Work personal development plan

[user1471459761]

AIBU to not want to discuss a PDP with my manager? To date in my organisation PDPs have been optional but we now seem to be under pressure to do them although they are not mandatory. I see the value as a general matter but I don't want to discuss my career aspirations with my manager. Without going into details I am a senior professional with very significant experience and expertise. I struggle to accept my current manager who is more junior although I try hard to maintain a good day to day working relationship. Apart from feeling patronised if we have the discussion, I don't want to be honest and open as I really am not comfortable reporting to this person. I feel our positions should be reversed but I was denied the opportunity (ie I don't believe I was considered for it despite being amply qualified and there was no transparency that the new position was being created until it was a done deal that they got it). In all honesty the only way to resolve this is for me to move out of this team either internally or externally and it seems prejudicial to my current position to even hint at that. AIBU? I'm inclined just to point out this is not mandatory and that I'm not comfortable doing it. Any other ideas?

Can you approach the person above your manager in the organisation, and ask whether they would mind doing your PDP review with you? You might be able to come up with some specific reason (eg being interested in branching out of your current area of work, so wanting a wider perspective), but even if not, a good senior manager might read between the lines and see why your current manager is not the best person for you to talk with.

I feel our positions should be reversed but I was denied the opportunity (ie I don't believe I was considered for it despite being amply qualified and there was no transparency that the new position was being created until it was a done deal that they got it).

Do you mean your manager was parachuted in to a post effectively created for them which was not advertised and therefore no one else got a chance to apply? This used to happen a lot where I used to work but they stopped it when the complaints got too loud. It's such an unfair practice.

I think you should just lie.

You can't tell her what your actual career aspirations are.

And you want to smooth things over for the time being.

So just make up some bullshit to keep her quiet.

Yes effectively. New team created. No transparency on this, no opportunity to apply for new leadership positions created even though several people could well have been interested and well qualified. Felt so unfair and contrary to all D&I good practice surely?