To complain to my manager about this promotion

[Outofthepix]

Someone was kicked out of our team for underperforming and bullying. They were sidelined into a role to keep them out of the way and let the dust settle.

Fast forward a year or so and it’s turned out that a promotion role has been created for this person in another department and they’ve been given it (the company have made it look like they’ve followed process and advertised it properly but it’s clear that the role has been created for them, nobody else interviewed).

It appears the old boys network is still alive and well. I’m disgusted and very angry about this and have had a frank conversation with my boss about this. He says that his hands are tied but I suspect he’s been very key in giving this person a helping hand into the new role. I feel I want to leave the company, I feel so strongly about how unfair it is.

Can’t organisations see how morale is affected when they do these things? This isn’t what our company values are! Roll on retirement, I’ve had enough.

Promoting someone out of the way is a pretty widely recognised practise.

Generally cheaper and easier than dismissals.

Disgusting to reward bad behaviour with a promotion though isn’t it?

Incompetent men are often promoted up and away from where they're currently doing damage. We have one in our team. His current team were delighted to get rid of him. Meanwhile morale in my team is at an all time low as a result and I have 2 interviews outside scheduled.

Never underestimate the mediocre man or the 'good bloke' with mates..

In my sector, senior managers who are notorious bullies are actively headhunted by other universities!

And YANBU!

“Failing upwards”. It’s the British way. I’m not sure the term even exists in other countries or languages.

I can’t believe it, we’ve also got two members of our team who are actively looking to leave. And all because of this person and how he was / is being managed.

In a previous role i was in, a new manager was brought in.

He lied, bullied, and intimidated his way through the female staff.
4 long standing members of staff all left because of him.

It's a big company, so we all left the department.
And then he left not long afterwards.

His LM was too much of a pussy to do anything about it.

One of my colleagues was pregnant, so she was supposed to have a risk assessment done every month.
It ended up in a (literal) shouting match between her and the useless twat, in the office.
The senior manager was sitting there and completely ignored it. He wasn't professional, or capable enough to handle the situation.
It took another manager from across the office to intervene and take Sarah* aside and away from him.
Then a different LM offered to carry out the RAs every month, cos Sarah obviously didn't want him anywhere near her.

*not her real name

It is not just old men club. I work for a very big multinational. This lady in her 50ies joined as she was basically fired from a previous organisation. She is super active on all social media, writing blogs about inclusion and diversity, leadership etc. she manages to put herself down for all sort of awards, powerwomen in the northeast, raising start of this, best woman in IT etc, she goes taking to a panel a week and her narrative is she was ousted from her previous job as it was an old man club etc. so all about inclusion and diversity. She is completely incapable to do her job. She is so busy with social media and awards and public speaking, plus 3 kids, that the she basically does not spend any time focusing on the work. All her projects were delayed and were losing money, she did a huge campaign about her promotion, supported by a managing director who did not work with her but kept on saying how amazing she was. Since everybody working with her could see how bad she was in her job, she did not get the promotion, but she was moved to another department where she still got an account leadership role. She is terrible in that role and people just want to leave the account. She backstab people and take credit for everything, publishing posts on linked in on how amazing she is and how she managed to get her new role. I am in her account and actively trying to leave.

I really do wish there was a robust way to report and deal with genuinely shit leaders.

There's one in my company. He is so shit at his job plus a poor leader / manager. Multiple people have left &/or have been signed off sick plus his team have continually voted on the internal survey of being the 'unhappiest' in the company. I don't know how he keeps his job. There are so many factual metrics that show he is shit at his job yet he still holds on.

IMO Anyone who keeps banging on about diversity and inclusion on LinkedIn is a career whore. I wonder if we know the same woman. she got ousted from my workplace and she flirted heavily with a younger male team lead which was very cringe.

If this is a legitimate role it’s awful, however I suspect within 18 months two things will happen, either they will pile so much work he will resign or there will be a redundancy roll out and middle management will be mostly affected… and lo and behold he’s gone. All legitimately.

@SlapTheMelon That woman also has a job for life if she's spending all her time at work doing that bullshit.

DEI twaddle is bloody everywhere, so she can spend her days doing this, and they get to pat themselves on the back for being, like, soooo, inclusive.

I have people doing the same fucking thing where I work, including nominating themselves for awards.

It makes me sick.

Can’t organisations see how morale is affected when they do these things?

The short answer is no, or at least, the decision-makers can't see it. They are blind to things going completely pear-shaped while they pursue their own whims - not just in matters of promotion, but in general strategy too. No one can ever admit they are wrong.

I wouldn't bother complaining, they won't give a shit and you'll put a mark on your back. Best thing to do is look elsewhere and leave them to it.

I work for the police. It's the same within. If you creep round the bosses your the greatest. The only criteria is you have to be male.

Playing devil's advocate if this guy was moved a year ago to an entirely different department how do you know it wasn't the kick up the arse he needed to mend his ways and get on with working in an appropriate manner. Perhaps he did and perhaps he deserves the new appointment.

Alive and well in the NHS.
The amount of money spent on investigations, bringing external investigators, meetings, etc to deal with underperforming people is unbelievable.
Nine times out of 10, they are merely moved to another dept, because if anyone tries to sack them, the wanker/wankeress sues them

Two problems at play here. The first, old boys network, is rife. Too many people are promoted because their face fits. The other is that man management is seldom recognised as a skill in itself. I've worked in several organisations where people are promoted out of a role in which they are really exceptional, into a man management role which they're rubbish at. They leave a huge hole in their previous role, and create a problem for everyone who reports to them. It'll be different when I'm King....😂

Happened all the time when I was in a Local Authority and still does.

Constantly shite at your job and a twat as well?

Here you go, Head of Service role for you and you'll be starting on £90k a year. Now get in your office and keep your head down.

So much of this shit happens. Those awards evenings are laughable.

I would love someone who works in HR on mumsnet to explain how shit managers / leaders keep their jobs.

Do HR know about them? What can they do? Which metrics do they look at to confirm that they're shit?

It’s absolutely nothing to do with HR who gets the chop. They’re more likely to advise against giving someone the chop because who wants an unfair dismissal case to work through 🤷‍♀️

HR set the strategy and policy for employees (including Managers and Directors) to work within. They’ll offer advice and, in some circumstances will support the company in when deemed appropriate, such as recruitment, induction/onboarding and dismissal. This is to prevent maverick managers from saying or doing something completely inappropriate or unlawful.

Managers are the ones who actually decide. If the manager doesn’t have adequate evidence of misconduct following an investigation, can’t be arsed investigating or know that the employee in question will cause absolute mayhem, they’ll encourage them to apply for other roles and the ones that are most appealing, are promotions.

Welcome to corporate

Also

HR will collect all the one-to-one data and yes, there should be metrics to determine poor performers. And yes, managers should put PIPs in place and, where necessary manage those people out of the business.

Very few can be arsed, because most of them just want to meet their 3 mth objective, grab a bonus and get promoted themselves. They couldn’t give a flying fuck about the damage their short term thinking has caused.

i used to hate it. Now I work on a day rate to go into these places that haunted my corporate life, and they pay me to fix the damage 😬

This is why I work for myself…

SHIT FLOATS