Alright y'all I need any advice about what recourse options I have if any.
I did a really good job at work this year, and was told I would be very happy with my year end review. My manager sent me my review comments before our discussion and I noticed that despite all positive glowing comments, I received a below 1.0 raise/bonus factor score, basically you met your job requirements but didn't do great, specifically I performed low in comparison to my peers. I'm not comfortable bragging on myself, but I worked hard, I always volunteer to take on more, my shit is always on time with little to no errors, etc. My manager was completely surprised when in our discussion I said I was disappointed in my score. She didn't realize it would affect my raise/bonus and she didn't realize it wasn't a very good review. She apologized profusely, said I actually deserved a higher score, said she had no negative feedback for me at all, said the whole process had been too confusing for her and she made a mistake and she'll do better next time. This is her first time being a manager. I escalated to her manager, who said that she acknowledges I did “above and beyond” and we can surely get this “resolved” with HR. She admitted that maybe she hasn't trained my manager well enough on the process. My only other coworker under this manager is going through the same thing with the same score and same discussions.
Fast forward a week, we're suddenly being gaslighted (gaslit?). We're being told that there was no mistake. We deserve the scores we got, they're sorry we're disappointed but no one ever said the scores were a mistake, we misunderstood. This is all just….blatantly not true. Complete 180 from last week, and it's making me feel fcking crazy.
This impacts me financially in the immediate term, but I was also looking for another role with more room for career growth within the company and now I feel hindered with a less than stellar review on my permanent record.
What are my options? Do I have any besides suck it up or leave? In California if it matters.