Appraisal season. My favourite time of year, if you don’t count all the other times.
My review contained the phrase “exceeds expectations” four times, which was nice, and the word “however”, which is the only word that matters. Everything before a however is packaging.
However. In this market. Budget constraints. Levelling framework. Calibration.
Calibration, for the uninitiated, is a meeting where people who have never seen your work adjust your rating so the spreadsheet looks like a triangle.
So to summarise: exceptional year, couldn’t have delivered the big project without you, genuinely one of our strongest — and the rise is 2%, which is below inflation, which mathematically is a pay cut with a bow on it.
O and they’ve asked me to write the comms announcing how well the new pay framework has landed.
I said I’d be delighted.