To ask if all workplaces have a favoured employee?

[BlueberryFanta]

Because in every workplace I've worked in there has always been one. It's never been me, BTW.

Current workplace favoured employee gets given opportunities to earn extra commission that the rest of us do not get, has been given the best, largest desk in the best location with a brand new comfy chair, and is always praised highly by management and supervisors even though she is no better at her job than the rest of us.

She is nice enough but it is making me, and others, resentful towards her, as we feel that treatment of us all is not fair.

Do all workplaces have someone like this?

[littleshirleybeans]

There are several at my workplace! And it's not just me who has noticed.
For some reason, my face doesn't fit, along with a few others.

[Sighing]

Definitely yes where the managers are those who are very proud at having started with said company straight out of school.

[IceRoadDucker]

Mine is too large to have one but I think I'm one of them. I don't get a bigger desk or anything like that, but I get praised more publicly and more often than most others. I know some people really hate me for it and it makes me sad because I don't ask for it. I don't know any of the senior managers in a social capacity, I don't work directly with any of them, I'm just in a position that means I can make a lot of profit for the company.

Unless she sucks up or does something to court this, please don't take it out on her

[IceRoadDucker]

to have ONLY one*

[BlurryFace]

I worked in retail (mainly checkouts) which in my experience is so full of nepotism and favoritism and general drama that it's a wonder anything functions at all.

Anyway, one front end manager I had was really blatant in her favoritism towards teenage boys/men (she was in her 30s). They would get better hours and be promoted to supervisor over older, more experienced men and women. Teenage girls and women were treated with contempt.

In fact, in her previous department she had hooked up with a 19 year old lad she worked with on a "work night out" which was just her and the young men in her department. They made it official and she promoted him even though her department was bloated with supervisors and he was a total skiver.

They're still together, with kids, and now he perves on the teenage girls/women he works with. (Rumour has it she made him get a new job because things were starting to get a bit embarrassing at my old workplace.)

[Noodledoodledoo]

Yep - I work in a school and there are most definitely lots of 'teachers pets' both in teaching staff and support staff.

I am definitely not in the in crowd!

We actually have a whole department who are! Wouldn't mind until it starts to impact on pay!

[littleshirleybeans]

Noodle ^^^
Me too re the school!

[JeepersMcoy]

I was a favoured employee but am no longer. In my experience these things can change as inexplicably as they occur. Next week the manager's pet could be off her pedestal with a nasty bump. The same manager who treated me as a favourite is now publicly undermining me and, I suspect, would like to give me the boot if she could.

[StarlingMurmuration]

My company is too big and homogenised, really. I mean, maybe it exists higher up the hierarchy, but not at my middle management level. Or maybe it does and I'm oblivious.

[completecliche]

IME the favouites are the ones who come in on time, don't go off sick, do their job and have no personal dramas.

[WhereYouLeftIt]

Nope. I have mostly worked in large organisations, large enough to have professional HR departments. Irrational favouritism would have been picked up by them and dealt with.

[candybar007]

Every place I have ever worked had at least one always with resentment from the other employees there.

[BabooshkaKate]

There definitely is at mine. She is given a higher salary, her MA is paid for (which is unrelated to her job!!). She is also not good at her job. Anyone who works with her starts to hate her despite thinking she is nice at first. And as I found out to my detriment you can't criticise anything she says or does

[Noodledoodledoo]

completecliche opposite for me. The ones who seem to be off all the time, need lots of support, take all the credit for others work!

Those who get on and work their socks off get unnoticed.

[Lostwithinthehills]

Yep, there's one where I work. I work at a satellite site of a small department, which is part of a really large organisation. To her credit she is experienced, skillful and knowledgeable, however she is still at a very ordinary level and not unique. Despite this she exerts an enormous influence on several layers of management above her. She is a master politician and supremely self confident. People who work at the same level as this woman have to gain her approval at least as much as the approval of their supervisors because the supervisors hold her opinions in such high esteem.

[Babyroobs]

Yes we have a few Golden Girls as I call them. They never seem to get hauled up even when they make numerous serious mistakes and can do no wrong.

[EatDessertFirst]

We have one where I work but luckily she isn't on my radar much as we work in different departments. I just hear the bitching and moaning that MissPrincess has been let of something/sat on her arse/given a priviledge/prize etc. I'm not that fussed, as the nature of our business means that if she went to any other branch, she'd look ridiculous! I have scraped and fought my way up to where I am. I'm not well liked as I take no bullshit but I am respected and recognised for my experience, reliability and being good at what I do. Being the favourite will do no favours for any employee in the long run.

[Flumplet]

Yes in my experience that's the case. In my organisation more senior grade employees get preferential treatment and easier access to flexible working than those at lower pay grades.

[limitedperiodonly]

It was me for a while. I was late every day, took long lunches but she liked me. I moved with her to another workplace where the same continued. But you can't base your whole career on it.

[YoureAllABunchOfBastards]

Everyone knows our office manager is a cow. Well, everyone except the two bosses and a couple of arse lickers.

[Snowflakes1122]

It's usually those who are best at ass kissing office politics.

[Optimist1]

Snowflakes - the one I had in mind whilst reading this thread was literally ass-kissing shagging the MD !

[SparklesandBangs]

In my last but one it was me, I even got employee of the month twice. It was the first time in a long long time I had just been a normal team member.

I was doing a job below my experience/grade as I had decided to take a step backwards for less stress and better hours. Didn't happen and being put on a pedestal just made the expectations of management extreme.

I left and I am now back in my better paid, stressful job, where nobody is likely to give me praise but if we don't deliver they'll let me know in no uncertain terms.

[chocoLit]

As the boss I def have favourites. They work hard, realise it's a job and they're not doing me a favour by turning up. They're punctual, reliable and polite.

Others are not

[Tartyflette]

Ah, yes, management by eye colour.
There were several 'blue-eyed boys' (and even a few girls) at my previous place of employment. They were generally the ones who clustered round the boss in the pub after work, laughing hysterically at his jokes.
Too bad if you were a working parent who couldn't spare the time and had to get straight home, because, you know, you actually had a life outside work.
So you weren't a real team player,/ giving it 110 pct/ didn't subscribe to the cult of presenteeism or whatever godawful management-speak was flavour of the month. not bitter at all
But now I'm free, FREE at last, I tell you. And loving every moment.