Seeking Guidance and Support – Unfair Escalation and Misunderstanding ho 8
Absolutely! Here’s the revised version with your bond period and appraisal issue included:
Subject: Seeking Guidance and Support – Unfair Escalation and Misunderstanding
Hi All,
I am a fresher with 1.5 years of experience, currently working in an IT Operations project as a DBA in an MNC. I am also under a 2-year bond, and despite completing one year, I did not receive any appraisal. My appraiser was someone from a completely different project, with whom I have never interacted or worked directly, which left me with no proper evaluation of my actual contributions.
Over these 1.5 years, I have taken complete ownership of my responsibilities, often managing entire shifts alone, handling critical tasks independently, and ensuring smooth operations. Despite my performance, there has been no formal recognition or appreciation for my efforts, even though many of my peers (who trained alongside me) are still not capable of independently managing shifts.
Recently, with the release of increment forms, I was also asked to train a junior colleague (who has 3 years of experience) during weekend shifts, adding further to my responsibilities.
Incident Summary
Yesterday, during my shift, an onsite team member pinged to check who was available. At that time, I had stepped away for a short break after asking my junior to monitor the shift in my absence. When I returned, I noticed the message and acknowledged it with a thumbs-up reaction, instead of a written response.
Since I only gave a thumbs-up reaction, I understand that I do not have concrete proof of my timely response — something I now realize I should have handled differently. However, I immediately followed up, connected directly with the onsite member nearly 20 minutes before the scheduled meeting, and stayed on the call for 1.5 hours. At the end of the call, the onsite person thanked me and confirmed that there were no further tasks for us.
Unexpected Escalation
Despite my availability and proactive response, I was shocked to learn that the onsite member raised an escalation email, alleging that no DBA was available and no response was received during the shift. Even after I explained the situation and provided a detailed timeline, including screenshots, my explanation was not accepted.
As a result, I am now:
- Being held solely responsible for the incident.
- Asked to permanently submit my laptop, effectively preventing me from working from home.
- Asked to explain my every minute during the shift in a detailed questioning session, which I fully cooperated with.
My Concerns
This entire situation has left me feeling extremely demotivated and unfairly targeted, especially considering:
- I was present during the shift and joined the call 20 minutes early.
- I stayed on the call for 1.5 hours, even though no actual work was assigned to me during that time.
- I have consistently taken ownership and worked independently on weekends, while many others were not even physically present in the office.
- Despite my continuous contributions, I was denied a fair appraisal because my appraiser was from an unrelated project and had no visibility into my work.
Request for Guidance
I am seeking guidance and support on how to navigate this situation and how to ensure my efforts and contributions are properly recognized. I genuinely feel that this escalation is unfair and does not reflect the level of dedication I have shown since joining the project.
Any advice or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
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Stupid incidents like these are not real 'escalations'. One cannot expect you to be in front of the screen 24*7. Your manager should have ignored it since you anyway handle everything alone. If they are not, then they are playing foul.
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Appraisal and recognition of work - don't expect appraisal when there is a bond signed. It'll take time to job hunt so start looking somewhere else, by the time you find a job and leave - it'll be 2 years. Job changes are actual appraisal of your work and recognition of your capabilities.
Thanks for the advice and quick response, my manager and TL are not kept in the meeting before as I am in the meeting with project manager alone but at the end they try to save me knowing that the escalation had no valid point.
Now I am solely focusing on switching from here. Working on my skills .
Resign and move on, this looks like very stupid organisation. And don’t expect any appraisal etc for your good work, that’s how these organisations work, they suck your blood and profit from that. So once you observe these signs, just start preparing for interviews and resign asap. And treat these escalations lightly, treat it as a joke and let it go on. When you know you are not in the wrong, trash the complaint.
Thanks for the quick response 😊, Yes, I am ignoring and taking it on a light note as much as possible, but this 1.5 of start of my carrier are very toxic due to such politics of corporate, I am not sure I can survive this toxicity for my whole life, a person needs peace more than he need money. I will resign and switch atleast for peace if not for money.
Believe me no one like leave the hen who lays golden eggs. So self introspect. There is always a human at the other side whom you are not trying to understand. Best answer of this question can be given who escalated against you. Also your appraisal are mostly a reflection of your work over the year but no appraisal is not always converge towards a bad performance. Sometimes a manager has no option but choose someone for less or no appraisal. Many a time business situation led to this situation. My genuine advice after a long experience in the industry and also a spiritual person, never seek validation of your work and wait for someone else evaluation. Just like you seek guidance here which I liked about you, ask for guidance from your very own manager keeping trust on him but leaving appraisal thing aside.
Thanks for such a quick response, My manager and TL are supporting me in front of project manager because I haven't done anything that serious to make an escalation. I hope things will be back to normal, and I am now seriously working on my skills and will switch as I got my bond completed.
Hello guys update, as no sla breached or neither anything got stuck they have nothing to do against me so they raised a mail saying we got client escalation because I am working from home I laugh by reading the mail that how come my WFH affect client,if I was in office and as it was Sunday I will be away from seat for almost 2 hours as nothing came on Sunday and won't see the msg after even hours but I did replied within 15 min.
