can you dispute a review?

[Zoe Girl]

i am months away from my yearly review but the mid-year check in was not good. last year i got a 3 on the 1-5 scale which i was not thrilled about but at least you still get a raise. this year i am heading for a 2, it crushes me honestly. i am taking the total fall for some issues in my mind, and am figuring out what to do next to address them and look good. just staying silent first of all is not doing my job but also doesn't help me look better. i have regular meetings with my supervisor and the last one i asked more questions about how i am rated and what i need to do. i am going to continue that every meeting and be prepared to show improvements in all areas (to show that it inaccurate in the most professional way possible) as one example the supervisors have all agreed that i overspent a portion of my budget by $3K and i keep saying those numbers are black, not red. they now agree i instead saved $3K instead of overspending but i want to ask it the mistake that i overspent was part of my low review so far. another area is our snack recording and cost for wasted snack which is a huge budget issue. i had to sign a document saying i understood i would get a write up in my file if my snack waste was above a certain level, so i did and showed her my records of the entire school year showing i was in the acceptable range.

right now i am just trying to be perfect in all the paperwork, not ask for any leeway regardless of the reason. today that is a crunch because i need to sign and scan back a document. i want to do an e-signature so i don't spend an hour driving to a site where i can do that and back to the dentist, but i don;t think that is a good idea. the last 2 days have been intense, including police at the school, still not a good idea to ask for a couple hours of flex on this paperwork. i checked in with a colleague who i would go to if i ever needed to ask a question and she is feeling she will get a 2 this year as well, and we have both been asked to visit other sites of people who are frankly more popular to the administration. She went and i now can try to go since i have an assistant.

i think if i wait until my final review to argue my rating it is going to look crappy, if i ask at the bimonthly meetings how i am doing and show improvement then i may be able to head off the lowest review at the end of the year. if i can show that i have responded to every issue i just wonder if there is any chance of disputing a low review.

[Tammy]

If I were you I'd be job hunting. This is too much for me put up with. I would also stop caring about the reviews, knowing I can only do so much and whatever admin puts on paper is their choice for whatever reason. And keep job hunting ... It's not worth the stress.

[Zoe Girl]

thanks tammy, i am spending spring break on a job hunt. i am also taking a day off to go to a workshop on restorative justice as a way to build my career in another direction. i think in addition to already advocating for the work i do, i will stick close to my hours and not go over. they don't get that much of my time for a poor review

[herbgeek]

I also would be looking for a new job. You've been telling us for years what your supervisors have been giving you for feedback, and its clear to me that what you want to focus on is not something they really care about, and what they want you to focus on is not something you put a high priority on either. Its really not a match.

[Float On]

If I were you I'd be job hunting. It's not worth the stress.

Agreed!

There are a few companies around here who drill it into all employees that they are 1)worthless 2) not worthy of any job so 3) should be very thankful this company lets them work at all and 5) be warned - we will threaten to fire you on a daily basis so that 6)all employees are worn down to the nub, anxious, and 7)always waiting for the shoe to drop.

[ApatheticNoMore]

Yes look for work, if you keep getting bad reviews it is better to look for other work now. I don't want to read how you are meditating and emotionally struggling your way through unemployment (not that that's not a fine way to deal with unemployment if one happens to be unemployed but ...). Not to scare you, no reason you should go through every day in stark terror of unemployment now or something, that's not going to help anything, and that level of fear besides not being helpful may be out of proportion to realities on the ground anyway (again hard for me to say - they may just as well plan to keep you on forever and ever while never giving you any praise :\). I'm just saying it should be enough to motivate you, not scare you, better to look for a job while you have a job (I have no idea what the job prospects are in your field of course).

I think what you also have working against you is it is hard to change people's first impressions. If they have a bad first impression is it hard to change their minds now. It's not fair. And I'm not saying don't do the best you can while you are there and talk up your positives, but it may be too hard to change their bias.

And yea the basic values conflict referenced by herbgeek is a hard one.

i think in addition to already advocating for the work i do, i will stick close to my hours and not go over. they don't get that much of my time for a poor review

I don't think anyone should make work their entire life, and so I'm fine with people defending what hours they will work and not being walked all over. Just carefully about the reasoning here, seems to have a touch of "getting back" or passive agressiveness, which always backfires (well they don't appreciate me no matter what I do, so I'm going to .... yea but that only backfires and hurts oneself). Again I'm fine with asserting your hours.

[Teacher Terry]

I am not sure who your employer is but if it is a government or county agency then you certainly have rights in these kinds of thing. Do you have a union? Even without one there are usually procedures written out to define what your rights are. I would look into that.

[Reyes]

Job searching sounds like a good idea. It doesn't seem like this has been a good fit for sometime (for you, based on your postings, and for them based on your reviews). Time to find something else.

[Zoe Girl]

hmm okay I have been thinking and want to shift the question a little. I realize I get into a question and then feel I need to tell the entire story (I just am a storyteller). I realize that there are so many areas of my day to day job I love, however we all respond more to problems than to just good stuff in posts and life and everywhere. I have great staff this year, I have awesome kids, It makes my day and cuts way down on my depressive episodes to work directly with the kids, I get to walk and go outside and do crafts (all things that help with mood) as part of my job not an extra. And the job market is rough in this field, at least if you want to earn what I do or move up. The OST world is really small. I have looked for jobs on and off for about 8 years, it may not be in my total control. Plus a new job has a new set of its own issues. Soooo,

let's say that for whatever reason I want to work at improving my reviews. Even if I look for another job I still want to work on this. I think I am doing a good job, I think the things I do matter, and I am doing the rest of the job however I need to figure out how to increase the positive ways my program is viewed. I think things have been put in place to track our jobs more fairly this year (we have a monthly accountability tracker where we keep track of all the significant things we do in categories related to our goals). And I do work for a school district so there should be ways to address a review that is unfairly low.

[herbgeek]

I think the things I do matter,

What I was trying to point out, is right here. What you do MATTERS TO YOU (and likely the kids you work with). What your supervisors care about is 1) keeping to budget 2) filing your reports on time 3) following often silly rules. You do not care about the things your supervisors care about. That is secondary TO YOU to working with kids, getting families on board, and all the parts of the job you find fulfilling. There is a mismatch here. You are never going to get your supervisors on board with what you think is important.

So how would you get better reviews? You'll have to pretend that what they think is important is also what you think is important. This will be hard to do. This will take a lot of your energy that you could spend in more productive ways, to spend pretending you think getting reports in on time is important. Are you sure you really want to do that with your precious energy? To what end, so you stay employed but hate the content of your job?