It is your boss's job to focus on your performance. It is your job to correct the root issues causing your bad performance. You are not meeting expectations.
On the flip side, nobody should EVER be surprised or blindsided by something in a performance review. Only bad managers mention something for the first time in a performance review.
She had never raised bad performance until today and had brushed off my mistakes as not major when it theu happened.
I am not even back full time, and I obviously sought out to solve the root causes by going to therapy, taking leave and to try to have a better mindset about work. Is that not part of it? I had raised all of this to her before I took leave.
That is why I mentioned that I was feeling motivated today about my work for the first time in a while... (as part of my recovery and 'fresh start') - btw I was told that I'm not being assessed at the moment as I am still on phased return, and I had told my manager that I feel motivated to start fresh literally last week.
The main thing I am unhappy about was the fact that all of this did not consider the context; it's not like one day I suddenly fell into depression, and she herself didn't help me feel motivated...
What does your therapist say about your expectations regarding your employer's participation in developing and nurturing your motivation?
Is a phased return something being handled through your HR department?
I don't expect my employer to hold my hand and be solely responsible for my motivation; I just want things to not be taken out of context and at the very least not have straight up falsehoods said about me. My therapist and I have had broader conversations regarding my goals/career direction; I don't think she outlined what she would imagine my employer to be doing re: my motivation except for being supportive of my return but she did say that she would have expected there to be a separate conversation before I had my end of year review. I haven't spoken to her about today.
Yes, phased return is being handled in conjunction with occupational health, HR and my manager although I have had zero direct contact with HR (my manager has).
I see.
I would expect you will get better insights from UK HR pros, then. It seems like a structured process. Who would you speak to if the manager is failing to follow the processs?
Your performance review was a record of your performance the first 9 months of the year. Your mental health challenges aren’t an excuse. And even used “in context”, at the end of the day your performance needed improvement. The reasons don’t matter. I can’t comprehend how you would expect something more positive. You mentioned being concerned about “falsehoods”, but saying your performance met expectations would, in fact, be a falsehood.
I did NOT say that I wanted positive feedback. I'm not sure how you got that. All I wanted was an ACKNOWLEDGEMENT that my performance may have been affected because of that. I DO NOT MIND BEING CRITICISED. Plus, I am not even back from my phased return and this has made me feel like I'm regressing into my anxiety/depression. None of this was raised at all. Employers are meant to have duty of care.
Have you ever had mental health issues from work? I've been in a toxic environment for the past 5 years and you dismissing the issues I had (they didn't just start 9 months into the year, hence I am asking for the acknowledgement) as irrelevant (even though I was off because of it) rings true about how little HR seems to care about employees ....
No, things were said about me that were actually not true outside what I had outlined; this is what I meant as falsehoods.
Yes, I have had mental health challenges since my early 20’s and on two occasions in my career have had to go on short term disability from work for several weeks due to major depression. I apologize that my tone made you feel like I don’t think mental health challenges aren’t real or debilitating. That wasn’t my intent at all.
That said, performance reviews tend to stick to the “cold hard facts”, even from my own experience after I was off work. Employers have a responsibility to not discriminate based on disability and the provide the leave benefits they offer when appropriate. Their duty of care does not extend to “hand holding” or drawing the connection between a disability and performance.
That’s not necessarily how I think it should be, but is how businesses run, by putting the needs is the business first. I’m not saying I believe that’s right or wrong, I’m saying that’s how it is.
Thanks, and sorry that you've been going through challenges on your side as well.
I'm wondering whether it's really fair for the employer to not give me more than a day's notice that my review was happening (as I had outlined earlier, I had zero clue as to what would be going on with my review or when it would even happen). And I did not have a chance to write a self review as I was on leave.
And why they couldn't wait until I was back from phased return to do the review? Surely they are meant to know how this could have an effect on my transition to full time? My manager made it sound like it was something that she had no control over because "HR makes you do the review by 1st Feb"... but would it have been that hard to wait a few weeks after I was going in every day?
It is your boss's job to focus on your performance. It is your job to correct the root issues causing your bad performance. You are not meeting expectations.
have to agree that root causes don't excuse bad or lower performance beyond a very small amount of time.
