Passed over for promotion

LegacyUser

I started in my current job about a year ago with 4 other new starts. I had about 2 years of prior experience in the role while they each had none, but we all started with the same "associate" title. We had our annual assessment recently and I did fine, though some areas were highlighted for improvement. Overall the tone suggested nothing significant was wrong. I wasn't happy with my initial result so I argued that I was better/more advanced than my 4 colleagues in certain categories. Some concessions were made and my score was increased. However, in some categories my manager argued that I had been employed with more experience and so the expectations on me were higher. He also made the point more than once that this was reflected in my salary (implying that I was being paid more than the the 4 colleagues with my title).

I didn't argue with this since it seemed to me that there must be various unspoken levels of "associate" and so different sets of criteria.

A few days later, it was announced that my 4 colleagues were getting promoted to the title of "coordinator". This title didn't exist before (or at least nobody in the office had it), and the very first thing I heard about any of this was the announcement email, which shook me up a lot.

I feel like there are a few things wrong with this, and I want to discuss them constructively with my manager. I need objective viewpoints on this, as I don't trust myself to be fully rational.

Was it fair for me to be assessed differently to the others at my grade?

When I come to my assessment next year, I will have another year of experience. So if the standard I have to reach increases with the level of my experience- how can I ever get out of the associate level?

If it was fair to assess me at some higher standard within the associate grade, how was it fair for my colleagues to get ahead with having to first meet that standard within the associate level themselves?

I'm not bothered about the salary element, but another year as an associate looks bad on my CV.

Irish_Elect_Eng

It sounds to me that you have a weak manager that does not want to deal with your performance issues, it looks like he/she let themselves be swayed away from a constructive discussion during your review.

Was it fair for me to be assessed differently to the others at my grade?

Yes, of course it is, people are assessed on their personal performance not on the performance of others with the same title.

some areas were highlighted for improvement - Overall the tone suggested nothing significant was wrong

Lets be very clear, many people are passed over for promotion because of little issues, just doing your current job is not enough to get promoted, irrespective of how long you have been in the role.

You seem to be confident in your performance, but remember that part of the definition of incompetent is the the person doe not know that they are not capable. You need to quickly identify the issues that need to be corrected.

how can I ever get out of the associate level?

Meet all the requirements of your current position and then develop your skills to meet the requirements of the next role that you want, taking on extra responsibilities. IT is often said that the easiest way to get promoted is to be doing the job before you ask for a title change..



I don't trust myself to be fully rational.

If you can't trust yourself to be rational, then DO NOT initiate the discussion.

LegacyUser

Thanks, this is good feed back.

Irish_Elect_Eng wrote: »

It sounds to me that you have a weak manager that does not want to deal with your performance issues, it looks like he/she let themselves be swayed away from a constructive discussion during your review.

Very possible, whilst confrontational with others in my team, this manager has always been hesitant to feedback directly to me and has tended to do it via intermediates. So, yes it's very possible that this occurred and I'm impressed that you picked up on it.

Irish_Elect_Eng wrote: »

Was it fair for me to be assessed differently to the others at my grade?

Yes, of course it is, people are assessed on their personal performance not on the performance of others with the same title.

Well that's not exactly what I meant, I meant more that we all, individually, ought to be measured off the same set of objectively-set criteria? If I'm merely making the grade in some criterion, and a colleague of mine is less adept, then assuming we are measured against the same standard, I will do better than them. What I'm worried about is that it seems like different standards were applied and that standard is some function of experience- meaning that it will always be a moving target?

Does that make sense?

Irish_Elect_Eng wrote: »

some areas were highlighted for improvement - Overall the tone suggested nothing significant was wrong

Lets be very clear, many people are passed over for promotion because of little issues, just doing your current job is not enough to get promoted, irrespective of how long you have been in the role.

I totally agree with that.

Irish_Elect_Eng wrote: »

You seem to be confident in your performance, but remember that part of the definition of incompetent is the the person doe not know that they are not capable. You need to quickly identify the issues that need to be corrected.

Well, I do worry about this which is why I recently asked for some regular performance data to be sent to me, so that I can modify my behaviour and see an outcome in the metrics. I'm very much eager to improve.

Irish_Elect_Eng wrote: »

how can I ever get out of the associate level?

Meet all the requirements of your current position and then develop your skills to meet the requirements of the next role that you want, taking on extra responsibilities. IT is often said that the easiest way to get promoted is to be doing the job before you ask for a title change..

I'm a big believer in that myself. I did actually end up doing a lot of work outside of my job description last year. Much of that seems to have been taken for granted however, since it doesn't directly feed into the main performance metric.

Irish_Elect_Eng wrote: »

I don't trust myself to be fully rational.

If you can't trust yourself to be rational, then DO NOT initiate the discussion.

That's why I've waited and looked for objective opinions. Thanks!

Associate

Associate wrote: »

I had about 2 years of prior experience in the role while they each had none, but we all started with the same "associate" title.

I wasn't happy with my initial result so I argued that I was better/more advanced than my 4 colleagues in certain categories. Some concessions were made and my score was increased. However, in some categories my manager argued that I had been employed with more experience and so the expectations on me were higher.

Was it fair for me to be assessed differently to the others at my grade?

Look at it from your manager's perspective. You were hired with 4 other people, each of whom you had a 2 year advantage on, and whom you're being paid more than for that reason. Obviously they expect you to perform better than the others. You say you're more advanced than your colleagues - is this a provable fact or your opinion? More experience doesn't prove better performance. The promotions would suggest that they are at least at the same level of performance as you, which after only a year of work is impressive compared to someone with now 3 years of experience.

Associate wrote: »

I'm very much eager to improve.

I think this is what you should concentrate on. It doesn't matter whether you feel you're better than your colleagues or not, just focus on yourself. You're currently an associate, and you want to be promoted above that. So you must have to improve your performance.

Three things about your post came across, but I could be totally wrong here:
1. You seem to feel slightly resentful at being hired at the same level as novices despite your previous experience, and this promotion has challenged your idea of your standing as an unspoken higher level associate within the level of associates.
2. You don't seem to have a great rapport with your manager.
3. Have you considered the possible results of confronting your manager about this? Even if you were to somehow prove that there was a level of unfairness to the recent choices for promotions, do you think this would earn you a promotion? You say you don't think another year as an associate would look good on your C.V., but surely a bad reference from your manager would be a far worse result? You've already criticised his/her annual assessment of your performance. Confrontation is sometimes a good thing, but I get the feeling you'd be pushing it to criticise recent promotions, and might garner ill will both with your manager and with the recently promoted.

LegacyUser

Good advice all, thank you. Lots to think about.