Covered my manager’s role for a year, rated ‘underperforming and maybe PIPed, What should I do?
I work at a global MNC in the Middle East and honestly need some perspective because I feel blindsided.
Last year, my department head resigned suddenly. The handover I got was extremely poor—just high-level topics with no real depth. But when I actually started handling things, it turned out to be full end-to-end ownership: budgeting, approvals, vendor management, project understanding, everything.
For almost a year, I essentially ran the department along with my own role.
A few months later, someone joined as a temporary manager for a specific project. At that time, I treated her like a peer since she wasn’t really involved in most of the core work I was handling. Eventually, she got promoted to become the head of the department.
During the entire year:
- I did most of the heavy lifting
- I kept her updated regularly
- She presented updates to senior management
- She never really took a proper handover or got deeply involved in the work
Fast forward to now — appraisal time.
I was expecting at least a solid rating given the workload I handled (basically two roles). Instead, I’ve been rated “partially meeting expectations” and told I’ll be put on a PIP.
What shocked me more:
- Some of the feedback is from a time when she wasn’t even my manager
- Some issues were mutually aligned decisions, but now I’m being blamed entirely
- In discussion, she seemed to agree with my points, but the system still shows a low rating
Now I’m being pushed to accept the rating in the system.
I’m honestly confused:
- Do I escalate to HR/MD (risking politics)?
- Do I reject the rating formally?
- Or accept it and start looking elsewhere?
For context, I’ve consistently had “meeting” or “above expectations” ratings in the past.
Has anyone dealt with something similar where you did the work but someone else controlled the narrative? How did you handle this ?
P.S: The partner of this person is also a MD in some other country within the same organization. Politically, quite a strong position for this person.