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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Husband didn’t get promotion and blames me

313 replies

2024Mu · 29/05/2024 08:05

Found out yesterday he didn’t get promoted. I feel really upset for him as it’s been a 2.5 year process so not something that’s happened overnight. He has spent the entire time I have known him (15 years) into his work. He has sacrificed a lot. In all the years I have known him he has NEVER once taken a day off. He even joked had the kids not been born on weekends he would not have been able to attend their births (I know he’s half serious but I’ll never find out as I went into labour with both on a weekend). No matter what is going on he puts work first. I feel disappointed for him as I know how important his work is and I know he deserved the promotion.

He hasn’t said it outright but I know he blames me. He’s very quiet with me and has been giving me silent treatment. The thing is I’ve been really struggling mentally with the kids and other stuff and I didn’t know his big Final meeting was last week when I was really stressed out. I kept telling him my non-important problems. We had a fight as I feel he ignores me. My health hasn’t been very good either so I’ve been down about that. He did once say if he hadn’t married me his life would have been exactly where he needed it to be (career wise).

sorry Voting not clear:
**
YOU ARE BEING UNREASONABLE - yes it’s your fault, why stress him out during an important time
**
YOU ARE NOT BEING UNREASONABLE- no it’s not your fault he didn’t get promoted.

OP posts:
PerfectTravelTote · 29/05/2024 14:22

Maybe he didn't get promoted because he's not able to handle his workload within reasonable hours.

Jl2014 · 29/05/2024 14:22

What’s his job, OP? It doesn’t sound like he is actually managing it very well. If he’s unable to switch off and can’t keep up without that level of personally investment then he’s probably not capable of stepping up promotion-wise.
He’s also got a maturity issue clearly. I expect this rears its head at work too. If someone who worked for me came across like this then I wouldn’t promote them either.
In no way is it your fault. He needs to spend some time reflecting on his own actions and behaviours to understand that those are most likely the reason for no promotion. If he can’t do that then he doesn’t deserve one in the future either.

chickenpieandchips · 29/05/2024 14:25

If it's for a partner role sounds like he's more focussed on input rather than output and needs to be seen to be validated.
He's probably never been rejected. Just tell him you'll give him a few days to sort through his grump and then you expect him to cheer up. No one has died.
He needs to get feedback, I would imagine his workaholic tendencies have been noted. My dh is a partner at a big 4 and often worries about the workaholics as they can't cope with the added responsibilities they'll get.
Partnership is also not guaranteed, as well as being goos enough there are business cases to consider etc.
To put it into perspective my DH has never missed a birth, is very strict on holiday about what work he does, happy to take sick leave, listens to my stresses, helps with childcare when needed even though I'm a SAHM (health issues etc), walks the dog most nights when he comes in, cooks when he can.

Grammarnut · 29/05/2024 14:28

He has no reason to blame anyone but himself and it is childish to do otherwise. Be sympathetic, but it's not anything to do with you. Perhaps he should put family before job - that he invests totally in the job may be his problem and if he comes over as being over-earnest or pressurizing at work this will not do him any favours among colleagues. Ex-husband blamed me for his non-progression at work and it was entirely his fault, his poor decisions and his inability to get on with other people - nothing to do with being married. Don't be gaslit.

MrsElijahMikaelson1 · 29/05/2024 14:28

This is so messed up. You two need to talk-I would suggest counselling. I think you also need individual therapy to deal with your issues separately before that. Work is work-not life and shouldn’t take over. What do you regret as you get older?…the missed opportunities just to be with the people you love and spend time making memories. You certainly don’t regret that late email or missing that work meeting!

Daisys24 · 29/05/2024 14:33

No wonder your mental health isn’t great with such an unsupportive DH. His priorities are all wrong and I hope when your children are all grown up he’s happy with the choices he’s made not putting them and you first.

TinyGingerCat · 29/05/2024 14:35

He hasn't actually blamed you though has he? You are assuming he is blaming you. He doesn't sound like a catch tbh but you are projecting all sorts of thoughts and feelings onto him which he might not actually be having. He could be be quiet because he's upset and/or ashamed he hasn't got the job - or he could be a complete dick and blaming you. He hasn't said so we don't know. Do you often assume everything is your fault OP?

RedRidingGood · 29/05/2024 14:42

2024Mu · 29/05/2024 08:17

Sorry to clear things up yes he does take annual leave but he still is on his laptop checking emails. During covid he was incredibly unwell but still dragged himself to his laptop. I meant when he’s Sick he never takes any time off work. He has barely gone to any school events. Maybe 2 for eldest and 1 for youngest. He was on phone checking messages whole time.

