A Bad Boss—And a Damaging Performance Review
Q:
Hi Tammy,
I’m a finance manager and I love my work. But my company was recently been acquired by a large company and I was transfer to a report under a new boss. I soon found out this boss is terrible, he lies, makes up numbers and mean. I was so upset with his behavior that I got into a private heated conversation with him (argument). Now our relationship is damaged and he gave me a terrible review due to this. The company required that I acknowledge the review, but the things he wrote was not acceptable. I refused to accept the review, but he continues to asked me to acknowledge it. He’s my boss and I have to be nice, but the things he wrote was terrible and it doesn’t represent my talents, accomplishments or my truly contribution to the company. I can fight back, but it doesn’t do me any good since he’s my boss. What do you recommend I do? I thought about leaving, I though about walking out, I been looking for a new job but it’s especially hard during this time. I am not sure what to do next. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
Mlletttle
A:
Dear Mlletttle,
I’m so sorry to hear you’re having such a difficult work experience.
I can’t offer extremely specific advice based on the information you’ve provided, but let me offer some thoughts that I hope you’ll find helpful.
First, before focusing on your career, you need to consider your ethical responsibility to the company. Depending on how serious or widespread your boss’ actions may be, it may be necessary for you to bring his actions to the attention of those higher up. Employees who lie are never in the best long-term interests of an organization. Certainly, someone in the financial department who lies and makes numbers up would be a very serious liability. On the other hand, allegations of this sort are very serious. You need to consider whether his actions are detrimental to the ethical integrity of the company and how certain you are of your views and, if appropriate, discuss your concerns with others.
Second, assuming your boss’ actions do not represent ethical violations, let’s turn to your performance review. Most company’s processes allow the employee to add a note that expresses your own perspective. Is that possible in your case? Ideally, you should acknowledge that the review has been discussed with you, but also offer a short, non-emotional note that conveys your view of your performance. Perhaps most importantly, most review processes also include an opportunity to document next steps and development plans. This may even be an opportunity to get back on track with this boss, if possible, by outlining activities and metrics that you can both agree to.
And finally, it is probably wise to begin considering other options. In many cases, an acquisition imposes a different culture on an organization – one that may be very different from the culture that attracted you in the first place. At some point, it makes sense to decide whether or not this organization will be one that will engage and excite you. If not, you owe it to yourself and to the organization, to lay the ground work for moving on – not necessarily urgently, but determination to find a work environment that works for you.
Best wishes,
Tammy