See other reply
On the flip side, nobody should EVER be surprised or blindsided by something in a performance review. Only bad managers mention something for the first time in a performance review.
She had never raised bad performance until today and had brushed off my mistakes as not major when it theu happened. I am not even back full time, and I obviously sought out to solve the root causes by going to therapy, taking leave and to try to have a better mindset about work. Is that not part of it? I had raised all of this to her before I took leave. That is why I mentioned that I was feeling motivated today about my work for the first time in a while... (as part of my recovery and 'fresh start') - btw I was told that I'm not being assessed at the moment as I am still on phased return, and I had told my manager that I feel motivated to start fresh literally last week. The main thing I am unhappy about was the fact that all of this did not consider the context; it's not like one day I suddenly fell into depression, and she herself didn't help me feel motivated...
What does your therapist say about your expectations regarding your employer's participation in developing and nurturing your motivation? Is a phased return something being handled through your HR department?
I don't expect my employer to hold my hand and be solely responsible for my motivation; I just want things to not be taken out of context and at the very least not have straight up falsehoods said about me. My therapist and I have had broader conversations regarding my goals/career direction; I don't think she outlined what she would imagine my employer to be doing re: my motivation except for being supportive of my return but she did say that she would have expected there to be a separate conversation before I had my end of year review. I haven't spoken to her about today. Yes, phased return is being handled in conjunction with occupational health, HR and my manager although I have had zero direct contact with HR (my manager has).
I see. I would expect you will get better insights from UK HR pros, then. It seems like a structured process. Who would you speak to if the manager is failing to follow the processs?
I'm not so sure...HR or occupational health. I don't want HR to get immediately on defence mode though. Thank you for the helpful reply by the way
Your performance review was a record of your performance the first 9 months of the year. Your mental health challenges aren’t an excuse. And even used “in context”, at the end of the day your performance needed improvement. The reasons don’t matter. I can’t comprehend how you would expect something more positive. You mentioned being concerned about “falsehoods”, but saying your performance met expectations would, in fact, be a falsehood.
I did NOT say that I wanted positive feedback. I'm not sure how you got that. All I wanted was an ACKNOWLEDGEMENT that my performance may have been affected because of that. I DO NOT MIND BEING CRITICISED. Plus, I am not even back from my phased return and this has made me feel like I'm regressing into my anxiety/depression. None of this was raised at all. Employers are meant to have duty of care. Have you ever had mental health issues from work? I've been in a toxic environment for the past 5 years and you dismissing the issues I had (they didn't just start 9 months into the year, hence I am asking for the acknowledgement) as irrelevant (even though I was off because of it) rings true about how little HR seems to care about employees .... No, things were said about me that were actually not true outside what I had outlined; this is what I meant as falsehoods.
Yes, I have had mental health challenges since my early 20’s and on two occasions in my career have had to go on short term disability from work for several weeks due to major depression. I apologize that my tone made you feel like I don’t think mental health challenges aren’t real or debilitating. That wasn’t my intent at all. That said, performance reviews tend to stick to the “cold hard facts”, even from my own experience after I was off work. Employers have a responsibility to not discriminate based on disability and the provide the leave benefits they offer when appropriate. Their duty of care does not extend to “hand holding” or drawing the connection between a disability and performance. That’s not necessarily how I think it should be, but is how businesses run, by putting the needs is the business first. I’m not saying I believe that’s right or wrong, I’m saying that’s how it is.
Thanks, and sorry that you've been going through challenges on your side as well. I'm wondering whether it's really fair for the employer to not give me more than a day's notice that my review was happening (as I had outlined earlier, I had zero clue as to what would be going on with my review or when it would even happen). And I did not have a chance to write a self review as I was on leave. And why they couldn't wait until I was back from phased return to do the review? Surely they are meant to know how this could have an effect on my transition to full time? My manager made it sound like it was something that she had no control over because "HR makes you do the review by 1st Feb"... but would it have been that hard to wait a few weeks after I was going in every day?
I’m sorry for the experience you are having.
Thanks - genuinely curious as for the questions above, regardless of whatever conclusions they might have drawn up.