Promotion wasn't offered out

[LisaDav]

Hi All,

Please can you let me know if being too sensitve about this subject.

Fistly, I work in a customer services role, and its a team of 3. In Sept 2 of those people decided to leave for new jobs, ever since that time, I have covered their workloads and been incredibly stressed over it. Almost 3 months on, they have finally found the right candiate, and they start Monday.

I have also been in discussion with my manager, and they advised me last week, there will be a Senior Role within the team coming up soon which involves more responsability. I thought, Great, this is exactly what I've been working towards. I turned up to work today, and have been told someone internally has got the job.
I am very disappointed about this, and these are the reasons why.

• The job wasn't offered for anyone else to apply, it was just given.
• This person who has been given the role has openly admitted they give harder work to other people so they don't have to deal with it.
• They often miss/decline calls.
• In the past 2 years, I have helped to resolve hard cases, helped train people, and have consistantly done 8x more work than he does.

I have asked why this wasn't offered out, and the response was "It just wasn't on this occation".
If the job was offered out, and I didn't get it, fair enough! I would accept that, but the fact that this person has continually done nothing in the last 2 years and get a promotion to a higher grade than me is ridiculous!!

All of my colleagues have slammed the decision too, and think its utterly terrible and doesnt show a great example. Most of them now believe "You do no work, and you get promoted for it".

Again, if the job was offered out to everyone and were able to apply, If I didnt get the job, I would be able to accept that. But they have given the role to someone who has continued to complain "I haven't progressed" but never shows any initiative, is just given the job just to shut him up.

AIBU to be abit annoyed by this?

“ passing on stuff you can't be arsed to do and only doing the easy stuff is not delegation it is laziness.”

And yet, he got the promotion.

I’ll say it again: sounds like an attitude thing. Unfortunately for the OP, employers value hard workers less than they should, and tend to promote the highly visible, self-promoting types.

Read “The Rules of Work”, it’s literally advised to get your work done as quickly as possible by whatever means necessary so that you can schmooze.

I’m not trying to be difficult; I’m pointing out an unfairness that exists that the OP should be aware of. Slaving away quietly and hoping your hard work gets noticed? That doesn’t actually work.

Pop, I'm really shocked your manager shared that information, very unprofessional.

DeadGood there is a difference between a manager delegating, and a staff member dodging work. If your role is to answer calls then you damned well answer them. If your job role means doing work at a certain level, you don't pass it on to someone else because you can't be naffed and just do the easy stuff - and any manager who felt they should just do easy work & make their more junior staff do the difficult stuff isn't doing their own job right.

It tends to be best practice to compare a number of people for a promotion to see who is likely to be the best for the job. The most common method is to see who is actually interested (not everybody wants promotion), then make a comparison between those people.

I’ll say it again: sounds like an attitude thing

To me it sounds more like a nepotism thing tbh. I've seen and heard of this kind of thing so often in all sizes and types of company - you usually find out that the person who gets the job is the partner of the MD's niece, or they go drinking with one of the senior managers, or they are dating an influential person in another department. None of which means they would be more useful to the business in the higher level role.

Deadgood has got a relevent point. I am now retired, but over the years in various workplaces, I have seen this first hand.
There are a lot of people that talk the talk, but do bugger all.
If I was the Op I would tell the "office gossip" that I was thinking of leaving because I felt hard done by, let it filter back to those in charge

It would be a good time to apply for a pay rise as you have been working so hard without any recognition, and need an incentive to stay.

Definitely a nepotism thing. I have had seven jobs. I have been asked to leave five of those and one I left under a cloud.
The other one, well company. DH, then bf got me a job. I moved to a slightly better role, so far so good even if I wasn't popular with colleagues, I was a good at what I did. Then, the company sold it's UK operation and DH was kept with the EU part. After that it took around a year for me to get the sack.
It's since been found I have ASC which may explain the social difficulties. I also have a disfigurement. People can be cruel.

Well, it’s crap but would you have preferred to go through a fake interview process, with all the preparation and stress that goes with it, as a paper candidate when they knew all along who they wanted to appoint? Because that’s what would have happened.

(That actually does happen in the public sector, BTW).

Your employers had their reasons for appointing him directly. It’s rubbish for you, but it really isn’t any of your business why they did it, I’m afraid.

I used to work in a customer service role and honestly I've found that if you're good at what you do, do more without being paid extra, they'll keep you there. You'll never get promoted in a company like this, they are taking you for granted and will always do so.

I've seen this in multiple companies. The seniors have their favourites who they will promote regardless of ability to do the job and you'll be the fool sticking in your job doing all the extras with the hope of something more.

Sorry, but you need to get over this. Your perception is you work harder etc....., but the perception of the hiring manager may be different. Your boss was wrong to say anything about the role to you however. I assume your boss is not the sole hiring manager, hence the confusion

I think it was not good practice to not advertise the role but I am very sure it is not illegal. I also think that perhaps the people responsible for appointing somebody into the role know more than you and have good reasons for making the appointment that they have.

ADastardlyThing

I know, he told me after I’d already left, not that it makes much difference but still. The issues with the colleagues work in general were apparent always though, as they affected other teams down the line, rather than my manager disclosing things about his performance. Plus the colleague openly spoke about it with others from day 1 (his team members knew I was no longer certain for the job before I did!)

The entire thing was done in an ‘unofficial’ manner.

I have also been in discussion with my manager, and they advised me last week, there will be a Senior Role within the team coming up soon which involves more responsability. I thought, Great, this is exactly what I've been working towards.

Did you actually say that to your manager? Were you explicitly clear that you wanted to be considered for the role?

I agree with Nettle - there is a reason she got it and you didn't - going through an interview process wouldn't have made a difference. You are not her line manager and so your opinion on her work is irrelevant. Ask your line manager what she had that you didn't in a constructive way and then work on your weaknesses so you are first in line for the next job

It is highly annoying, I don't think you are being unreasonable at all! I'd be going mad. The guy who got the job sounds so entitled and manipulative (wanting to shift all the harder tasks to others.) The company are weak for letting him thrive by just caving in to his demands. They might keep him happy but the whole team suffers a loss in morale... On the other hand you may not know what's the relatiinship like between him and the bosses. I have been in a situation were a job was advertised but later on obviously went to someone they already had in mind and had a relationship with - so a total waste of time.

We have this at my place of work. People are giving jobs and promotions without any advertisement or interview. It is so frustrating because the people they give the jobs to are usually useless.

Thank you HazelBite.

“I used to work in a customer service role and honestly I've found that if you're good at what you do, do more without being paid extra, they'll keep you there. You'll never get promoted in a company like this, they are taking you for granted and will always do so.

I've seen this in multiple companies. The seniors have their favourites who they will promote regardless of ability to do the job and you'll be the fool sticking in your job doing all the extras with the hope of something more.”

Completely agree with this too.

YANBU - follow the example of your former colleagues and leave!

It could be that he had another job offer and they gave him a promotion so that he didn’t leave. This often happens in my industry but unless you have inside information or are close friends with the person who was promoted you wouldn’t know that was why.