BAE Systems Senior Programmer Manager reviews

The annual performance review process has caused many good people to leave. It favours people who are friendly with management or who spend time playing the process. It reflects little on the realities of being a consultant on a client assignment. My departure came after I was flagged as failing to meet expectations in my review. Nobody had raised any significant issue with my performance in the prior year (the client viewed me as a critical team member and gave me very positive feedback) and the decision makers had never spoken to me directly. Over the course of several months, I sought specific statements as to my alleged failings, and even raised a grievance through HR. As someone with a neuro-diverse background (Autism spectrum), I found the conflicting, incorrect and generic statements very difficult. The standard I was subjected to was far lower than the standard I was held to. I raised on many occasions that the situation was impacting my mental health, but received no support. The capital irony is that one of the key decision-makers who flagged me as failing gave a key note speech in ‘mental health week’ about the importance of listening. I wasn’t listened to once. My experience is that it is all veneer of a company trying to look good in 2023. The reality as I have seen it is that this is company in decline, losing its best people due to dogmatic and outdated ways of working. There’s no challenging or changing the machine, the long-standing heads are comfortable with the way things were.