I've run into a fun one.
I recently was helping the hiring manager out with job opportunities within my company and identified multiple concerns that I brought up to our Boss. One concern I did not bring up was the sort of verbiage being given for turning down some candidates on promotions. I did not voice this concern because it a one off thought in my head that I wanted to do my due diligence of looking into. With that two things came up that helped me dismiss my concern on it:
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I trusted what the hiring manager said when they stated “That is the script we(our managers and the hiring manager) agreed upon for those with similar feedback in turndowns.
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The spreadsheet we create for each promotion opportunity is accessible by all managers, as well as our general managers. In this spreadsheet the turndown feedback column states the exact feedback that the hiring manager was turned down for.
Now, I voiced three other concerns I had in the 1 hour of helping my peer out since we were missing our deadline to one or more of my bosses if I didn't think they were right and did not have any resource to help me feel comfortable with the direction that was taken on those concerns.
Flash forward 5 days later, I get asked about a situation with the turndown and did not recall this specific situation as I was not part of it. I spoke through what I remember and briefly mentioned stating I had a thought or concern, being the one I didn't mention. My boss asked if I reported that at all to which I said no. They said I should have reported it and that was it of this conversation. It was about a 3 minute conversation.
About 2 hours later I was written up for not reporting concerns in a timely manner and that is a failure to perform on my job duties.
I asked for follow up from my direct boss and the one who wrote me up because I disagreed and was basically told I was taking it personal and do not receive feedback well and that I have run promotional opportunities so I should understand this. Which is a joke to me because my boss has told me I have always been great and receptive on feedback and when i'm told something that's applicable to make me stronger they only have to mention it once. I was their recommendation for a promotion recently too because of my accountability and ability to learn and grow.
So it baffles me that they would ask me if I have a personal issue with taking feedback when they know me. I think it's because our regional manager is traveling and now the general managers have to clean up their mess. Also, I was told if I had that thought I should interrupt the turndown even if it means embarrassing my peer since it wasn't being handled correctly. (which I think is a huge NO)
On top of this I am wanting to move regions for further promotion opportunities and have been in interviews to do such. The write up I was given should not affect these opportunities so my concern is:
– On principle it is severely wrong to write someone up who was just helping a peer out and trusted the hiring manager knew what they were speaking to, as well as the documentation that went out to all of management with the same verbiage.
– It's also wrong that we have an open door policy, and me stating a thought I had in passing led to a write up. If my peers knew, or if I heard this from my peers it just reinforces the behavior of not saying anything. If I didn't mention it I would not have been written up after the fact.
– Exceeding in all my current duties to a point to where I can take on additional duties to meet my company's deadlines is the furthest thing from “failure to perform your job” that I could think of.
So i'm conflicted. My integrity and ethics are in question because I think this sets a precedence for very minimal things to be taken as “failure to perform” moving forward for me and my peers. I 100% stand by the fact that I had multiple concerns, did my research on them, and took the ones I felt needed attention to the next level and this is not my fault. The hiring manager reviewed this with our bosses and wrote the verbiage in the turndown that they all view and access, and it was never addressed. How are peers who do not have the full story suppose to know? I want to bring this up to our regional manager to remove my write up. As it's ultimately the hiring manager's fault and our bosses since they review these things before we move forward. Peers and myself who were helping out were not privy to the internal discussions, just the documentation that we had to give for feedback.
But that brings up my next concern, if I bring this up to our regional manager. Even if it does get removed, will that cause conflict with my direct bosses and have them try to paint the picture that I am not receptive to feedback. Will that hurt my potential to move regions for promotional opportunities.
The write up would not transfer regions and AFAIK is not part of the promotional packet review for new opportunities, so it's really a challenge of my integrity and what I believe is right VS voicing my concerns and that negatively impacting relations with my bosses to a point where THEY may be the ones holding me back because they could be asked for feedback.
What does everyone think I should do?