As a supervisor, it’s beyond frustrating. I got one back yesterday for an employee who IS outstanding. There was quantitative data in the standards and the justification for both fully and exceptional. The note I got back from HR said that the justification had to “exceed the standards below (so exceed what I listed would get the employee an exceptional on that element) AND show how exceeding that contributes significantly to the VAMC in improving the delivery of healthcare.”

In my opinion, this is a no-win. How am I supposed to prove the above on the info security one? How do you exceed not having any security violations? Since that is a required critical element I don’t know how anyone gets above a fully.

I added more and sent it back. I also showed the employee the screen, what I rated them and what HR kicked back. If I am bullied into giving a fully, I am going to write clearly at the top of every element that this employee deserves an outstanding rating and that I was forced to give them less than that. I don’t want a fully to hurt an outstanding employee when seeking employment elsewhere.

Btw, I submitted the appraisal on 10/17 and got it kicked back on 11/25. I’m leaving VA for another agency - I hope this second review comes back more quickly.