The process at my company is to self score yourself and then your boss to score you after. I gave myself a 3.4/5 and I got a 2.6/5. Unless it’s some standard I’m not aware of in the business work I can only assume I did a bad job. I’m considering looking for a new job as my boss clearly thinks I did a poor job. I’d love to know if I’m over reacting but it seems like the logical conclusion. What steps would you take in this situation?
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Why did you only score yourself a 3.4/5? I understand not going into a review proclaiming you're a 5-star expert and showing some humility and room for growth, but did you really think you only got a 68% for the year? Isn't that an F? If so, you already know what you're doing wrong and the absolute first thing you need to do is address those things in your own conduct.
Similarly, if you didn't have this conversation with your boss when he or she "scored" you, you need to immediately set up some time to go over your deficiencies and set up action items to help you improve on them. I obviously don't have a grasp of the scoring system or anything, but if you think you got an F on the year, and your boss thinks you did even worse than that, then both of you need to work to address the situation.
Finally, yes I do think you should start looking for a new job just for safety's sake, but at the same time, if you go somewhere new and do the same things you're doing at your current job, nothing is going to change. Some people struggle with the transition from student to full time employee, and I'm sure COVID and work from home didn't help anything, but you need to fix things starting now either to save your current job or set yourself up better for success elsewhere.
A large part of my role is reporting and due to me starting this year I got almost no training in how to do this as my firm relies on help from other junior staff as a training substitute. I guess I just needed the confirmation of a third party to know my job is in jeopardy. Given a fresh start I would do a lot better but the impression has already been made.
Just because it is ingrained in everyone’s brain, doesn’t mean a 1-5 rating scale has to have the same interpretation as a school grading scale.
At the large firm I work at, we use a 1-5 scale, and the meeting expectations rating is a 3. A 3 means you get your full 30% bonus. A 4 means you had an amazing year and you get a little extra bonus. A 5 is considered a career defining year. A 2 means you still get half the typical bonus, a 1 means you should start looking for another job.
Yeah, I suspect this is probably more what the OP is dealing with, but again, should just know, not have to speculate.
Exact same way at my firm too, I assume this is probably the industry standard.
Ahem...a 68% is a D+...D's get degrees lol
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So your company just provides ratings for their employees without any feedback on it?
I have a call next week to discuss but for now I only have a score. I made this post as a reality check so I wasn’t in my head for too long.
I would verify how the rating scale works. My company does something similar with the rating scale from 1-5, but I was very thrown off by my first rating. At my company, a 3 is equal to doing a "good" job... essentially the standard score. 4 means you went over and above expectations, and 5 means you essentially brought a new system or something to the firm that changed the game in some manner. 2 means you didn't do a terrible job, but could use improvement, and 1 is basically bad job.
Pretty weird rating scale when I was first introduced, but makes sense now. However, yours may not be like this, and if that is the case, a discussion is definitely needed with your boss.
Honestly a possibility as the rating scale is kind of confusing and I got no direction on how to fill the review out. Either way I’ll be polite during the review and take the criticism.
I mean, unless you understand what each "number" actually means (which I'm not sure you do by the context of the post), I can't say if you should "freak out" or not. This could be a more "European" style rating/grading system, where the "middle score" is effectively a "good" score... as in "Meets Expectations" means you did your job well, like we expected. As in, 80% or more of firm may get a similar rating (otherwise, it is meaningless). Like the American everyone gets 5/5 or an "A" is total bullshit IMHO, I mean can really everyone be "Above Average" (hint... go look up what average mean....).
Or it could be you sucked, but I would hope you would have some warning or corrective discussions ahead of time, especially given your first year.
Curious, what did you think 3.4/5 meant? Like was that "meet expectations" or "beat expectations"?? It seem nearly as "off" if you had rated 4/5, just an observation.
Sounds like you need more context here on score.
If it is bad then don’t sweat it. Use it as motivation. I got a real bad review one year. The next year I was promoted and got my own market. I took the criticism and worked damn hard to correct some of the issues. I had one of the best years in my career after receiving that feedback.
Did I look for a new job? Heck yes, needed to hedge but my Plan wasn’t to “escape” it was to prove these fools wrong. Always good to have a contingency plan.
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