I had a really unsettling experience at my job recently. I'm currently in my probationary period as staff at an academic institution, and I received a performance appraisal that I thought was supposed to be a straightforward review. However, my manager asked me to rewrite it before she sends it to HR, which feels like it's turning into a Performance Improvement Plan (PIP). During our annual review meeting, I expected to discuss my performance, especially areas where I might need improvement. Instead, my manager went through my appraisal and, even for the sections where I was rated highly, she insisted that I come up with ways to improve. For example, I was praised for processing reimbursements efficiently, but she wanted me to list actions to push beyond that, which felt absurd since it's a straightforward task. She also instructed me to remove the context I had provided about my work and her own positive feedback, which was concerning. It felt like she was trying to reframe my performance to highlight deficiencies rather than acknowledge my contributions. I'm worried that what will be sent to HR will look like a list of my shortcomings, even though I had received no negative feedback prior to this. To make matters worse, I have a meeting with the ombuds office scheduled for the afternoon after I need to submit the revised appraisal. I’m feeling anxious about whether I'm being overly paranoid or if this is genuinely a strange situation. I want to remain professional, but I'm concerned this is being used to build a case against me before my probation review.
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