Internal promotion, didn't get the job - but they want all of my ideas?

[Unboundcuriosity]

I interviewed for an internal promotion about three weeks ago. I went for the role as a rank outsider, and as expected, I didn’t get it.

However, part of the interview was to give a pitch on how to improve an aspect of our workflow. Knowing I was at a disadvantage, I really worked hard on my pitch and was really proud of the plan I had come up with and the implementation framework I built around the plan.

I am back today after two weeks' leave. I received an email from the lead interviewer asking me to pass over all the details of my pitch, as they were blown away by the detail, the build work, ingenuity, and the work I had done, and they want to implement the changes I suggested.

Um no?

The person who got the job should be implementing their pitch? Right?

I agree. This is the best potential response by far.

As cathartic as it may be to go through sassy comebacks, navigating this successfully could be brilliant for you.

I'd be extremely careful in saying this presentation is your intellectual property. I would be astonished if your contract does not say otherwise.

I really don’t think saying you deleted it is a good idea, nobody will believe you’ve deleted what was evidently a substantial piece of work and it just makes you sound petulant.

I very much doubt you can leverage anything out of this. I would be inclined to just reply that you don’t feel comfortable sharing your presentation as it is personal to you.

Don’t cut off your nose to spite your face, particularly if you are going to be credited for this work.

‘Hi x, I’m delighted you were impressed with the work. I’m happy to share a copy of my pitch. Could we possibly meet before I do this to discuss a) how this will benefit my personal career progression and b) what the expectation is regarding my ongoing involvement in this work. As you are aware, I am extremely busy and would need some of my work covered to free up time to work on this.

Don’t hand it over! Delete it off work laptop and save to personal device. Say you did it on own time if pushed, so info is yours, not work. What CFs!!

So many doormats on this thread...

Thank you for the interest in my pitch. I am now open to deliver this project for X Company at £xxxx (silly money but worth doing) on a consultant basis. I also have several other possible projects that would benefit X Company centred around “buzzword bingo” and operations management yada yada. I look forward to hearing from you.

Surprised at all the notions to delete.

You have indeed now become someone to take note of. Use it to your advantage.

You have a chance to do something impressive.

No its not.

It demonstrates the OP knows their worth.

Its an incredibly cheeky request amd not a chance would i hand over my hard work if i had not been given the job.

But do people really think the company who have the cheekiness to ask for this are going to remember/credit her in some way. They absolutely won’t or they would have mentioned that in their request and given some sort of incentive. Why should the OP have to go begging and scraping.
They don’t care about her it’s clear they just want her ideas.

They should have given OP the role if they wanted her to 'do something impressive'.

Your attitude is why employers take the piss and take advantage if employees who dont know the value of their work, and their skills and experience.

Nobody is buying the icecreams if you are giving them away for free.

They've been upfront about what they want. Could you not also be up front about what you want? Can't you go chat to HR or maybe the new person in the role about what's in it for you if you share that material?

Yes as she works for them and it’s a huge opportunity for her.

Yes, indeed. It amazes me that people are saying this will make them value your worth to them as a business if you hand it over and wait in hope for the next promotion.

All you will do is to reinforce to them that you're a great source of wonderful ideas whom they don't have to pay in order to get them. It's doing the exact opposite.

Could you just meet their brazen with your own brazen and come right out and say that you would need to be paid at an acceptable rate for your own ideas that you came up with in your own time? Maybe ask them if they regularly do large amounts of involved work at home in their own time, unpaid, for the benefit of the company?

She already works for them. If this was an external role it would be very different, but yes most internal managers will remember. Not all, some I agree are dickheads. But most. Even from a purely selfish perspective managers often have to do things like scramble around for a documented reason to put someone on the ubiquitous “future talent list” and this sort of beyond the day job stuff is perfect for that.

Completely agree with this. Yes, it's galling - but you've acknowledged that you're probably not qualified for the new role. What you can argue for is to lead on this project, even if it's under the new manager (it sounds like this would be in their remit since you say 'the new manager can do their own bloody thinking!')

Honestly this is a chance to rise without the hideous pressure of being promoted into a job that you aren't ready for.

The senior team have seen that it's your idea so there's no chance new manager can nick it /take it too far off course - and you will likely impress them, too.

Or people who have been around the block enough times to know that throwing your toys out the pram gets you nowhere and that having a good idea doesn't mean you're cut out for a role

I had something similar when I was a senior nurse. Turned down for an internal post. Person, an outside applicant who got the job was making such a hash of things that consultants were complaining and refusing to have their patients under her care. Management had the bloody cheek to ask me to work alongside her to sort out the multiple problems her incompetence had created. I told them to fuck off - somewhat more politely but the sentiment remained.

It is embarrassing how many posters are suggesting the Op delete it .

This must be the most IT illiterate company on the planet for this to wash with them.

I would put money on most of the ‘doormats’ on this thread being in senior roles as they actually understand how these things work.

You are not valued and appreciated as a member of staff. You are just a cog in a wheel. Let’s not pretend they will reward the OP for sharing their ideas.

At best it probably mildly piqued the interest one of the interviewers who asked HR to get the presentation so she could take a second a look.

If the Op says deleted, they will probably be 🤔 and really not fussed about not seeing it. But relieved they made the right recruitment decision.

And if the Op tries to hardball them with.. I’ll give it to you if you do xyz… I think we will hear the laughter echoing down the hallways.

Id go with the posts which allow you to get leverage and recognition for your good idea rather than just cutting off your nose to spite your face. You didn't get the job but it doesn't mean there was anything untoward in them assessing another candidate as overall more suited (but good go get fedbdack). However this is still an opportunity for career advancement and a potentially positive development for you if you play it right

I would be curious to learn of your career history @seawitchandgarden2 ?

Absolutely this.