Help please - performance review

caevans

Help please!!
My husband had a 1 year appraisal which he did not do well at. The company raised a number of issues and gave him a deadline of a month to improve. He has worked his butt off and thought he had made good progress. He gets on well with the Director of the company who told him he was happy with progress and didn't see any thing to be concerned about. However today they have issued him with a capability review Meeting date outlining areas they are still not happy with.
Husband has told director how upset and stressed he is when he thought he had improved enough. Director says its not up to him, its husbands direct boss that has concerns. Director told him that he would have acted as advocate for husband but needs to be impartial for the meeting. My feeling is that if he thinks my husband is doing a good job then surely he should be standing up for him?
We are both sick to stomach with stress. Husband has been in this position before and lost his job. He isn't lazy but a bit dopey at times and often inaccurate.
Please can anyone advise what they would do in this position or any rights he may have? Thank you

cashbackproblems

caevans wrote: »

Help please!!
My husband had a 1 year appraisal which he did not do well at. The company raised a number of issues and gave him a deadline of a month to improve. He has worked his butt off and thought he had made good progress. He gets on well with the Director of the company who told him he was happy with progress and didn't see any thing to be concerned about. However today they have issued him with a capability review Meeting date outlining areas they are still not happy with.
Husband has told director how upset and stressed he is when he thought he had improved enough. Director says its not up to him, its husbands direct boss that has concerns. Director told him that he would have acted as advocate for husband but needs to be impartial for the meeting. My feeling is that if he thinks my husband is doing a good job then surely he should be standing up for him?
We are both sick to stomach with stress. Husband has been in this position before and lost his job. He isn't lazy but a bit dopey at times and often inaccurate.
Please can anyone advise what they would do in this position or any rights he may have? Thank you

LOL that might be your answer?!

Its impossible for anyone online to say without looking at his objectives and what he has been doing. Unfortunately alot of times it is down to managers interpretation some being more picky than others.

It is up to your husband to sit down with his direct manager and outline what exactly he needs to be doing to meet his goals and then have weekly catchups with his manager to see if he is achieving these.

But it sounds like he is in a job not suited to his skills.

WestonDave

Problem is - the direct boss is being managed on his/her ability to get their team to perform, so whilst the director might not be seeing any problems, that might be in part because he's not looking as closely as someone whose own performance gradings depend on it! Its certainly not good management for the director to be overruling the line manager without exceptional reasons - your own verdict on your husband (dopey and inaccurate) plus the fact that he's lost a job before for the same reasons suggests that in fact the line manager has a point.

It may be that he can work with his manager to change the work practices slightly so that his weaknesses aren't as exposed, but the reality is that if they want someone with attention to detail, he may be in the wrong job.

caevans

I don't think he has a great deal of skills unfortunately....... I am 100% aware of his downfalls, but am trying to help him through this. We barely scraped through the last time he lost his job and not sure if we can cope going through this again. Which is why I really need to help him save the job he has.
He sits down with his direct boss to set weekly objectives but for whatever reason she does not give him feedback on how he is doing. Instead there is a culture of accumulating evidence against him rather than giving him feedback so he can make improvements.
Should he join a union?
Thank you

caevans

Also, bit more information:
He works in a small office and does work directly with both his direct boss and the director. I can well believe there are issues but know heis working on these, but I also do believe that there is a bit of bullying going on from his direct boss and she has been accused of this in the past. I encouraged him just to get on with her and do as she says, but obviously this is not enough?

cashbackproblems

Another v important point, how long has he been there, if over 2yrs it makes it harder (but not impossible if steps are followed) to sack him. Maybe start looking for another job as a backup?

It sounds like he needs to step up, u have unfortunately married a wuss.

caevans

Ha I know that!
Situation made worse by me being on mat leave at moment. Can do without this really....
He's been there just over a year

bargainbetty

Without two years service, I don't think he has any coverage yet. Are there any training courses he could do to improve his skills? Could he develop the areas of his work that he does do well at?

I'm sorry, but if he is dopey and inaccurate, even if he is likeable, chances are he won't be kept on - why would they feel the need to continue giving chances to someone who has been there a year without some concerns being addressed? There are workers out there who won't have the same problem. I know that doesn't help you, but please remember, this is a business.

I truly don't mean to be harsh, but we had a lad who was very sweet, but utterly terrible. He was given a final warning and promptly resigned. It was the last straw and told him that he was in the wrong job.

Is there any way your OH could knuckle down and focus on things?

caevans

Thanks, he really does work hard and they have acknowledged that. Inaccuracies highlighted have been things like on 2 occasions not attaching a file to an email and on 1 occasion not including all recipients in email.
Seems pretty harsh to me.
I should point out that it's an admin job with no supervision of any staff. It's a very busy role and his workload has increased hugely over the last 6 months due to a new project being taken on.
Think he just can't cope with the pace of the job as he I know he drives me crazy by being so slow at doing things!

caevans

On and bargainbetty, in your case what did the boy do about a reference.? Did you put in the reference that he was on a final warning? Thanks

cashbackproblems

caevans wrote: »

On and bargainbetty, in your case what did the boy do about a reference.? Did you put in the reference that he was on a final warning? Thanks

If its a large company then they will most likely confirm dates of employment and position not performance due to legal possibilities, this is common practice.