Too valuable to promote

[SanctusInDistress]

I think I’ve worked too hard and been too accommodating by taking on extra tasks and going the extra mile so now I’m impossible to promote because they’d never be able to backfill me or recruit a replacement without much upheaval.

tell me your story if this has happened to you too and how you dealt with it!

I don’t want to leave, but I’m fed up of seeing people around me progress whilst I’m still here. It’s been years now.

No words of wisdom but I’m firmly in my box because they don’t want me to be promoted and have to fill the gap. I’m planning to wait a year and review (due to a post grad course I’m doing). I wish I knew how to break free.

I’ve had this in nearly every job I’ve held. Ultimately I’ve become frustrated and found new opportunities and left, each time I’ve been asked to stay and offered more, but by then I’ve felt it’s too late

I was in this position but I left.

They tried to replace me but failed.

Ended up having to import a huge team of consultants at enormous cost to work out how to achieve everything I had been doing.

Oh how I laughed. But I also learned my lesson. Working harder does not get you promoted. It just gets more shit shovelled onto you.

You have to leave. I know this isn't what you want to do but there's no alternative, they won't have a Damascene moment in which they start to treat you according to your value.

I left, they replaced me after much agonising and their income declining... with 2.5 people 😁

Yes. I made too many people around me look good, and so I was more valuable in that position than if they had promoted me.
I left.

I had this, I left and they replaced me with 2 new people. Both have since left due to workload and one post has been split again into 2 posts.

Can you speak to your manager about delegating tasks away from you? Surely you’re stressed.

Have you had an appraisal recently OP? If so, what was agreed when you discussed the route for progression with your manager?

I had the exact same. I worked my arse off in one place, went for promotions, asked for support to attend further training and maximise my opportunity. In the end I left, my boss was so shocked as they never thought actually leave. Have been replaced with 2 senior managers both claiming individual salarys the same as mine and a handful of people in other roles in the team at lower pay grades. Outputs are shocking as well and taking a while to recover from.

What has your manager said when you asked them about it? Id make it clear that without moving upwards you will leave or they can help you move while retaining your knowledge. But give yourself a timeframe for things to start happening and mean it when you say you will look elsewhere

To add, this is what I did and moved to another team and supported my old team in finding a replacement and supported the replacement in training and issues down the line. They knew I was interviewing elsewhere so this did spur things in my favour

Promotion is dangled in front of me…..but never materialises.

I've had this twice, but always left. Sad and frustrating but what other way round it is there?

@SanctusInDistress

Unfortunately then, I think you need to leave your current company and look for progression elsewhere.

It makes me really cross when managers keep people dangling like this. I'd also be hesitant to continue working in a company where this behaviour is acceptable.

Brush up your CV and see what opportunities are out there. I think you would also be wise to work on being assertive so that you are not seen as someone to be 'put upon' in a new role

I think you need to leave. Due to the industry I work in we have a lot of people like this. They are very technical, work brilliantly, but progression involves more people management and less of the technical work they excel at. With these people we create a sort of expert role to indicate their experience and seniority, pay rise as well obviously. The new role rarely involves line management which suits them, but they are rewarded for their hard work.

It doesn’t sound like your company are prepared to do this for you for whatever reasons, so I think you definitely need to look elsewhere.

If you wish to remain at your company the only way out of this is to have a frank conversation with your line manager. Sadly, though I agree with the others you probably need to apply elsewhere.

I've been stuck in a role like that (some years ago), and it happened to adult DD recently. Both of us resigned in the end.

My employer brought someone new in (at the grade I was on) to take over. She fucked up big-time style, and they had to get rid of her and transfer in someone of a higher grade. The grade I'd asked to be promoted to, and was told that the role didn't warrant it. I took comfort from knowing just what an awful shambles the new person made of it. Served them right.

DD had been told there were opportunities for progression. She asked for promotion, applied internally for a role, and didn't get it. She then found a job elsewhere. The 'big' boss was only told she was leaving on her actual last day, realised that they were in the doo-doo without her, so they practically went down on bended knee and offered her whatever she wanted, whichever hours, yadayada. She gracefully declined, because she didn't trust them.

Brilliant!

I would look for new job opportunities.

Last month I asked for an upgrade to my job title to reflect what I actually do at work (which is more than my JD and includes a completely different area of work).

I was told that there was 'no business reason for a promotion' and that we could discuss this again next year.

Meanwhile they still expect me to do the additional work for no extra pay or recognition, so I immediately started job hunting after that.

If employers don't promote progression and recognise input then I don't see why I should waste my time in that role any longer.

You leave for a new job, and ensure that you don't ever put yourself in this position again by colluding in your own exploitation?

First ask for a pay rise and promotion. They might say yes.

If it's refused, interview for the next grade up with other companies.
When you are offered a job, go back to your company and say you'd prefer to stay but can't justify holding back your own career. Ask if they will reconsider promotion and salary in line with what you've been offered elsewhere.

You either discover they are prepared to pay to keep you or you're not as indispensable as you thought and you can move on. I know people who return to the company they loved after a move away, and come back at a much higher salary and position. But they had to leave first to get missed.

Good post.

You have to play them at their own game, get promotion via job offers elsewhere and threaten to leave unless the upgrade in salary and role is implemented immediately.

This happened to me. I was explicitly told I wouldn't be considered for a particular promotion because I was needed where I was.

I left for a better role, a couple of years later they headhunted me back for a more senior role which I accepted, so I got there in the end. Frustrating though.