OT: Should I feel disrespected?

Hi all,
Again I post here as this is my sanctuary knowing that you all share the same trials and tribulations as I do. I come to you all for some advice.

about a year ago, after working my tail off for almost forever and starting at the bottom of the ladder, I finally got promoted. With this came a new title, better salary and a direct report.

Since then, I've been working with my employee, helping him grow and do well within the company. Admittedly, he started out a bit rough , but as of the last 6 months or so, he has improved leaps and bounds. I was prepared to give him a solid review and a decent raise in accordance with industry standards of his performance and knowledge.

However...

Little did i know, my boss and my boss's boss already had an internal discussion about my employee without my knowledge and what his raise should be. Not once, was I brought in to offer my insight or opinion. Wouldn't you think the person who works everyday with this employee have some sort of say? The kicker is this - they feel the raise isn't what I suggested. The number I was told was as if his rough few months lasted the entire year, when clearly that wasn't the case and he improved tremendously to get himself to a more respectable standing.

Pretty much, I have to deliver bad news to this employee, who probably doesn't deserve this 'low ball' number even though I had no say in the matter. It is like telling a soldier, "Here I need you to invade that island over there" "But I don't have any weapons..." "Eh, you'll figure it out."

I guess what really irks me is that my longstanding boss who i have a great relationship spanning the beginning of my career, didn't once bother think to include me on these discussions. I am hurt, angry, disappointed. Am i making too much of this? I have a chat scheduled with HR about this tomorrow and I did vent my annoyances with my boss over the phone, but I feel that she doesnt full understand how angry I am.

Thanks to all who sat through my rambling.

Hi tp,
Hard to know the exact dynamics at play in your shop, so I'll give you my perspective more generically:

In general, most bosses and bosses' bosses want ALL employees to succeed. The best antidote to bad surprises is communication. On you to constantly extol the virtues of your direct reports, esp in cases when one when or two bad acts were observed by seniors at some stage.

My 2 cents, take it for what it's worth, is to try to turn this into as much of a positive as you can. Bosses HATE it when you speak with HR without their presence. My thought is to reapproach your boss and ask her to give you a year to prove your guy is better than she thinks. AND if so, that she'll make up the gap in pay next year, so that over the two year period your employee is back to where he'd be anyway. Use this to communicate to your employee that you're committed to working closely with him to establish just how good he is, that the past is the past, and from there constantly communicate with your seniors all his accomplishments along the way. No upside making this an 'either him or you' type scenario.

As ambling said, don't let it bring you down too much. You'll feel worse and your bosses may decide you're a problem also.

Good luck!!

Thanks for all of your insight. 2 days later and I am still a bit heated; I have kept my interactions with my boss to a bare minimum - one would say the silent treatment. As immature as it may sound, I want her to know that i am angry. I have a scheduled touch base later this afternoon, where I am sure this will be discussed again. At this point, all i would like is an apology or at least some sort of "Hey, I probably should have told you...". I mean, we've known each other for 10 years and are super close so I would hope that isn't out of the realm of possibility.