TLDR; I am (or rather was) on my way to get a significant pay hike based on the structure of my company and how it rewards performances but I'm being deliberately given bad ratings so that I don't qualify for the pay hike. I work in a very niche company and made a radical career switch. I don't know what I'll do if things don't work out here. I'm going to speak to my Team Leader soon probably today or in a couple of days. Looking for advise.
Intro: I'll try to keep it short although it's tough to put my situation across without explaining the detailed workings of my job or by keeping it vague for privacy but I'll give it a go.
Premise:
So the nature of my job is such that we're evaluated every 4 months and based on our performance and stats at the end of the evaluation cycle for that 4 month period, we get a permanent hike. There are a total of 5 pay slabs or “levels” and there are certain set parameters to qualify for every level, doing which will get us a pay hike depending on whichever level we qualify for. The current cycle started on 1st August and ends on 30th Nov.
My current level is 2. (I'm trying to achieve level 5. No one has ever achieved this pay slab or “level” 5 yet. Out of about 300 employees, about 10-15 are on their way to achieve it in this cycle which means it's pretty difficult)
Main issue:
Now, I had a very healthy position and was nearly there to achieve level 5 because my stats were extremely good. I had the best “ratings” overall in this cycle until 2 weeks ago. (So “ratings” is one of the parameters that gets an evaluation every week and the average of those at the end of the cycle will be our final score on which we'll be evaluated for which level we qualify for) My stats for “ratings” were so good that I was urged to work as a QA (the ones who give us those ratings every week) i.e. a promotion but I declined because I wanted to achieve level 5 first and the pay for a QA is lower than what a level 5 employee would earn.
For nearly 3 months I've had the best ratings out of all employees but my last two ratings were very bad. I went through it and feel or rather know for sure that I'm being deliberately prevented from achieving level 5. I've never had such bad ratings in my whole tenure here even when I had just started.
One bad rating is kind of acceptable but two in row JUST when I was on the verge of securing level 5 and having GOT a bad previous rating is nigh on impossible. I knew that I had to recover from the first bad rating so I was extra cautious with my work and the second bad rating was even WORSE than the previous one. This is why I find it really shocking and fishy.
From being easily there to qualify for level 5, I'm on the verge of barely qualifying for it (although as it stands I still do but just barely. It's down to the fact that my ratings for 3 months very outstanding) while there's a whole month and about 4-5 more rating evaluations to go, I fear that if such deliberate bad ratings continue, I might not even quality for level 4 or heck even 3 🥲
Closing thoughts:
My theory is that I'm being deliberately prevented from achieving level 5. I don't understand why it's being done to me. I think it's probably because I declined to work as a QA. I had done it very respectfully but I think it irked them and shattered their egos regardless. There are two other things too which might be why I'm being targeted but it's difficult to explain without going into specifics. I can explain them in the comments though, if you want to know.
I had radically changed my field of working when I took up this job. I don't know what I'll do if this doesn't work here. I thought I'd be achieving level 5 and would craft a good career here but it all seems to be going to shit now. The nature of my work is such that anything below level 5 is not worth it for the amount and quality of work that we do and the kind if stress that we are under. It's also a very niche job and there aren't many companies that do what we do. So I'm kinda stuck here now for atleast the foreseeable future.
I genuinely appreciate you reading till the end of this long post and would even greatly appreciate to hear your thoughts and advises. Thank you so much.