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So, I had my first year review today with my boss (who is the CEO of the company) and I left it feeling quite discouraged.
This role was a newly created position within the company, so when I accepted and began working, there really wasn’t much to go off of when it came to what I should be doing. What I was told during my interview and what I was actually doing seemed quite different (and I voiced this, more than once). There were a lot of gray areas when it came to job tasks and the organization is quite disorganized. There were definitely people within the company that tried taking advantage of my not so defined role and tried to dump their work on me. My boss had to step in several times to stop this and put them in their place. Regardless, it was a challenging year trying to navigate through this position that was not well defined but I was still able to accomplish several items throughout the year.
When my boss came into the conference room today, he had a blank piece of paper with him. He literally had nothing prepared for my review (which, was planned and scheduled in advance). I asked him for feedback and he provided me with a glowing review. Said everyone is extremely happy with the work I’ve provided, everything is done on time, great work product, and I’ve done a tremendous job.
I discussed my likes and dislikes of the role as well as my goals for this upcoming year. Then, the review was over.
I asked him about compensation and how it relates to performance reviews. He told me that I would “likely” get a raise sometime this year however he wants to set goals in place first for me to reach as last year wasn’t “as defined” job role wise. I asked him what goals he has in mind. He had zero and said he’d let me know.
And that’s basically how it ended. I’m feeling very upset over this, I’m surprised, given the glowing review, that I wouldn’t at least be given a cost of living increase. It’s hard for someone to tell you that you can get a raise after you hit the goals that they haven’t defined for you yet. I also felt disrespected in general that he was so completely unprepared for this review which was scheduled in advance.
Am I being emotional and overreacting? Not sure what my next steps should be here but naturally I am feeling unmotivated, discouraged, and like I should find another job.
What size is the company? I'm assuming it's smaller?
In small companies especially, things aren't as well defined, and things like annual raises aren't as set in stone as you might like. That can be a good thing (define your own goals and prove you are adding value, and you can earn yourself raises much easier than you can in larger companies), but it's a LOT fuzzier in smaller organizations
The best and worst part of smaller companies is the jobs are loosely defined, and you have to make your own way.
When I was at a small business, I made up new job duties I thought made sense, and asked for a raise based on the parts of the job I set for myself. In my personal experience, someone who sits around waiting for their job to be spelled out, and wants clear cut goals isn't going to do well in a smaller company. Someone who is willing to try new things, take risks, set their own goals, etc. are the ones who are rewarded in smaller companies.
Again, that might not be everywhere, but overall, that's what I've seen. Some people like that kind of atmosphere, some people hate it.
I think I’m just bothered by the fact that I gave him goals I have for myself for 2020 but when I had to ask about increased compensation I was told it would be based off of his goals for me that he didn’t prepare.
Maybe raises are issued at a defined time that the boss doesn't want to define, so that people won't be hovering around his office on that date, wondering where their raise is? Whether they happen at all may be based on some business milestone that the boss doesn't control, like sales figures or the status of particular customer accounts.
There's a lot undefined about this gig, but at least it's clear that OP isn't having a performance problem. I would at least stick it out long enough to see what the raise was like, but I can also see some wisdom in starting the search for a new job now. To me, it's not apparent yet that this job is bad. There are far worse places to work out there, which is apparent from reading other threads in this forum!
Nothing more needs to be said and no other advice is needed.
Move on.
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