Well, I guess I'll just stop working so hard

[Food Lady]

If I want a better yearly review, I will have to. So we have 5 "grades", and I got a "D", though no one ever gets the "A", so I'm gonna call it a "C". Anyway, there are several dings, but they can basically be categorized as 2 problems: attendance and being too task-oriented. The former I agree with; I run late all the time and have gone over time on lunches. I deserve that. I also admit there are times when I am doing something and don't notice the front-end is getting backed up. What am I usually doing? A project my boss has given me or cleaning up after coworkers/stocking because they don't. In fact, picking up the slack is the larger part of it. I do it because I'm sick of not having the supplies to do my job. I think I should stop being the mom. It takes my focus off customers and it frustrates me. The random thing I got dinged for was not staying in-stock. Uh, I had to ask how in the world I was responsible for that, as I'm front-end, not backroom, nor salesfloor. I come to find out that

if the front has empty end-caps, Bosslady hears about it. So *I* get dinged? And how exactly am I supposed to help her when we're chronically understaffed? Besides, customers first. That means we don't have time for that. I'm done doing side work. I work so hard to leave a well-stocked area in order to help my coworkers be more efficient, and I am repaid with a sub-par review. No wonder even the managers are quitting.

[eltf177]

We're on a 1-to-5 scale with 5 being the best. Your overall score is your raise. But _NO_ one ever gets a 5, or even a 4 - Supervisors are under orders that _NOBODY_ gets more than a 3; even if this means dinging an otherwise outstanding employee. Then three years ago it was nobody gets more than a 2. This year? Just 1, "no money available." Well, there's money for the police, the bigwig's and their pets/favorites as well as for stupid projects and other wastes of money! Just none for the hard-working employees!

[cindybubbles]

They should do away with performance reviews, in that case, and tell everyone that they're not getting a raise.

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

They should do away with performance reviews, in that case, and tell everyone that they're not getting a raise.

IOW what the swamp is doing. Tough year, no merit raises, blah blah blah, but no review process either.

[eltf177]

They should do away with performance reviews, in that case, and tell everyone that they're not getting a raise.

Ah, but not everybody's getting a crappy raise. The Police Union takes care of their people, and the bigwig's make sure they and their pets/favorites are. It's just the rank and file that get the shaft...

[protege]

Just none for the hard-working employees!

...and then the employers wonder why people leave...or don't give a shit. My boss will do things like that. There's no money for us peons to get raises, but always cash for the higher-ups. As if that wasn't insulting enough, he justifies it by impossible performance reviews. He'll bring up errors made *months* ago. Then he wonders why staff morale is in the shitter, and why nobody does more than the bare minimum. I mean, if we're not going to get some recognition, why bother?

[Kal]

We're on a 1-to-5 scale with 5 being the best. Your overall score is your raise. But _NO_ one ever gets a 5, or even a 4.

They did that, and still do according to friends who still work there, where I used to be. Eventually they listened to the general complaints of 5 being impossible to reach and instead made it a scale of 4. The issue, as if you couldn't guess, is that now no-one can reach 4 instead.
They dealt with the literal issue raised while completely and utterly missing the actual point. Oddly enough, morale hasn't actually improved since that change.

[wagegoth]

We've been getting much smaller raises over the last few years, but at least we're getting something. But they've switched over to everyone getting the same flat amount. So why are we even doing reviews?

[gremcint]

http://retailcomic.com/comics/april-6-2014/

This conversation reminds of this retail comic.

[Dreamstalker]

We don't get performance reviews OR merit raises; the only non-promotion raises I've ever seen are "cost of living" (yeah right) mandated by contract.

[Food Lady]

I don't care about raises. They hurt me in the long run. I don't, however, like being put up to unrealistic expectations.

[Dreamstalker]

Been there, still there. ASM basically expects me to do everything in the store except sling freight (which I actually have done on some overnights), and gets frantic/finds some way to ding me when I can't. I've told him to his face that I can't do everything and if he wants someone to do everything then let me (and pay me to) train someone else the way we should be doing it.

[CrazedClerkthe2nd]

One thing I quite like about being unionized is that our raises are automatic and built into our contract, we can't just not get them. If they company tried to do that, they'd have a huge legal mess (and a strike) on their hands.

My previous two jobs, both non union, had the same low raise/impossible performance review model mentioned in the OP.

[Dreamstalker]

I was told when I started at Home for the Bewildered (where I am now) that we did get merit raises. That was three managers ago, and I have no idea if that ever was actually true. I'm not the only one long overdue for one; I swear some days that three of us keep the store running.

[Catwoman2965]

At my PT retail job, we used to have sales goals. Which were factored into your review. So you had say 6 categories, one of them being whether or not you met your "annual" goal. and you got points for each category, which were then averaged, and then your score based on the number of points. Becasue I worked slow times (nights and Sat night) sometimes I didn't make my goals, which meant I got zero for that category.

so my overall review, based on that, was "does not meet expectations" for 2 years running. which pissed me off since it was NOT indicative of how i do my job, and i scored high on every other, and didn't get me a raise. Pissed me off.