Passed over for promotion by someone not eligible

Bobbygirl28 · 13-07-2017 1:46pm #1

Any advice please. I've just got results of recent promotion interview.
Basically 2 posts and a panel. I missed out on the 2 posts but am on the panel for next in line.
I just found out that a male colleague (I'm female with young kids) got one of the 2 posts the thing is the job advertised "at least 3 years post qualification experience" as a requirement which he doesn't have.
I on the other hand have 9 years post qualification experience.
He recently went for another promotion whicj he didn't get but let it be known around that they promised him the next one if he didn't leave.
What would you do? If anything

Stheno · 13-07-2017 2:04pm

How do you know he doesn't have three years experience?

Full Marx · 13-07-2017 2:05pm

Are you a member of a trade union?

Something similar happened in my workplace and the union sorted it

JigglyMcJabs · 13-07-2017 2:09pm

What has your sex got to do with it? Are you implying that it was a factor in the decision?

paulpd · 13-07-2017 2:24pm

What would a union have to do with it?

Maybe the guy is simply better at the job and deserves the promotion?

Bobbygirl28 · 13-07-2017 2:32pm

Stheno wrote: »

How do you know he doesn't have three years experience?

He trained within the organisation so I know when he qualified

Bobbygirl28 · 13-07-2017 2:33pm

JigglyMcJabs wrote: »

What has your sex got to do with it? Are you implying that it was a factor in the decision?

I simply don't know to be honest.

Bobbygirl28 · 13-07-2017 2:36pm

paulpd wrote: »

What would a union have to do with it?

Maybe the guy is simply better at the job and deserves the promotion?

He's not eligible for the promotion based on their own advertisement. Also he's not better at the job than me. Nor is he worse. My question is if someone not eligible got a promotion over you would you question it or not.

Stheno · 13-07-2017 2:37pm

Bobbygirl28 wrote: »

He's not eligible for the promotion based on their own advertisement. Also he's not better at the job than me. Nor is he worse. My question is if someone not eligible got a promotion over you would you question it or not.

Are you in the public or private sector?

Bobbygirl28 · 13-07-2017 2:40pm

Stheno wrote: »

Are you in the public or private sector?

Public

Full Marx · 13-07-2017 2:43pm

paulpd wrote: »

What would a union have to do with it?

Maybe the guy is simply better at the job and deserves the promotion?

If a job is advertised as saying candidates must satisfy certain criteria and those criteria are ignored and better qualified candidates(as per the employers own specifications for the position!) are passed over then it is very much something that a union can be involved in.

The exact same happened in my company and after union intervention the job had to be readvertised and the process run again... The end result was they just promoted more people .

Full Marx · 13-07-2017 2:44pm

Bobbygirl28 wrote: »

Public

Definitely get in to the union so

Bobbygirl28 · 13-07-2017 2:46pm

Full Marx wrote: »

Definitely get in to the union so

Our union are unfortunately very poor !!

Lux23 · 13-07-2017 2:47pm

Could another role come up soon that you will get? If there is I think I would keep quiet because they may hold it against you.

If it is any consolation a similar thing happened to me just under a year ago, someone outside of the organisation got a job that I was pretty much lined up for. Of course being the Public Sector I should have known that there was no such chance of it being a sure thing. Anyway, long story short, I went looking elsewhere and got the first job I was offered with the €17K increase. So maybe you need to look around if they don't appreciate you where you are.

Full Marx · 13-07-2017 2:49pm

Bobbygirl28 wrote: »

Our union are unfortunately very poor !!

If the work place reps are poor find out who the regional organiser (ie someone who is employed by the union not a shop steward) is for the union with oversight for your branch and contact them directly.

mloc123 · 13-07-2017 2:51pm

Bobbygirl28 wrote: »

He's not eligible for the promotion based on their own advertisement. Also he's not better at the job than me. Nor is he worse. My question is if someone not eligible got a promotion over you would you question it or not.

This is your opinion... it may not be others?

ec18 · 13-07-2017 2:52pm

Bobbygirl28 wrote: »

Any advice please. I've just got results of recent promotion interview.
Basically 2 posts and a panel. I missed out on the 2 posts but am on the panel for next in line.
I just found out that a male colleague (I'm female with young kids) got one of the 2 posts the thing is the job advertised "at least 3 years post qualification experience" as a requirement which he doesn't have.
I on the other hand have 9 years post qualification experience.
He recently went for another promotion whicj he didn't get but let it be known around that they promised him the next one if he didn't leave.
What would you do? If anything

If it was the job advertisement those are rarely set in stone and more of a wishlist. Unless you had to fill out something stating explicitly that you have 3+ years experience then I don't think there's much you can do. Maybe he and the other other person just did better in the interview than you?

