive to begin with, but these pregnancy hormones have made me even more sensitive, so I cried in front of him! So embarrassing! Well, he knew I would be upset so he explained to me that he pretty much had no choice but to write all my areas of improvement as his new boss told him to do that. He even admitted to me that he wasn’t a good manager to me and that he would spend more time with me this year. Also, I found out from him and other people in my department that everybody got a 3 rating in my dept...nobody gets a 4 or 5. Apparently this has been standard practice in our dept for years and that your rating will not affect your raise/bonus. That made me feel slightly better, but I was still upset. There’s just something not right with having somebody rate you and your work. How objective are they really going to be? And I know for a fact there’s so much political b.s. that managers are told what kind of rating to give their employees, no matter how great of a job you did. Well, I did end up getting a raise and a small bonus, so I’m thankful I got something (considering how badly our company did last year and the shape of the mortgage industry). We didn’t even get a bonus last year, which upset a lot of us….I lost out on getting 16% of my salary. They even cut our raises last year, but because so many people complained, they decided mid year to give everybody a 2 or 3% raise if you performed well the previous year. Luckily I got the 3%. Let's just hope this mortgage industry picks up soon! These measly 2-3% raises are not catching up with the yearly inflation rate. However, I am thankful for anything they give us....it's better than nothing.