Employee expects promotion with performance review, upper management randomly select him as needing improvement: 'I have had an amazing year'

One employee received a nasty surprise when he went into his performance review expecting a raise and a promotion for the good work he had done all year. His manager even told him that he had nominated him for a pay increase previously.

However, when the time came, it turned out that he was told that his performance needed improvement. His manager explained that this was because upper management asked him to pick somebody to tell this to, and when he gave them another name, they decided to pick him at random instead. Understandably, the employee was concerned, and he was not quite sure how to proceed.