I'm a non westerner, so my understanding of the western and Dutch mentality in corporation is very limitted.
I've been working for a Dutch company for 3 years with a permenant contract. I like the atmosphere in this company, but not the technology.
During the first 1.5 year, I performed well and my evaluation was marked as: "Meet the requirement and expectation given the (educational) degree I have and salary that I earn".
But the next year it was a disaster: many points in the evaluation are bad, and final conclusion was: "Strongly fall below requirement and expectation, lack the abilit to do the job, crucial skills are questionable". It was partly because I am not happy with the daily work, and I did not produce enough quantity, but maybe there was a political reason behind.
I told my boss to give me once chance to prove that I am different. Then the next half-year I worked hard, produce good quantity. And the evaluation is now "Meet the requirement", but many sentences in this latest evaluation always imply that I am at a much more junior level than what I think I deserve.
It seems that my boss' impression on me is not changed after a hard working half-year. I talked to them and seems that they want to keep on paper the negative marks on me.
I wonder what could be the reasons behind it?
- Given the written paper, this year they would have reason not to raise my salary ?
- They want to kick me out (even with a permanent contract), and this written evaluation would be a proof for them if there's some legal issue?
Any idea is welcomed. I am not from a Western culture so my political nose is not good enough to sniff the reasons.
Many thanks to you.
Thank you Outlovei3 and Osita.
This is a small company and I don't know if there's an union. I think the management is allied with each other and who cares for a foreigner like me ?
The first 1.5 years with good evaluation I had was when I worked closely with two technical bosses. I only had two bosses over my had at that time.
But at the end of this year I seemed to make a will-be-important person in the group angry. I would call this as VIP: he has his voice heard everywhere, is liked by these two bosses and even upper management. He normally jumped into my conversations and try to show his superiority over me. He also does it to other people, but he is liked by upper management. He was even assigned to evaluate me at the end of that year, but I refuse and cite the fact that since my entering of the company I had only two bosses, and I don't like the fact that he would jump into my conversation.
At the end of this 1.5 year I found two things
1) I don't like what my team was doing: I would prefer grow my expertise in a different way, with what I consider quality in work. I discussed and moved to another group.
2) I don't like the fact that this VIP has his voice heard to these two bosses and try to impose on me. So I discussed and moved to another group.
During this new one year I have 3 bosses: two old big boss and one new smaller boss. I did not get along with this new boss since his technical expertise is even worse and I did not like it. He expected mainly quantity while I focus only on the quality. This small boss doesn't appreciate the quality that I propose, simply because it's different from his team. Then the disastrous evaluation happened: a sudden decrease in evaluation grade. I was graded almost like a stupid person. The "next period's goal and reminders" are as if I am a totally newbie in the career "Don't do this don't do that, you have to start small, you should not change anything, you have to pay attention to X, you have to ask yourself the basic question Y".
I then realize that these 3 bosses don't like (or don't understand) what I think is quality, they only like quantity. Then I admitted my fault not to produce enough quantity and suggested a new period with a new evaluation.
For this new 0.5 year, like I said I did my best to do quantity. Then at the evaluation they approve this fact about the quantity, but still they keep that bad reminders "you should do X, not do Y....".
So you might ask why I still want to be with the company given my dislike in technical term what they do? It's because
PRO:
- The company is doing great financially.
- The director has a good vision. He dreams big (to make the company the world's best in ABC), he hires people with PhD even if the company is small.
- And he also listens to a technical director who I admire (who has left the company to found a sister company working closely with my compay).
- The company accept flexible time which suit me.
- As a non european I have struggled to integrate socially into many of my past companies' teams. But with this company I am doing great. I feel I am myself and I could talk easily with many people.
- I am afraid that the Dutch economy will be bad, and jobs out there are not better. In short I still believe in the future of my company, but not the quality of the work of its technical team.
CON:
- Salary is low
- The expertise I got from this company won't get me far in the technical world. I would plan to move around the world abit, and I need other expertises to sell me in the job markets of the countries I would visit.
I don't know why you keep saying ... 'who cares for a foreigner like me'?
I am a non Europoean foreigher too ... in fact I think most people here are non Euro foreigners on this board.
Yes, there are A hole in every team (and everyone knows who they are) but you can't make your managers dislike you. You kind of have to play it safe and NO ... going over their heads to talk to the Director will further compound your situation. Donb't do that!
I think you need to work your way back into their good graces and telling them that you don't like the direction the team is going in .. umm that will surely make it worse.
I say .. if you want to stay there .. you need to conform your thinking to their expectations and you need to get them to 'like' you.
If the salary is low AND the job is not doing you any favors in terms of advancing yourself - maybe just keep you head low and meanbwhile look for a another job.