How is that fair on you OP? Sounds like you're the one who has done all the sacrificing.

Wornoutlady · 29/05/2024 14:43

@2024Mu He is a workaholic. This is not going to change, probably ever. My DH is the same and we've been together since 2004. I think when the children are very small / primary aged it is probably the hardest time because there's more hands-on parenting required and you feel their absence. I did think about leaving when mine were tiny, due to a similar work situation for him arising, but ultimately stayed, for them. I don't have direct advice for you, just wanted to say you're not alone and hang in there, whatever direction you choose.

EcoChica1980 · 29/05/2024 14:43

YANBU.

A 2 and half year process isn't going to hinge on an employee having a rough night at home.

BTW - was this in academia? I struggle to imagine a job that would entail such a process.

BeardyButton · 29/05/2024 14:43

Leave him! He might come to recognise that, far from it being ‘your fault’ when he fails, much of ‘his success’ is down to your support.

Lets see how he likes it when he has to pay support, manage the kids on his own on his days, think about getting them to school, their sick days etc etc.

Fuckers like this make me soooooo angry.

Polishedshoesalways · 29/05/2024 14:45

Op he is giving the children silent treatment too, so clearly this isn’t just you. He hasn’t said it’s your fault, you are assuming he feels that way because he isn’t speaking.

He sounds crushed beyond words and bottling it up. All of his sacrifices, every time he missed his child's play or saw you hanging by your fingernails he thought it will all be worth it one day, and now it hasn’t paid off at all - it was all for nothing. He sounds devastated op.

In your position I would run him a bath, hug him close and allow him to talk to you about it. If he has shut down it’s because of the promotion, not you.

When he has worked through his feelings maybe he will start to look for other jobs or correct his work/life balance.

Op you need start looking after your own health and mental week being, you both sound neglected and broken and maybe this lack of promotion will be the making of you.

StormingNorman · 29/05/2024 14:47

It’s not your fault he couldn’t leave his problems at the door and raise his game.

Presumably, if the promotion has been going on for 2.5 years he’s not moving into dead man’s shoes or competing for it. So, he needs to negotiate next steps with his employer and get this promotion back on the table, not sit around sulking like a child.

BeardyButton · 29/05/2024 14:48

EcoChica1980 · 29/05/2024 14:43

YANBU.

A 2 and half year process isn't going to hinge on an employee having a rough night at home.

BTW - was this in academia? I struggle to imagine a job that would entail such a process.

Ya sounds like academia to me too. I’ve always felt for non-academic partners. So easy for them to be hood winked into believing a lot of the dross and nonsense given the opaque and almost feudal system.

It’s honestly not as demanding as many would have you believe. It does not necessitate zero annual leave. Lots of academics - it’s their hobby as well as their job. It’s a labour of love. But it shouldn’t justify awful behaviour to partners and relinquishing obligations at home. Honestly - a lot of the time… they are hiding in their study’s.

RomanRoysSearchHistory · 29/05/2024 14:48

Can't quite believe what I've just read.

No, it's absolutely not your fault.

He sounds insufferable.

ShadesofPoachedSmoke · 29/05/2024 14:49

I didn’t know his big Final meeting was last week when I was really stressed out.

Why didn't you know - why didn't he say anything!! Why didn't he gently explain this and ask you for some slack for a few days then he'd be in a better place to help you?

Oh no, because just letting resentment build up and not communicating is so helpful!

You are not responsible for him and his results, especially when it wasn't done intentionally!!

Arlanymor · 29/05/2024 14:49

AGodawfulsmallaffair · 29/05/2024 08:17

He hasn’t sacrificed a damn thing, he’s done exactly as he wants and you are the one missing out on a decent partner. So he doesn’t get his own way for once and it’s YOUR fault?

He has though, he has sacrificed a normal, balanced family life with trying to run faster than anyone else on the hamster wheel. Is he sore because this promotion would have led to more money/seniority/both? He has made a poor choice if he is missing out on his kid’s development etc.

Polishedshoesalways · 29/05/2024 14:50

The entire basis of his self worth is rooted in this, that’s why he has taken it so badly.

Echobelly · 29/05/2024 14:51

Fatherhood (not that it sounds as though he's done much fathering) makes men more likely to get a promotion, not less. It's only motherhood that makes promotion less likely 🙄

https://www.hrmagazine.co.uk/content/news/fathers-twice-as-likely-to-be-promoted-as-mothers/#:~:text=Men%20are%20more%20than%20twice,according%20to%20research%20from%20Hays.

