OP, I have different question for you. Assuming that you survive this purge, would you still want to continue working in a place which is becoming quite clearly an increasingly toxic hell hole ?
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SL4 is worse than you think.. BE and IR and SL5 are bad but it was all known. Not your fired and blacklisted from Intel bad, but bad still. But it was only given very rarely under 2% to truly poor performers. But SL4 is required to about 10%, but likely given only 7% or so. Why is it required, because a manager or a group only has certain number of shares to give and needs to meet that target. So managers need to choose 1-2 SL4 in a group of 20+ employees. So if you get an SL4 this next cycle it means you will be fired and blacklisted from Intel... don't let your manager tell you otherwise
After seeing that in 2015 an SSL4 "equates" to "you can be let go/ISP", any manager that assigned SSL4 to an employee in 2016 was naive or deceitful, IMO, if they thought that it couldn't come back to bite that employee. I'm not saying the manager had lots of choices in assigning that SSL4, but that manager should have definitely known that in doing so that employee was now at risk. Even if BK said that "Successful SSL4 is NOT the new BE/IR", here we are.
I am in similar case. I got an O in 2012, an EE in 2013, an EE in 2014 with promo, an S with SSL3 in 2015, but an S with SSL4 in 2016 (and my GL said "don't worry about it". I'm really disappointed with intel high level management if I have to leave the company which I used to be proud to work for.
It seems like there's either an issue with your first manager, or 2nd manager, or with you. It's unusual to see that kind of discrepancy in ratings. You may consider requesting an open door investigation with HR. They will take it seriously and investigate. Last year some people mentioned they got the ISP reversed, so it's worth trying if you believe the issue is due to a bad manager. It would be a shame if a good engineer is let go while a bad manager gets to stay.
There is one legitimate reason why this situation might occur. Suppose you started out as grade 5 in a team of very strong grade 7's. For the first few years you out performed grade 5, then grade 6 and got exceeds and promoted to grade 7. Now you're the most junior grade 7 competing with other strong 7's. Naturally you'd get SL4 which is not supposed to be a performance message. Managers are required to give some SL4 out so you being the lowest performer on the team gets it. ISP is not intended for such people, but I'm afraid some of these people will become collateral damage.
@uoy I agree wholeheartedly that OP should dispute and IMHO should win. But predictably, HR will say "why did you let your awesome results slip?" and blame it on the employee. Obviously, that could be accurate as I don't know OP or his/her performance, but 4 EE's in a row is strong and the last two results do seem to be outliers.
Good luck OP, hoping we're all wrong and you're safe without disputing a thing.
@H4CT1Kd-dqt is spot on...if you get offered ISP, dispute it. For an ee to get 4 consecutive years EE then suddenly 2 years SSL4 with Successful (like getting 2 BEs) by different manager suggests there is a manager/employee conflict whereby the manager is purposely negatively impacting you. At minimum, try to negotiate a compromise to get VSP in your notification meeting...because unfortunately, your situation meets the criteria for ISP according to the leaked slide and info on Oregon Live, and with ISP you are ineligible for rehire, but with VSP you can reapply and get rehired. Hopefully your business group has an worthy HRBP who has already noticed your great perf. history and addressed this with your manager. Good luck to you...
last year for ISP folks had 2 SSL4 in a row. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news but it seems like you'll be asked to go
Wow.. The manager needs to get IR but BK is a manager so you guess who gets screwed.