Unexpected formal improvement plan

Amara

Hello!
I started a new job in February, customer service in financial institution. I was enthusiastic and happy. Few weeks training period followed, then I went to work independently. After six weeks I had a meeting with my manager, he said I was doing acceptable 20% calls comparing to 80% required and I'm on additional training. It lasted two months and I had meeting with my manager, always got very good feedback. My calls were getting better. I had another meeting few days ago, I really thought my additional traing period is over. Instead ,manager told me I'm on formal improvement plan now. It's an unexpected news for me. I've got a new job offer, I applied for while on unemployment. Should I accept it? I'd prefer to stay, where I am, also money are better. But I'm worried I'm on my way out there, improvement plan is just formality before they'll sack me. Any advice?

Marcon

Amara said:

Hello!
I started a new job in February, customer service in financial institution. I was enthusiastic and happy. Few weeks training period followed, then I went to work independently. After six weeks I had a meeting with my manager, he said I was doing acceptable 20% calls comparing to 80% required and I'm on additional training. It lasted two months and I had meeting with my manager, always got very good feedback. My calls were getting better. I had another meeting few days ago, I really thought my additional traing period is over. Instead ,manager told me I'm on formal improvement plan now. It's an unexpected news for me. I've got a new job offer, I applied for while on unemployment. Should I accept it? I'd prefer to stay, where I am, also money are better. But I'm worried I'm on my way out there, improvement plan is just formality before they'll sack me. Any advice?

If you'd prefer to stay, then you need to find out just how precarious your position is - so talking to your manager is the only sensible next step. They could have simply sacked you without giving you the chance of further improvement, so it doesn't sound as if they've decided to call it a day just yet.

If you applied for another job while you were unemployed, and have been in your current job since February, you might ask yourself why it has taken a potential new employer at least 5 months to pursue your application.

Amara

Hi Macron. Another job is in civil service. They have very long waiting times. I've got results from the interview very soon, but they've put me on reserve list. Once I started my job I forgot about other application and I've never wirhdrawn it. I also kept it as back up plan, if I wouldn't like my current job. Unemployment stressed my out very much and I'd never wanted to be in similar position again. In the meantime, I've got an official job offer in civil service. 
I talked to my manager already. He said he had no doubts I can hit 80% admin target, but the way it was handled, I don't trust him anymore. I don't know, what my situation really is, as he kept saying it was fine and then this happened.

TELLIT01

If trust between yourself and your manager is gone you are probably better to take the other job offer. 

Marcon

Amara said:

Hi Macron. Another job is in civil service. They have very long waiting times. I've got results from the interview very soon, but they've put me on reserve list. Once I started my job I forgot about other application and I've never wirhdrawn it. I also kept it as back up plan, if I wouldn't like my current job. Unemployment stressed my out very much and I'd never wanted to be in similar position again. In the meantime, I've got an official job offer in civil service. 
I talked to my manager already. He said he had no doubts I can hit 80% admin target, but the way it was handled, I don't trust him anymore. I don't know, what my situation really is, as he kept saying it was fine and then this happened.

Have one more conversation with him. You've got little to lose by being straightforward, given that you have a definite job offer on the cards (which is likely to be subject to references, including from your current employer, so keep that in mind!).

LinLui

In all honesty, if you have really tried your best to meet the targets and haven't, I think I'd jump ship while you can. You knew that you were not hitting the targets, and (I assume) you worked really hard to do so. It wasn't enough. And you didn't know it wasn't enough, because the formal plan wouldn't have been a surprise if you had known. Do you have anything left to give? What do you realistically think you could do to improve that you haven't?

There is no shame in admitting that even if you like the job, it isn't for you. Maybe you just can't meet the required standard. Maybe the standard is too high. But something clearly isn't lining up. And you don't trust the manager anyway. And I suspect you are right in that - I doubt he will ever say that he has no confidence you will ever meet the target, but if he has that faith in you what has he done to actually feed back and get you there before now? 

A fresh start before this knocks your confidence or leaves you unemployed again sounds like the best strategy.

As Marcon says, make sure you have an unconditional offer before leaving anyway - you might need some time to get all the ducks in a row with the new job.

Brie

A friend went through a similar thing.  Informal chats told her she was doing fine but formally she was given  an improvement plan again and again.  Because of this she was always on probation and they decided after 18 months to terminate her employment.  And because of this she was unable to get any other role in any of the other local financial employers as they wouldn't take anyone who'd been dismissed.  Took her quite some time to get another role any where else.  

Grumpy_chap

Amara said:

Hi Macron. Another job is in civil service. They have very long waiting times. I've got results from the interview very soon, but they've put me on reserve list. Once I started my job I forgot about other application and I've never wirhdrawn it. I also kept it as back up plan, if I wouldn't like my current job. Unemployment stressed my out very much and I'd never wanted to be in similar position again. In the meantime, I've got an official job offer in civil service. 
I talked to my manager already. He said he had no doubts I can hit 80% admin target, but the way it was handled, I don't trust him anymore. I don't know, what my situation really is, as he kept saying it was fine and then this happened.

I think if this was me, I'd see the offer coming through form the Civil Service as fate and my Guardian Angel having looked out for me.
I would probably have a chat with the boss at the current place, suggest you plan to leave in any case as another opportunity has arisen and while you enjoy the workplace and the people, things aren't working out as well as either party hoped for.  Try to make that a negotiation for a good (or at least neutral) reference.  It may well be that the current boss / HR will breath a sigh of relief.
I would not mention anything about having kept another application live as a back-up plan or anything about not really trusting the boss.  In fact. I'd go out of my way to say how supportive the boss has been, is a great individual and you really value the encouragement and guidance they showed towards you.  You can't lose anything and have everything to gain by pandering to the boss's ego.

TELLIT01

Do be aware that there will be targets to meet in the Civil Service too, and from personal experience some can be next to impossible to meet if you want to do the job properly.  I worked on a befit processing team and the number of claims we were expected to process almost doubled over time.  When this was raised in a team meeting the team leader actually said that our KRA was just the number of claims processed, not the accuracy of the processing.  Correcting errors was the responsibility of another team and there was no comeback on us.  In fact one of that teams KRAs was finding x errors per day/week.  In effect, if we did our job properly and diligently, they would fail instead!

That's Civil Service logic for you.

Amara

Thank you for all your responses. @Brie, it won't be time and time again. Formal plan is three weeks, then review meeting, if not successfull, another three weeks and if again not successful , termination of employment. I could be out of job by September. 

Emmia

TELLIT01 said:

Do be aware that there will be targets to meet in the Civil Service too, and from personal experience some can be next to impossible to meet if you want to do the job properly.  I worked on a befit processing team and the number of claims we were expected to process almost doubled over time.  When this was raised in a team meeting the team leader actually said that our KRA was just the number of claims processed, not the accuracy of the processing.  Correcting errors was the responsibility of another team and there was no comeback on us.  In fact one of that teams KRAs was finding x errors per day/week.  In effect, if we did our job properly and diligently, they would fail instead!

That's Civil Service logic for you.

I'd say this is true of some parts of the CS - particularly operational roles, but it's not true of all CS jobs.

I don't personally have targets like this, but I work in a policy role - it depends on what type of job the OP was reserve listed for.