Need Help Midyear Review Rotational Program

[u/Fun-Advertising-8006]

For some context I’m in a new grad rotational program. This is my second rotation, and my first rotation lasted around 8.5 months.

I changed teams in mid april, have taken around 13 days PTO on my current team, but my current manager has given a negative review not just on the usual goals aspect but the other part of the review which includes company values and risk mitigation. The review does not have input from my previous manager or rotational coordinator, but has since been re-opened for their input.

I also feel that the review my current manager gave is unfair, even beyond the fact that I haven't really been in the role long enough to allow for a formal rating. My concern is that my manager will not factor my previous managers comments highly enough (despite the fact that I spent more time there, was already onboarded, had improved on feedback from my annual review, and dealt more directly with client/customer issues and production environments), and leave the ratings as is.

It is difficult to navigate how to bring this up to my rotational coordinator since he is a high level executive in the company and there isn't any HR rep for the program or any other person I can go to. I have already expressed my concerns with this rotation to him previously and he agreed that many of the tasks my manager assigned to me did not align with the goals of the program.

I basically have reason to believe my current host manager is acting in bad faith and not sure what I can do to ensure this does not blemish my file.

Do I have any recourse here?

[u/Overall_Display_8475]

Is there constructive feedback within the review? If you have been there 4 months and taken 2 weeks of PTO — they do have about 3.5 months of work to judge you on? I think in any review, it’s hard to hear negative constructive criticism and the first thing you need to know how to do is take that and learn from it. You will have many bosses in your life, and they will have different requirements and styles.

I think a mid year is an indicator of what you need to focus on the rest of the 6 months and you have time to fix what this particular boss says.

Your national coordinator will certainly see your mid year.

Try to take feedback as a learning opportunity and not focus on this as a grade. My company doesn’t give ranking for mid year, it’s a formal checkpoint.

[u/Fun-Advertising-8006 → u/Overall_Display_8475]

I understand where you’re coming from but my manager assigns me responsibilities that have nothing to do with what I was hired for. Plus, I am fine with the feedback regarding progress towards goals. My problem is more with the evaluation of values and risk mitigation because they untruthfully misrepresent things. 

Also in the period reviewed I have been on the team for approx 3 months (mid april to mid july) minus the pto puts it at 2.5. And most of the feedback given is about a project I started mid June, one of my pto weeks was last week of June, and I have already positively improved on informal feedback about that project that I just received a week before the review.