It’s certainly worth asking the interviewer/selector for some feedback. Just try to do it in a more humble fashion than the way you are coming across here.

That is the way to approach it. If you’re going to “speak up” I’d 1) make sure you have some evidence over emotion 2) still do it as above.

If you’ve got 1000 employees your interviewer will hit the HR panic button and it’ll get very formal very quickly. I’ve seen lots of candidates believe they’re the number one option only to have the rug pulled from under them. Interviews and outcomes are based on more than your “qualifications”; even in the broadest sense. It’s a hard pill to swallow.

Not really enough info here – which is why you’re getting no sympathy. I’ve just read back through the thread, and all I’m clear about, is that you think your line manager blocked your promotion.

Why did he do that? He hates you? You’ve become indispensable to your department?

In my experience the whole promotion / redundancy thing is 100% personal and unprofessional and the HR department’s main function seems to be to retrospectively put all the paper work in place to make it all seem impartial and professional. There’s nothing more true than ‘Life isn’t fair’.

Thanks guys. This has been enlightening, even if only to pool others opinions.

user-removed – Member

Not really enough info here – which is why you’re getting no sympathy. I’ve just read back through the thread, and all I’m clear about, is that you think your line manager blocked your promotion.

Why did he do that? He hates you? You’ve become indispensable to your department?

I cant be more specific on a public forum, but I believe that his arguement would be that I have become indispensable. But, additionally, he hates me. He seems to really get off on controlling peoples personal lives and has told me as much about junior staff. Now he’s doing it to me because he can as a dominance thing. And he boasted that he could when I informed of my intention to apply for the vacancy.

I think that’s unprofessional in the extreme.

Get out if possible. A manager like that is unlikely to change whatever you do. Change department, dust off your CV and start looking around. Smile knowingly at everything he says, safe in the knowledge that you’ve shifted the balance of power. Then piss in his shoes / coffee / petrol tank.

user-removed

Get out if possible. A manager like that is unlikely to change whatever you do. Change department, dust off your CV and start looking around. Smile knowingly at everything he says, safe in the knowledge that you’ve shifted the balance of power. Then piss in his shoes / coffee / petrol tank.

I was trying to get out!! The department I was trying to move to was completely different to where I am now and I’d never have to look at him again. I really like the company, and the industry that it’s in, I just seem to be stuck in this guys personal hell. He’s not letting me, or my peers leave, for the reasons outlined above and I feel, for fear that it would reflect badly on him if we all abandon his ship as it were. Anyway, food for thought.

I genuinely have looked at this situation in another light thanks to some sound advice. It’s a grim indictment of work politics that you all feel, based on your experiences, that I should keep my head down or I’ll get it blown off. Sad but true perhaps.

Thanks again to all the non snarky posters.

any company that allows a control freak like that have responsibility over others needs to take a close look at themselves. The end result will be worse for them for ignoring it as the good people leave, motivation, initiative and productivity fall.
I’ve never known anyone thrive under a control freak.
I wouldn’t kick up a fuss, you don’t have any power in this situation – the hierarchy is against you.
I would just find a better job in another company.
If you have become indispensable then presumably you do a good job, so be prepared to have this happen again… it’s the curse of being decent and competent in corporate life IME

muddyfunster – Member
It’s a grim indictment of work politics that you all feel, based on your experiences, that I should keep my head down or I’ll get it blown off. Sad but true perhaps.

I can’t speak for anyone else replying, but that’s not what I said at all. I’m sure that it’s all very clear to you from where you are sitting, but to me – and based only on what you have actually typed into this thread – it truely looks like you are only having a whinge for having been passed over.

when ever i was asked to give feedback i was honest brutally so.. i reminded people of commitment of those that went the exra mile those that brought in the extra buck those that didnt back stab and importantly those that didnt pass off others ideas/ work as thier own.

and finally the simple fact that all the people i recruited were ladies, looking for lurve and FAF

druidh

I can’t speak for anyone else replying, but that’s not what I said at all. I’m sure that it’s all very clear to you from where you are sitting, but to me – and based only on what you have actually typed into this thread – it truely looks like you are only having a whinge for having been passed over.

Well, I don’t want to waste your time, and my time by going into extreme detail or yet more politics but trust me, I could very easily persuade you, were we stood face to face that I am not merely whinging and that I’ve genuinely been wronged.

For once, could you operate on the premis that this random internet stranger is actually telling the truth and that there is some meat on these bones of contention?

I think that you need to accept that interviewing candidates for a job is about more than just qualifications. Whilst you and even your employer may want it to be an objective process it rarely is. Emotions and subjectivity do come into it.

With regards your current manager you need to start building a case and collect evidence about his behaviour. Record his conversations with you to provide proof if required of the things he has said.