Glenster · 13-07-2017 2:54pm

I've got jobs that looked for X years of PQE and I've gotten them with less than that. It's more of a guideline.

That's in the private sector though, I'm sure in the public sector there's someone you can whinge about it to.

jackboy · 13-07-2017 2:58pm

Chances are they they are just impressed with this guy and are fast tracking him. This is common in multi nationals and lack of experience and qualifications can be overlooked. A corporate boss told us that a good manager does not need to know anything about the area involved, its all about dealing with people.

lawred2 · 13-07-2017 3:02pm

requirements lists are pretty much wish lists

some will be hard fastened like qualifications but experience is definitely not...

Lux23 · 13-07-2017 3:05pm

I think in an open competition in the Public Sector, the criteria is set and candidates have to meet that before they can be shortlisted.

eagle eye · 13-07-2017 3:10pm

Yes the rules are given for eligibility and if you don't qualify then you don't get it.

This is clearly a case where management think they can get away with promoting somebody they want.

Also in the public sector cronyism is still rife and it is more likely to be the case here than it is that they think he is good at the job.

conor222 · 13-07-2017 3:22pm

In a lot of public sector jobs they also have what they call a "pool" of potential candidates.

These are candidates who have applied for (often similar) jobs but were unsuccessful, however the interviewers felt that they might be good for other roles and are therefore pre-screened for future roles.
This is likely how they circumvented the 3 years experience (which I find is often guideline, not requirement), and TBH I find that the panels look at candidates fairly holistically and weight requirements as they interview.
You may look at 3 years as a make or break requirement, they might not.
Does the other candidate have different skills that could be useful? Different strengths that might play more in the new role? Did they just simply do a better interview than the other candidates on the day?
All of these are possible as well as a million other things, requesting feedback on your interview and how you could do better next time would be a more productive method of both preparing yourself for the next promotion opportunity, and gaining insight into what criteria was used for hiring.

GhostMutt30 · 13-07-2017 4:00pm

You could try contacting the CPSA get their view on it. They can tell you if there are grounds for action to be taken and if so, they can take on the issue.

http://www.cpsa.ie/en/

AndrewJRenko · 13-07-2017 4:43pm

conor222 wrote: »

In a lot of public sector jobs they also have what they call a "pool" of potential candidates.

These are candidates who have applied for (often similar) jobs but were unsuccessful, however the interviewers felt that they might be good for other roles and are therefore pre-screened for future roles.
This is likely how they circumvented the 3 years experience (which I find is often guideline, not requirement), and TBH I find that the panels look at candidates fairly holistically and weight requirements as they interview.
You may look at 3 years as a make or break requirement, they might not.

I've never heard of this, beyond the panels used for teaching roles. But if they are going to operate in this way, they need to do it openly and transparently. It sounds this was NOT the case in this instance.

It's not about 'personal opinions' on whether the three years is a make or break requirement. It is about what is written down in the job spec. It is either required or desirable.

eagle eye wrote: »

Also in the public sector cronyism is still rife and it is more likely to be the case here than it is that they think he is good at the job.

There is generally far less cronyism in the public sector than private. At least there is some opportunity to formally complain/appeal or refer to a 3rd party (CPSA) in public sector.

Miaireland · 13-07-2017 4:48pm

Could he have done similar work in another place. I worked four summers in a role? When I went for a promotion in my previous year they counted the four summers as an extra year experiencing.

testaccount123 · 13-07-2017 5:49pm

eagle eye wrote: »

This is clearly a case where management think they can get away with promoting somebody they want.

Imagine that

bisset · 13-07-2017 8:22pm

In my area the three years post qualification requirement for a front line line management role is necessary.

HR has withdrawn offers to people who did a good interview , had three years experience on the day of the interview but were short of the three years experience on the closing date for the application.

I would guess that it is similar in the OP's area

Lux23 · 14-07-2017 12:20pm

In my job, I had to get written references which said I had three years experience in X. And that X was fairly specific. I have over seven years in my profession but at times I wasn't doing X so that was quite tricky to pull together. This was in addition to two character references.

ec18 · 14-07-2017 3:45pm

This is all conjecture and opinion unless we can see the Job Spec in question, its possible the spec was misinterpreted or there were other requirements not mentioned that the other candidates fulfilled better

CruelCoin · 17-07-2017 10:32am

Bobbygirl28 wrote: »

He's not eligible for the promotion based on their own advertisement. Also he's not better at the job than me. Nor is he worse. My question is if someone not eligible got a promotion over you would you question it or not.

So they made a judgement call.
Not to be harsh, but sounds like he does just a good a job, despite having far less experience.
Maybe, they think he would grow into the next role faster than you would?

Passed over for promotion by someone not eligible

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