Thanks Minx, yes I am documenting my thoughts about the appraisal. I am not sure if I can not sign it, there is a place for comments but it is frowned upon to put negative comments in this field. I went to my second line manager and voiced my concerns. Not that it helped, he was certainly not an independent party as he was involved in the rating. The truth is that as a result of this audit, everyone in my dept is getting a lower appriasal and they found words to make it seem like everyone's responsibility. But I will have my documentation ready in case I decide to use it. This is really not good, I didn't sleep last night and woke up this morning with a bad headache. It is not worth getting sick over. Thanks for listening, it really helped me.