As you are in a large company I’m sure that you go through some form of appraisal system. Make sure that when you have yours you use the opportunity to spell out where you would like your career to be in 2 -3 years time. Assuming that your line manager/HR think your ambitions are reasonable you can ask them for support in progressing. Then it’s out in the open that you want to be promoted/change roles. If your line manager thinks your indispensable then you can raise this diplomatically to show that your future in your current role is not set in stone and what are they going to do about replacing you.

Sometimes they just can’t afford to lose you from your current position. I’ve seen it many a time and arguing and kicking up a fuss looks bad, except in some cases where resignation at short notice is given, where they end up looking at having to train up two guys, and then they may give you a pay rise and a fancy title with promises for the future. In this fiscal environment though, they may weigh up replacing you with a better, less paid employee, or just removing your post altogether.

Many more companies than we’d care to admit keep managers in place that the employees hate, as it’s just the way things were done in the old days. But back then, when managers had worked their way up, they could do everyones jobs. Now we have managers coming in with theoretical knowledge without total employee handling skills and the place turns to crap for a while, before things turn round, but not before the best, long term staff have left leaving you with large scale employee problems and lack of corporate identity and dissolves trust.

I’d recommend closing up personal behaviour, no whingeing openly, starting to tick the boxes where corporate are seeing your workload and looking at alternative ways out of your department, even downwards if necessary. If you’re not unionised and you can’t get your entire department turning against your manager then you’re on your own in a cut throat employment environment.

The OP’s best way of moving forwards would be to leave the company for another job. He’s clearly not going to be allowed to progress by his manager.
Unless he can provide documented evidence and impartial witness proof that his manager is pulling strings, he’s got no way of proving anything. Even if he makes an official complaint, I suspect HR would just try and sweep it under the carpet and ultimately his card will be marked as a troublemaker.
Whatever he does at his current company, I suspect he’s moving no-where whilst his current manager remains.
So either play the long game, gather evidence to screw over the manager or leave. Me I’d try and do both, but with leaving taking priority, otherwise you’ll just end up resentful and bitter.

Even if you’re 100% correct then as others have said you really can’t do anything about it other than leave, without risking further damaging your career anyway. It sucks but it’s reality.

I had a vaguely similar situation myself, applied for a junior manager role I thought I was a shoe-in for (most technically experienced and it was relating to clients I already supported and knew inside out). In the end the role went to someone else who happened to be mates with the person that made the decision. I was pissed, asked for constructive feedback etc., I even got the interview scorecards for both of us (he beat me by 1 point in a total score of 90-odd, not exactly allaying my suspicions). In the end I just had to accept it and actually reported into the other guy just to wind me up some more :p Anyway we got on fine, a similar post came up a few months later which I got and it actually worked out as a more exciting role (supporting clients with the latest tech rather than 10 year old stuff).

Not saying everything will work out for you – my line manager wasn’t a dick for starters but you still have my plan B which is to work the bare minimum whilst looking for another job and move on as soon as you can. You could try raising a grievance against your line manager but without evidence and others making similar complaints I doubt it will accomplish anything other than making him even more of a PITA

Seems to me that:

a) He can clearly demonstrate your value and the impact your leaving would have on his team, or
b) His management chain think highly enough of him to be able to block your move to another department, or
c) Both of the above

Either way, all the time he is your manager you won’t be going anywhere internally without his help (wanted or not). Your options as I see them are:

1) Find another job and leave the company
2) Stay where you are and accept the situation

I’ve worked for SMEs and very large corporates, in a very large corporate you might get away with making a fuss and going the HR route. I don’t think you would in a SME with about 1000 employees.

As other have noted it is a game of sorts and as distasteful as it may be if you want to progress you have to take part.

But I will take my opportunity to express my displeasure at the situation to my line managers head of department and hr

I don’t know about you, but unless you can prove it, all this does is mark you as a trouble maker. If you think they’ll believe you or have significant “personal credit” to cash in it might be worth a punt but if it can be shut down by the boss denying it, think VERY carefully. Be prepared to have leave if it all goes sour as people have long memories and jumping your manager and going to HR is something that gets remembered.

“I think that’s unprofessional in the extreme.”

While I sympathise with you at being managed by numpties and idiots, there’s no legal obligation on managers not to be unprofessional, thick, pigheaded, prejudiced, showoff, discriminatory, powertripping tossers unless their reason for being that way falls within a very narrow (but common) band of illegal discriminatory criteria: sex, race, religion etc etc.

Well, I don’t want to waste your time, and my time by going into extreme detail or yet more politics but trust me, I could very easily persuade you, were we stood face to face that I am not merely whinging and that I’ve genuinely been wronged.

For once, could you operate on the premis that this random internet stranger is actually telling the truth and that there is some meat on these bones of contention?

TBH, if you come across at work the way you do on this thread then it could be a clash of personalities where you are the one with the bigger problem

Well I am going to speak more openly and bluntly on an internet forum than in an office. I’ll just say again, thanks to the guys who’ve given me advice. It has been heeded and it has been a useful insight for me.

It’s definately helped me to see the potential outcomes for my options.