So if he is blaming you/the kids, there's really no grounds.

And also, I hate to say this, but taking no holiday and neglecting your home life isn't actually the way to get a promotion.

If anything this should be a lesson to him that he will get more value in life from his family than an employre.

Fathers twice as likely to be promoted as mothers - HR Magazine

Women were more likely to take a part-time role or stay in the same position they had before giving birth

https://www.hrmagazine.co.uk/content/news/fathers-twice-as-likely-to-be-promoted-as-mothers#:~:text=Men%20are%20more%20than%20twice,according%20to%20research%20from%20Hays.

Ifyoucouldreadmymindlove · 29/05/2024 14:52

Only an absolute cunt if the most selfish order would hold you responsible, in light of what you’ve been going through, for what is essentially his own failure.

Does he display other traits of narcissism, whereby he refuses to accept that anything is his own fault?

Nicole1111 · 29/05/2024 15:02

It’s clear that his priorities are all about his needs and wants and you and your children’s needs aren’t important to him. Now it’s your time to reflect on what your needs and wants are, and if you think they’re being met in the current situation. If they’re not then I think you know what you need to do, especially if he’s using abusive tactics like the silent treatment, not just with you but also with the kids! That might sound scary but ultimately you’re doing it all by yourself anyway, you’d just have one less baby (him) to care for if you separated.

akasalishsea · 29/05/2024 15:03

2024Mu · 29/05/2024 08:05

Found out yesterday he didn’t get promoted. I feel really upset for him as it’s been a 2.5 year process so not something that’s happened overnight. He has spent the entire time I have known him (15 years) into his work. He has sacrificed a lot. In all the years I have known him he has NEVER once taken a day off. He even joked had the kids not been born on weekends he would not have been able to attend their births (I know he’s half serious but I’ll never find out as I went into labour with both on a weekend). No matter what is going on he puts work first. I feel disappointed for him as I know how important his work is and I know he deserved the promotion.

He hasn’t said it outright but I know he blames me. He’s very quiet with me and has been giving me silent treatment. The thing is I’ve been really struggling mentally with the kids and other stuff and I didn’t know his big Final meeting was last week when I was really stressed out. I kept telling him my non-important problems. We had a fight as I feel he ignores me. My health hasn’t been very good either so I’ve been down about that. He did once say if he hadn’t married me his life would have been exactly where he needed it to be (career wise).

sorry Voting not clear:
**
YOU ARE BEING UNREASONABLE - yes it’s your fault, why stress him out during an important time
**
YOU ARE NOT BEING UNREASONABLE- no it’s not your fault he didn’t get promoted.

Being married to a person who uses what they want out of life as an excuse to ignore others, pass out blame and emotionally and/or physically abuse their family is tough and you are right there. I am so sorry. You are in a tough spot. Sounds like a man child having a tantrum he gets away with it possibly because you and the children are financially dependent on him? You don't say. Domestic violence is occurring right in front of you and affecting you and the children for very unhealthy outcomes that will negatively affect your children's emotional well being, possibly fo the rest of their lives. I assume you did not have children in order to abuse them, albeit, unintentionally?

Presumably you learned about husbands ambition when you dated yet you married possibly with hope that he was not who he showed you he was? Lesson one here is that people are who they show you they are but we don't see them for their truth because we look only through the lens of our need and attraction.

Or perhaps you admired his ambition for what it could bring you and did not look at the dark side of it. None of that matters now. What matters is that he is having a tantrum and the family is and will pay the price. You are subjecting yourself and your children to a life of pins and needles by letting this unacceptable behavior on both your own and his pass. Your children do not deserve the anxiety you feel. neither do you.

The anxiety you all will experience will negatively affect your children's emotional and cognitive well being as well as your own. This affects physical health too. You are going to pass down familial mental health non-wellness to them if they have to live with his tantrums, mood swings, dominance and your meekness and inability to protect them from his behavior. You will become more anxious and depressed as the years go on. Being a stay at home mother, if that is what you are, does not compensate for the emotional abuse your children will suffer throughout their childhoods and their entire lives as a result of emotional violence in the home. The fact that he stated his life would be where he wanted it to be had he not had family means he regrets all of you. Guilt over saying that might make him backtrack. If he truly did not mean that he needs to back that apology up with individual mental health counseling that explores why he said it in the first place. His backtracking won't be true remorse unless he gets the help he needs to sort himself out. he may backtrack on what he said in order to get what he needs in this game of life he is playing at to win what he wants out of it- Chilling. Your talking with him over your worries, your day, the things you deal with is the ordinary part of a loving relationship where two people who love and support each other exchange what is going on in their lives without the other needing to fix anything. it's how you stay in tune and in touch.

