I KNOW MY 9-Box Rating...and it's unfair!

3 Comments

1. AnonymousOctober 4,2024 at 10:01PM UTC

   Have a discussion with HR. I really don't think anyone here can offer much guidance.

2. AnonymousOctober 6,2024 at 1:19PM UTC

   I am unfamiliar with a "9-box rating," but it is not unheard of for someone performing well to get poor ratings. Ratings/rankings generally consider the full range of the job description and pit employers against each other. Managers at some level will have to rank their employees from top to bottom. Where they perform, even though they met expectations, they may have been short of what other employees did. On the other hand, bonuses and even raises are given out based on performance against some arbitrary metric (revenue, number of clients served, etc.). Even if you meet your performance metrics, it is possible to fall in ratings or rankings if you are not taking on more responsibility and improving [possibly beyond those of your coworkers.] These types of systems often cause toxic workplaces because coworkers compete with each other rather than being allowed to work as a team.

3. AnonymousOctober 6,2024 at 3:25PM UTC

   9 box rating is to discuss employee potential and to support development and succession planning. Typically the performance and potential are plotted on a 9 box matrix. I find it both helpful sometimes, but also subjective. In my career I was assessed as both high potential and low potential, my performance was always high. Like you, I found out accidentally my last rating and it was low potential. Frankly, it was because we got a new boss, who brought his people from outside and had to justify it. I wasn't fired, but also was not given very high bonus. "Potential" assessment can be a killer to the career and lead to stagnation as HR typically does not require facts like when assessing performance. At the end I left, because I was put in positions to clean messes because I am a hard worker, but because of the perceive "low potential", was not promoted for that.