What you'll do after a BAD PERFORMANCE APPRAISAL?

A bad appraisal simply means that there is no mental alignment between you and your boss. His expectations and what you delivered is not matching. Honest communication is the need of the hour. I would recommend never to respond in the heat of the moment, but to wait for a day, cool off the mind and set up a meeting with the boss at his convenience. Go for the meeting with facts and data to back your arguments - what were your tasks that you agreed with him, what were the targets, what you achieved and where you did not. And then discuss with this data on where he feels you have not gone right.

After the meeting, the boss may at least introspect and feel things should have been done differently. No need to look out for an alternative job immediately. Transparency, trust and openness is the need of the hour to set the expectations from both sides clearly.

I would like to get a clear understanding of my manager’s expectations and what specifically can I do differently this year to get a better review next year and will continue discussions with my manager until the problem appears to be solved.

Bad Performance Appraisal means 2 things -

Case 1 :  You are a bad performer

Case 2 : You are being unfairly appraised

Here are some insights on what you can do after receiving a bad appraisal.

Case 1 : If you understand the appraisal was fair but genuinely you were not able to deliver on your KPIs, now this is an occasion to self interrogate. Identify where you lack and identify your strong points. If in the current job scenario, if Your Lacking area > Strong Area, sit with your manager and ask for suggestions on training developement plans. If you identify that the training plan cannot mitigate the lacking area, may be its time for you to step back and think about another career options that is best suitable for you considering your strong areas. May be an internal department change or even a career change can help. On the otherside if your lacking area < strong area, but still you could not deliver on your KPIs, this means you do have strong skills but you are not able to deliver due to lack of comprehension skills on your job scenario or lack of communication skills or may be even you could perform well if you are provided with a set of different KPIs or Job roles. Liaise with your Manager for discussion on what you could do to improve productivity.

Case 2 : You are being unfairly appraised : In this scenario, there are few things you could do. You could always revert your supervisor reviews stating No Concurrence to his views and elaborate on your points. If things doesnt get resolved at this level, you can always go for an appeal.

1. Talk with supervisor.

2. Engage Learning & Development activities to perform the job very effectively and efficiently.

3. Search job.

4. Try to produce good work for the organization.

5. Take help from colleagues and boss.