For the '09 year, we were supposed to submit an action plan for ourselves to our manager. The manager set three goals, pretty basic stuff, and then asked us to add a few things to it before submitting the final to him. I just submitted the three goals he had preset with no additions. Yesterday, I had a little talk with my manager about my action plan for the '09 work year, he wondered why I didn't set myself any goals.
For some back story, you can read some other posts here, here and here. You can also read about my annual review if you want to know what I was told and see a list of my accomplishments and responsibilities from last year.
So, to the story. When my manager approached me about my lack of goals, I decided that I wasn't going to bite my tongue or hold back anymore, and I was as blunt as I possibly could be. First, I don't like to prop myself up and I definitely don't think I'm a better person than anyone else, but I do believe I'm a better worker than a lot of the people I work with. After outlining everything I did for the team last year, I asked why I received a middle rating on my annual review, he didn't have an answer. I asked why I was rated with the team leads when it was made very clear to me all last year that I was not a team lead, again, he didn't have an answer. I implied to him that all of the foreigners here feel under-appreciated and over-worked and asked him if he knew why they would feel that way, again, no answer. I also asked why people who were not good at anything other than taking a lot of bad calls and did nothing extra for the team got top ratings on their annual performance review, guess what, he didn't know.
I spent about an hour speaking with my manager about this at my desk, and I could tell by the look on his face that he was not used to being talked to in this manner. I have spent two years in this company working for this team doing everything I could do to make it better, and I was basically told, in my annual review, that I wasn't doing a good job, but they were going to keep asking me to do more. At this, I could no longer bite my tongue and not say anything, and I let loose. The management that I have worked for in this country have not liked a person who tells them what they think and definitely doesn't like it when an 'underling' tells them what they're doing wrong, I did both yesterday.
I will be fair to my manager, he is not the one I have a beef with, it's his counterpart for the other half of the team, my former manager. This is the guy who nearly backed me into a corner and is the subject of most of the referenced posts in paragraph two. He has never hidden his disdain for the foreigners working here. I don't know if he acts this way because he's ashamed that he lived in Canada for a long period of time and still has trouble communicating in English, if he's afraid someone will figure out that he's not very smart, or what, but he has earned very little or no respect from almost all of the people who have or do work for him. Ok, it's no secret that I don't like the guy, and, that is something I told my manager yesterday as well. I did so in as diplomatic a way as I'm capable of, but I'm about as diplomatic as a platoon of Marines raiding an Al Qaeda camp.
I have voiced my opinion, explained my position, and let my manager know where I stand. He thinks I'm a pessimistic skeptic, and he's right. I have no delusions of any further promotions at this company nor do I have any hopes of ever getting any recognition for my work. Now, I guess I'll just wait and see what comes from my little talk.
