Ask Boss for Long-Overdue Review & Raise

[wadesgirl]

I know how great all of you are at helping people figure out what the say so I thought I would see if anyone can come up with something good for me. I have worked for my company for two years in March. We are supposed to have a review every year around our anniversary. We are well aware that review doesn't always mean raise (they like the remind us of that). Last year, my review was several months late. It was sometime in the summer before I got my review and raise. I felt cheated as I worked alot of overtime in May and didn't have my good raise on those paychecks like I should have. Me and a couple other coworkers who were hired around the same time (our previous company had closed) insisted that we would not let it go that long this year. We reminded our boss in February and March. Well April came and went. And now it's almost the end of May. I'm sick of reminding him. The last time he said that he still needed to work on the paperwork. Well, two of my coworkers got theirs last week and I'm still waiting on mine. I work DAMN (pardon my french!) hard for this company and put up with too much if any of you remember some of my previous threads about my personal issues revolving around my job. I have done extra work the last two weeks and really think I deserve my review and a raise. What would be a good way to ask my boss rather than just coming out and saying "Where's my review?!".

 

[vwpamperedchef]

Well, start showing up late for work everyday. When he/she finally says "why do you come in late everyday?" you can just say "I thought it was ok since my review is getting to be a day late each day"

OK so I really wouldnt say that, but if your boss was the kind you could joke with that might get the ball rolling.

I would definitely NOT put in any more OT or work as hard has you have been until you get your review. I can see being a week or two late, but months? Nope...no excuse.

Good Luck.

 

[janetupnorth]

How about something like this...wording needs some work...Dear (Boss), I wanted to inquire as to when my review would be for this year. According to my hire date of March X, 2006, I would have been due for my review already. As I have been taught, and as I see in raising children, timely feedback on performance is very important for me to constantly improve my skills and actions and become a better employee. Even if I am doing everything I should and a review doesn't seem as important or necessary, it is important to me personally to enforce what good skills I have along with quickly improving what may need work. I know you are very busy, but could we possibly set a date and time to get this done?Thanks in advance for your time,
XXXX

 

[janetupnorth]

Also, do you have an employee handbook? In many companies it not only lists your responsibilities to them, but their responsibilities to you and your supervisor's responsibilities.This may include "timely reviews".

 

[wadesgirl]

Email is a little too formal around here. I work in a shop environment. I have a handbook at home and I swear it use to say something about yearly reviews. I do like the way you put the email, I might have to pull a few things out of it.

I also LOVE the suggestion of showing him his own medicine but it doesn't work with my boss. As much as he loves to be on us for coming in late (I'm only late in the winter when the roads are bad as you can never gauge how long the drive will take and we live 35 minutes away on a good day) and stuff, he's guilty himself but will always rag on us. No one ever gets on him for his work ethics.

I have also been tempted to email the owner of the company (it's a very small company) but really don't want to go that route. I just don't get it!

 

[janetupnorth]

Email is a little too formal around here. I work in a shop environment. I have a handbook at home and I swear it use to say something about yearly reviews. I do like the way you put the email, I might have to pull a few things out of it.

I also LOVE the suggestion of showing him his own medicine but it doesn't work with my boss. As much as he loves to be on us for coming in late (I'm only late in the winter when the roads are bad as you can never gauge how long the drive will take and we live 35 minutes away on a good day) and stuff, he's guilty himself but will always rag on us. No one ever gets on him for his work ethics.

I have also been tempted to email the owner of the company (it's a very small company) but really don't want to go that route. I just don't get it!

I wasn't suggesting e-mail at all, a typed or written note in a mailbox to remind him that you value your review and would like to set a date/time.

 

[wadesgirl]

I wasn't suggesting e-mail at all, a typed or written note in a mailbox to remind him that you value your review and would like to set a date/time.

Mailbox... Is that the round container next to his desk?! Once again, small company, very informal, no mailboxes. His desk is in the middle of the production area and is used by multiple people.

 

[janetupnorth]

Ok, note on the keyboard or taped to the phone.

 

[wadesgirl]

Ok, note on the keyboard or taped to the phone.

That would be more like it! It's a very small company, we probably have 20 people in the shop area and 10-12 in the sales area.

 

[rennea]

I'm right in the middle of doing reviews myself. Sorry but had to have a little snicker when I read this thread. My staff hate reviews, we tell them they are coming up and they freak out and here you want yours Reviews don't mean that your getting a raise with us either, just putting down on paper how the employee is doing. We always give an employee a "notice of review" before hand with questions for the employee to answer so we know their goals and such.

But what I really wanted to say it that I "hate" doing reviews and like to avoid them. Maybe your boss feels the same. My advice though is to talk to him and let me know your looking forward to it and during/after the review let your boss know how you feel.

 

[finley1991]

This is an interesting thread... I have a question wadesgirl... well... more of an observation... each time you mention to your boss about the review, he puts you off and says why it needs to be put off... and each time Janet makes a suggestion, you come back with why that won't work, no matter what she says. Kind of ironic that you're doing the same thing to her that your boss is doing to you!With that, if he's done the reviews with the others but not you, why? What are they doing differently?It sounds like you need to CONFIDENTLY (and I said Confidently, not mean or *****y or conniving) put your foot down and tell him that he promised you a review, you've been working hard for him and you deserve it and would like him to tell you when THIS WEEK it will take place. He's had PLENTY of time to get the paperwork in place (and was able to do it for the others... why couldn't he do your paperwork at the same time?) If he feels the need to put it off, then you have a decision to make. Either take it and not complain because clearly that's not working, or move on. What's the old saying? You can't rides two horses with one ass. Good luck!

 

[wadesgirl]

This is an interesting thread... I have a question wadesgirl... well... more of an observation... each time you mention to your boss about the review, he puts you off and says why it needs to be put off... and each time Janet makes a suggestion, you come back with why that won't work, no matter what she says. Kind of ironic that you're doing the same thing to her that your boss is doing to you!

With that, if he's done the reviews with the others but not you, why? What are they doing differently?

It sounds like you need to CONFIDENTLY (and I said Confidently, not mean or *****y or conniving) put your foot down and tell him that he promised you a review, you've been working hard for him and you deserve it and would like him to tell you when THIS WEEK it will take place. He's had PLENTY of time to get the paperwork in place (and was able to do it for the others... why couldn't he do your paperwork at the same time?) If he feels the need to put it off, then you have a decision to make. Either take it and not complain because clearly that's not working, or move on. What's the old saying? You can't rides two horses with one ass.

Good luck!

The biggest problem is he's just lazy! We'll catch him all the time on the internet (yeah, I know, what am I doing right now!) but then he'll tell us he didn't have time to do such and such that he promised he would (like ordering part, doing reviews, etc). He's honestly not very good boss material but he's the owner's ex-son-in-law so he will probably have a job no matter how little of a job he does!

BTW I was just being funny with Janet. Our work environment is so laid back and has a shop mentailty. Email is very formal around here, we actually go to people's desk to ask them about things rather than emailing or calling. But they are so small that things like mailboxes and cubicles are something they would never put money into! ETA: Including central air and heat (it's freezing in the winter and 110+ in the summer).

I only want my review because no one around here tells you how good of a job you do. I like to hear that I'm working hard or what he thinks I need to work on. Plus we had a really good "heart-to-heart" talk a couple weeks ago about my job and I want to see if some of it sunk into his head. Plus all the extra work I had to do over the last two weeks that involved me driving an extra hour a day to our other location to help them figure out why they are sending me so many errors. I am a good hard worker and pride myself on that but unlike Pampered Chef, you get no recognition for that around here. The only time you hear anything is when you have done wrong.