I am a Navy Reservist for 16 years now working at a large corporation for coming up on 6 years. This past year, the department I work in has established a DEPARTMENT goal of having an average of 6.5 hours direct hours charged per day per employee. Just to clarify direct hours are considered those hours charged to the projects we are working on. Non Direct Hours would be hours charged to overhead, mandatory training, holiday pay, vacation, sick time, parental leave, military leave, etc. I have been out about 4 weeks combined due to military orders this past year as well as used some vacation and paid absence (no more or less than the average employee I would say).
Okay, we had quarterly reviews last week and my manager put on my INDIVIDUAL performance review the following 2 statements that lead to my question:
- Key Metrics (1 of 3): Direct Hours per Day: 5.1. (Goal 6.5)
- Areas of Improvement: Direct hours are significantly below the 6.5 goal. Direct hours per day are lower than goal due to military leave and is acceptable per corporate guidelines.
I have brought up to my manager and second level manager that I feel this directly disadvantages me due to my military service which is protected by US federal law. I told them in my opinion, military leave should be removed from both the top and bottom portion of the equation they use. Their response was this is not an INDIVIDUAL goal, but a DEPARTMENT goal, which I asked then why is it brought up on my quarterly INDIVIDUAL performance review. I did not receive an answer. I presented this also to my assigned HR specialist who said he didn’t see an issue.
So after all that, my question for you HR people is, how would this be handled in your place of employment? Do you think this is an HR issue? Or a legal issue? (Don’t give me legal advice if so). Thank you to everyone who reads this.