Work and Life

random said:

I was then give a deadline to finish by end of January, which I feel I was largely on track for, although my manager disagrees.

This, plus the story you've told, suggests they may be close to the "special measures / performance improvement" route. HR always try to ensure that staff have goals, for precisely this reason.

What does "largely on track for" mean? Pretend you are the CEO. Was your worker on track, or weren't they? 

They will be trying to ensure you commit to a schedule yourself, rather than being given a deadline out of thin air, which may or may not turn out to be achievable, depending upon other constraints.

If you were an NT boss, dealing with yourself, what would you be trying to do right now?

Don't wait for the appraisal cycle on their terms. Every time something goes well, ask your colleagues for a line or two of feedback. 

Build up a folder of positive stuff, under the radar. 

Include some superficial areas for improvement to make your record look more honest and balanced. 

At appraisal time, your manager will probably be very glad to simply parrot the quotes you've amassed. 

Building a record over the year combats the I-got-hammered-for-a-minor-slip-last-week-but-no-one-mentioned-I-saved-the-company-ten-months-ago dysfunction. 

If it's any consolation, being off work due to stress does rather seem to be a cloak of invincibility as far as HR departments and line managers go. 

HR will always try to ensure that no one they / management are trying to get rid of actually go sick due to stress. They will bend over backwards to ensure you feel supported via a phased return to work. Once you've agreed it's "business as usual", expect any agendas that were put "on hold" to be reapplied...

I tried simple logic once. I wanted a function upgrade (hay 15 to hay 16) and my boss said my communication wasn't good enough, so I sent him a rulebook stating that the requested level of communication for a 15 and a 16 are the same. So I wasn't supposed to get better. If I was good enough for a 15, a 16 should not be blocked for that reason... 

But indeed, I've had a boss (a woman) that liked me for being a hard worker. I got comments about other 'players' in this sense: 'how come you get all that work done, and he doesn't?'. Now my boss is more interested in the social interactions and the windowdressing to other departments,  and I'm still moving the same work, but not so nicely valued as before... windowdressing means that questions from other departments should be answered immediately, because here we make a good impression in the social web

The same boss spends much more of his time working on his own carreer than on his running the department.

Thanks for your reply, 

Initially there was no given deadline, then I was given a deadline to have it completed by Christmas. However I was off work late November until early December for two weeks for stress. There have been other complications after my return (down to the error of my employer) I was then give a deadline to finish by end of January, which I feel I was largely on track for, although my manager disagrees. 

I give this manager daily updates, sadly I do feel my productivity is below where it should be. My manager has made assumption that I must be doing stuff for myself with time, that's not the case. I am asked to prove my productivity, and I now keep a Journal of what I have been doing and problems encountered. I also go over and speak with him personally if there is anything that's blocking or holding back my progress

I am now off work again Today

We can't really advise you on what to do because obviously we lack the majority of information, and have no real picture of the context. 

Are you at the stage where your manager and HR draw up a plan of work and secure your commitment to deliver that piece of work by a given deadline? Typically there are specific things to be completed every few days, so any "falling behind" will quickly be spotted.

If you are at that stage, you have three options:

1) deliver the agreed work on time, then keep your job, despite a blot on your file and increased monitoring on you for the next few months. 

2) resign because you can't deliver the agreed work. 

3) stick it out and go through formal written warnings and ultimately dismissal if you don't deliver the agreed work. 

MDC said:

Logic doesn't apply to evaluations at work

Untrue. Apply game theory. You do need to proactively play the game for yourself though. It is very dangerous to expect a fair rating if you don't drive the system in your favour, because without definite action on your part you are essentially relying on nothing more than luck. 

Things seemed to have taken another push downwards; I didn't know what to do, but a few things from the meeting just simply were not true so I emailed my colleagues and say my line manager is suggesting xx I dont feel that is the please me know what you feel. Wording is a bit different, but I copied hr in. I got a message from hr saying please don't send any emails out ao she can investigate what's happened. I replied and agreed that I wouldn't send out any emails, but said I feel at a great disadvantage because my manager was keeping all these conversations in a private meeting room. hr responded and said as part of the agreed reasonable chnages I can ask for someone else to be with me in the meeting. I replied and said my line manager told me to keep my issues and personal problems outside work

My psychologist said, don't do anything in the heat of the moment. I though I was making a rational decision, not sure if I have helped the situation. I don't know what to do now

Thanks for all the replies, things seem to get worse Today. Another colleague finished his work and he was assigned to work together with me. Just at the point I was going to complete a bunch of tasks I had been working on. I have been asked to work with him to assist him to get to grips with the system. So working with him, and all tasks are recorded with him assigned as person fixing. I am called in to an interrogation by my line manager. Has basically put all fault with me, and saying my output is not where it should be. He talks very quickly which I find difficult. He is the person who has been given the responsibility for implementing my changes. I do feel he is looking to kick me out. As he was given me a talking down, I could see his face smirking so he seems to be enjoying it. Work know I suffer from Depression and am at times suicidal, so I am pretty angry at this. We also had a presentation about bonus the other day which is changing, and its all down to personal contribution

I have these issues too. Logic doesn't apply to evaluations at work. You need to tell people you're doing a good job. I said once: 'Everybody can call me at home, anytime, I'll always answer work related phones, I know people won't abuse this...'  In my evaluation I got 'good team player, has the r'ight attitude'... and nobody ever called me for fear of abuse :) .. This also works with saying: I always make sure I compensate for personal calls. You then stay once or twice half an hour later than usual, and bingo: 'great work ethics...' 

What doesn't seem to work is stating 'I'm doing a great job'... that's over the top... But saying: I'm happy the project worked out well, I put lots of time home thinking about it too... (what's lots?)  

Do your employers know about your AS?  I used to get complaints about the speed at which I worked - "I want more jobs doing less well."  I couldn't do "less well". There were other problems too in relationships with colleagues.  How are your relationships - do they criticise how you see things?  Are you thinking they might be looking for a reason to get rid of you?

My friend that helps me including making phone calls didn't seem to understand why I wouldn't like Skye either.  To me it has the disadvantage of a phone call - unpredictable and too immediate - with additional distracting visual information.