I suspect you are financially dependent? Financially dependent partners often bear a lot of loss and stress which morphs into anxiety which in turn is acted out on any children in the home and even friends and relatives. Possibly no human who is financially dependent or willing to be should entertain having children simply because the emotional cost to the children is too great a burden to bear.

Negotiations: First, if you are not working, I am going to suggest you get a job, love it no matter how difficult it is, love it greatly for getting you some financial independence. Work on upping any employment skills. Save every penny you can so that you can use that to take classes to upgrade your employment opportunities. You let him know that any dependence on his success, promotions, etc. is over. That you respect his need for achieving goals but that you do not respect yourself and you have huge concerns his way of dealing with disappointment is affecting the children and your own self esteem. Therefor you are going to work to offset some of the pressure he had to financially provide. He will try to talk you put of this if you are financially dependent- it's control. It is never best for children to live in an abusive household with a stay at home depressed, anxious mom. Better to live in a busy household with a thriving mom who can genuinely be there for her children, which you can do if you put away the social media at night, massively declutter the home and keep it that way and start teaching any children who can to participate in chores. Your children didn't ask to be born to abusive parents. They are here and both of you are obligated to give them an emotionally healthy childhood (Oprah Winfreys 'What Happened To You" is a great start for any parent wanting to understand the role emotional abuse has on a child's mind).

Negotiations: Let him know that you want to be supportive of his huge feelings of missing out on life but that you will not be supportive of his blaming you and the children for that because he is abusing all of you. You could let him know that you would agree to come up with a coparenting plan that emotionally and financially supports the children if he really feels being in the same household is what is costing him his happiness. That way he can be more free to pursue what he wants out of life. Do you really want to live with a person who blames you for his life not turning out right? Think about that? It's so utterly emotionally abusive that staying means being the horrible thing that got in the way, the thing that deserves nothing but wrath. You can let him know that being made to feel you are the thing that deserves his wrath is unacceptable and then say that you will not even consider staying under the same roof as an intimate partner because he has made you feel small and deserving of being blamed and harmed by him. You can offer to stay under the same roof as a roomie/friend sharing children but that you will be making the changes necessary to protect yourself and the children and hope he will as well. Let him know you respect his adulthood and have time each day to listen to his frustrations but that you have zero tolerance for being the blamed party in his need to place his failures outside of his own behavior, accomplishments, etc.

If you are unable to speak to him in a way that brings you the human dignity you deserve and if you are unable to do the things (take a job) that will free you from dependence and abuse( like taking employment, courses for job skills, going back to school, etc), then you live with a tyrant and are living in domestic violence as are your children. That is a whole other discussion because physical safety might be involved. If that is the situation, please seek help from agencies that help people in such circumstances. If you don't want to work (we don't know as you don't describe your employment/financial situation), then you too are willing to subject your children to the emotional abuse that is occurring as a result of his behavior combined with yours.

You both need help- get it for your children's sake.

neverbeenskiing · 29/05/2024 15:07

He did once say if he hadn’t married me his life would have been exactly where he needed it to be (career wise)

I'm sorry, OP. What a horrible thing for him to say. It's also bullshit, I hope you realise that? Plenty of married men with children manage to excel in their chosen fields. It might be convenient for your DH to believe that you and the kids are the only reason his career hasn't turned out as he'd hoped but since, as you say, he does fuck all childcare this seems very unlikely.

Being passed over for promotion is disappointing, of course. But a man who copes with disappointment by giving his wife the silent treatment, drinking too much and ignoring his children is a selfish twat.

MzHz · 29/05/2024 15:10

2024Mu · 29/05/2024 08:14

If I’m being truly honest I have been depressed for a number of years. I feel overwhelmed as I do everything on my own. I did take it out on him a fair bit.

No wonder you are fucking depressed, you have been neglected and dumped on for years. How dare he blame you.

Ifyoucouldreadmymindlove · 29/05/2024 15:12

DistinguishedSocialCommentator · 29/05/2024 09:51

He is feeling serously rejected, pelase dont make it any worse - just give him space and remain polite - hope it all blows over soon

He will be considering his next moves ie move job but that is often hard for most people

Be polite to an abusive man that deals with his own failures by blaming his wife and ignoring his children? Have you lost your tiny mind?

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