Not being treated right in work

Emmzi

Richie,

stupid question, but did you *ask* for a raise?

Just checking!

Otherwise your written appraisal may be useful to show future employers?? Looks like you may have to move.

jobbingmusician

I am really sorry if you have come out of the appraisal with no increase in pay - sounds like you are well overdue one. You could still write to your mgr saying something like 'I have been thinking about my recent appraisal and am very disappointed not to have been offered a pay rise. Although I really enjoy working for x company I feel that I am not being paid at a rate that reflects my experience and expertise, and would welcome a follow-up meeting to discuss salary rates and training opportunities.'

THe last 3 words of this suggested letter are quite important - if you feel that your lack of quals is holding you back, perhaps you would be better served if your employers subsidised you to get better qualified - something to consider.

Richie23_2

Thanks all..
Its just so annoying all this appraisel stuff and pay review. The appraisel you have to score yourself on a few things from 1 - 4.. 1 means perfect. on most things I other things a 3.. which a 3 is what 90% of the staff get. When ever i go into an appriasel and they give me say a two i always ask well tell me what i needed to do to get a 1.. and they always turn around an say its virtually impposible.. why the hell put it there then. The one made me laugh, i think he gave me a 2 and i asked "what would i have had to do to get a 1?" he turned around and said " cancel holidays!" which i had, i sold 6 holidays and only had 20 for the whole year.. plus i canclled holidays when projects were going live..just incase things went wrong. he turned arounf and said "no you would have to have holidays left over at the end of the year!" so he was saying in a way i would have to break the law and have less then 20 days off through out the 12months.. shocking!!

I have worked my nuts off this year..well every year.. this is the 4th year I have had an "exceeds expectations" score. but nothing is being given back..even our bonuses hav been cancelled this year!!

Astaroth

Our review process is funny too... we have "competencies" which are scored on -1 to 4 (-1 being negative behaviour, 0 being n/a and then level 1-4 being the growing levels) and each person will have their target levels... a call centre bod will be mainly 1s a senior manager will be mainly 4s.

After getting your competency scores, objectives etc you then get an over all performance grade of 1 to 5 (1 worst, 3 is target level, 5 best). Technically our system is meet everything you get a 3, meet everything exceed on some is a grade 4, exceed on everything is a grade 5. Unfortunately I do have a number of competencies that require level 4 which means I physically cannot exceed them and therefore never can get a grade 5 - in the nearly 5 years I have been with the company I have never heard of anyone getting a grade 5.

The one bit that did amuse me though.... for the competencies we have another document which gives "ideas" of what someone can do to improve their levels... so if you are achieving a level 1 for "developing others" it will suggest something like acting as a mentor for a new starter as a way of getting to level 2. When I first started in project management I was below target for a single competency and looking at the support document it suggested that I should take on a small team project to get up to a level 3.... obviously the multi million pound large projects I was doing didnt count.

I dont know the area of work you are in but are formal qualifications necessary or is experience more valued? I know at the moment in my areas companies are being more sensible and asking for a balance of the two. If you cant get pay rises is it possible to get the company to pay for formal qualifications?

Dont discredit internal courses etc too especially if it is with a well respected company. In my line of work I would be much happier taking on a project manager from a large consultancy firm with no written qualifications than a person that has a degree and is a Prince2 practitioner.