I (27F) am a PhD student working a grad assistantship in my department. I started at the beginning of the semester working as a clerical assistant for a group of faculty. The appointment was only for the fall term, so I will not be working there again in the spring. I was NOT terminated, my department just doesn’t have the funds to continue the position in the spring term.
Basically, I am asked to complete tasks by the faculty as they need them. My supervisor is one of the professors, and she is the one who gave me the above rating. As the semester progressed and she as well as the others gave me tasks, I thought everything was going well. Then the day before Halloween (more than halfway through the semester), she calls me into her office and tells me that I am not meeting expectations. She then goes to list projects I did that apparently had “usability” issues with them (her words), but she never gave me an opportunity to fix them nor did she notify me when these issues were discovered. I even had to ask what the issues were with each project that she was referring to. There was another large project that she claimed I took too long on, and marked me as “demonstrating significant need for completing tasks on time” as a headliner to my evaluation. It was the only project I didn’t quite meet the deadline on, but now she’s blowing it up and making it look like I cannot complete things on time.
I have contacted my union and they have put in a request for a lawyer on my behalf (I get 30 min free consult, then reduced fees after that). I am thinking of asking them to help me draft a proper rebuttal letter, that doesn’t make me look like I’m being combative to feedback, yet allows me to share my side of the story. I just don’t think this overall rating is fair (and is a real kick in the teeth) bc I busted my bottom trying to do the job to the best of my ability, and also so that I could get a good reference. I feel like this will hurt my chances of getting another appointment in the department in future semesters.
How should I proceed?
First job?
Suggestions for how to proceed: grow up, learn to take criticism, stop whining. Hope that helps.
You should accept this feedback, realize you won’t have this job in the spring, and capture what improvement items and lessons learned you can from this experience.
Evaluations are subjective. The faculty thought your lack of attention to detail and timeliness were a big deal, you didn’t. They gave you their opinion. You’re welcome to yours, but it doesn’t change anything.
Even if you successfully light yourself on fire and get the paper changed, you’ll likely be even less likely to get another assistantship because now all the faculty will know you suck at admin tasks and you can’t take feedback and you’re a litigious problem student.
FYI, you should ready yourself to get comments on your thesis and submitted monographs, that you also likely won’t enjoy. Feedback is a big thing in academia.
she never gave me an opportunity to fix them nor did she notify me when these issues were discovered…. It was the only project I didn’t quite meet the deadline on
So you had errors and were late on a project?
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It won’t matter. The best dissertation is a done dissertation and no one will care that you got a bad review on a side job.
I got my PhD and for the life of me have no recollection of my performance reviews.
Publish or perish. Nothing else matters
It’s your manager’s job to appraise your performance. Your opinion of your own performance doesn’t really matter unfortunately. A lawyer isn’t necessary or even worth the consult here.