This happened a few weeks ago and is still on my mind.
Started at a new company early last year and had my first performance review. I sat down with my leader and thought it was going well at first; I was told how much of a hard worker I was, how much the team loved me, and was complimented multiple times about how quickly I picked up the processes to support our clients.
Then my leader asks me “what would you rate your performance on a scale of 1 to 5?”
I replied with a “4”, that I had really made an effort but there was still room for me to grow in my contributions as I was still learning the in and outs of the role.
He told me that I was more like a “3”. I was floored by this and asked if I had made any big errors or was unsatisfactory in such a way to cause such a low score. He replied that was just how the company rates their performance reviews for the overall final submission. I asked him to clarify and apparently this is the system they use:
1: Employee is about to be terminated
2: Employee is on probation
3: Employee is doing the bare minimum
4: Employee is putting forth the effort of two people
5: Employee is doing their bosses job
After he explained I said “So let me get this straight. My review basically describes an exemplary performance, but I am being rated only doing the bare minimum because I'm not doing the work of two people or my bosses job?”
He got very quiet after that and ended the meeting shortly after.