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During my last performance review, I reviewed myself as a 5/5 in every category because of what I viewed as an exceptional year in terms of performance. I was subsequently given a 3/5 ("Successful Performance") and was instructed that, while I did a great job, 4 or 5s were reserved for truly exceptional performance and difficult to receive. Is this a bad sign in terms of how performance is evaluated? I don't understand the disconnect.
My supervisor has told me that as far as reviews, nobody gets an "outstanding", ever. He also mentioned he does not give written recommendations for those seeking either advancement within, or second jobs outside the company.
My supervisor has told me that as far as reviews, nobody gets an "outstanding", ever. He also mentioned he does not give written recommendations for those seeking either advancement within, or second jobs outside the company.
We had a manager who made the same claim. Until he hired a woman on his team that he was very smitten with and every review she received from the get-go was a solid 5-star rating.
During my last performance review, I reviewed myself as a 5/5 in every category because of what I viewed as an exceptional year in terms of performance. I was subsequently given a 3/5 ("Successful Performance") and was instructed that, while I did a great job, 4 or 5s were reserved for truly exceptional performance and difficult to receive. Is this a bad sign in terms of how performance is evaluated? I don't understand the disconnect.
Is this the same reviewer? If so, your best bet is to raise the question. Unfortunately, there is often very little objectiveness when it comes to reviews as there are little to no metrics to go by (maybe in sales?). He/She may have simply realized that they were too lenient in the past.
I will say that in many cases though. Doing your job and doing it exceptionally well means a 3. Getting above that typically means you did more than what your job description states.
My supervisor has told me that as far as reviews, nobody gets an "outstanding", ever. He also mentioned he does not give written recommendations for those seeking either advancement within, or second jobs outside the company.
As a teacher for 30 years I never once, not once, ever received either an observation form or end of year evaluation without some sort of negative comments.
Those included "providing Kleenex to students", "establishing Kleenex stations around the room". I would present a lesson using all the new and improved techniques we were required to incorporate and the comments would recommend using the ones we were no longer supposed use.
One year the Principal even noted my depth of knowledge intimidated the students. This was precipitated when I answered a question that kids were having trouble figuring out and I walked them trough the steps.
So, "no one ever gets a 4 or 5" doesn't surprise me.
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That is often budget dependent, if the performance results in a pay raise. If everyone gets "outstanding" and the maximum raise it will cost them a lot of money, so managers/supervisors have to be less generous with their ratings. The perfect employee get maybe 3-4, and for 5, must have done something more that saved the company a lot of money, such as find a really big new customer, create a process that saves a lot of time or materials expense, or handle a major project under budget and before the scheduled deadline.
There is really no rhyme nor reason for how most supervisors evaluate employees. I've been marked down where the negative comments were just cut and paste copies of other's evaluations from previous years. One supervisor retired and I got the job of cleaning out his desk. He had a folder of evaluations written by him and others that went back to the early 80s from previous jobs he'd held at other locations. In those evaluations were verbatim comments that we had been given that made no sense to any of us. All he had done as a supervisor his whole career was copy comments, job descriptions, etc randomly from his collection into his evaluations. And in that time no supervisor or HR person had caught him.
During my last performance review, I reviewed myself as a 5/5 in every category because of what I viewed as an exceptional year in terms of performance.
Regardless of whether or not your supervisor uses the highest rating or not, you can't rate yourself all perfect scores. I don't think that's done anywhere.
During my last performance review, I reviewed myself as a 5/5 in every category because of what I viewed as an exceptional year in terms of performance. I was subsequently given a 3/5 ("Successful Performance") and was instructed that, while I did a great job, 4 or 5s were reserved for truly exceptional performance and difficult to receive. Is this a bad sign in terms of how performance is evaluated? I don't understand the disconnect.
Simple solution, next performance review rate yourself 3/3 on everything. Since 4 and 5 are effectively not a part of the rating scale.
Did he really say you did a "great" job? I'd ask him why I got an "average" rating then.
That is often budget dependent, if the performance results in a pay raise. If everyone gets "outstanding" and the maximum raise it will cost them a lot of money, so managers/supervisors have to be less generous with their ratings. The perfect employee get maybe 3-4, and for 5, must have done something more that saved the company a lot of money, such as find a really big new customer, create a process that saves a lot of time or materials expense, or handle a major project under budget and before the scheduled deadline.
That's how it is at my workplace, and many others that I know.
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