Work rant...

Apologies in advance, I just need to vent a bit and need to do so somewhere where I know it wont be seen by coworkers/managers.

I'll preface by saying I love my company, Im on my 17th year with them and they treat me very well.

About 4 years ago I switched roles to enable me to move south and in the new role I was given responsibility for a team.  Without getting too deep into it I kind of hated it, I dont necessarily dislike people management but I was being asked to manage a new team, non of whom really had experience in the role and *I* was not experienced in the role either.  Still I am forever appreciative to have been given the role which enabled me to move closer to my parents who were having medical issues.

2 years in I was given the opportunity to transition to a new role without people responsibility and I took it.  I was helping form a new team for global support.  I am the operations manager which means I oversee the work but Im not doing "people" stuff like performance appraisals.  I shouldn't complain, its easy work for good pay.  But in that role I've been the backup to my manager who also manages a local support team.   She's been working on some really big initiatives and also dealing with some family and medical issues so in the past year and a half I've been "the boss" in her absence for over 15 weeks (just counting long term fill in not all the times I've covered day to day so she can work on the big picture)

So today a re-org was announced, I wasn't in the dark about it, knew it was coming and had a good idea of what it meant.  She was managing local and global teams and it was too much, the anticipation was they'd want a new manager for the global team.  If that was the end of it I'd probably be ok as I dont really want responsibility for the global team.  But instead what happened is she's been moved to a director slot (well deserved) overseeing two new managers one for the local team and one for global.  She knew I was reticent to take on management of the global team so maybe thats all it is but I would have like to at least have been asked to take over the local team.  I have the background and skills, I've certainly been good enough to cover for her all this time.    

Of course I've been told I can apply for either position, which is probably the crux of my issue.  In general it annoys me that for many internal positions you have to apply for the job to gain promotion.  When moving between divisions and stuff it makes sense.  But FFS I feel if they thought Id be good for the role they'd offer it.  Interviewing with the people who've worked with me for 4 years and know all my capabilities is just a slap in the face which says, "we dont think you're right for it but we cant stop you from trying"   

This isnt about the money or power, hell Im not even sure I'd want the role.  I get paid well enough.  I would have just liked the respect of saying "hey, you've been doing all this anyway, wanna make it permanant?"

Rant over

In my company they are required to open the job for a certain amount of time EVEN if they know who is going into the spot. Is that a law? Honestly, it should be if it isn't. What if someone nails the interview and knows exactly what is needed? They may be better qualified or they may find the person to fill a slot one down with an eye to the future that they wouldn't have found. Just my take on it.

Of course I've been told I can apply for either position, which is probably the crux of my issue.  In general it annoys me that for many internal positions you have to apply for the job to gain promotion.  When moving between divisions and stuff it makes sense.  But FFS I feel if they thought Id be good for the role they'd offer it.  Interviewing with the people who've worked with me for 4 years and know all my capabilities is just a slap in the face which says, "we dont think you're right for it but we cant stop you from trying"   

This isnt about the money or power, hell Im not even sure I'd want the role.  I get paid well enough.  I would have just liked the respect of saying "hey, you've been doing all this anyway, wanna make it permanant?"

Agreed, the only good reason I can think of for them to not offer you the position is if they got the impression that you wanted out of management entirely.

Another possibility, although I wouldn't call it a good reason, is that they may be so short on capacity for the work they're putting you back into that they'd rather have you doing that, so they didn't give you a choice. Not a good strategy for hanging onto workers in the long term.

chandler said:

In my company they are required to open the job for a certain amount of time EVEN if they know who is going into the spot. Is that a law? Honestly, it should be if it isn't. What if someone nails the interview and knows exactly what is needed? They may be better qualified or they may find the person to fill a slot one down with an eye to the future that they wouldn't have found. Just my take on it.

The fact that other positions have been filled by promotion from within (ie, my boss being made a director without interview) says there's nothing stopping them.  Even if it was a requirement or good idea I'd have felt better if someone reached out and asked me to apply.  Like I said, Im not even sure I want it, but sometimes its better the devil you know, with me becoming the devil.  Than an outside hire to fill the role. Ive had a few discussions with the existing team members who feel the same way.

GameboyRMH said:

Of course I've been told I can apply for either position, which is probably the crux of my issue.  In general it annoys me that for many internal positions you have to apply for the job to gain promotion.  When moving between divisions and stuff it makes sense.  But FFS I feel if they thought Id be good for the role they'd offer it.  Interviewing with the people who've worked with me for 4 years and know all my capabilities is just a slap in the face which says, "we dont think you're right for it but we cant stop you from trying"   

This isnt about the money or power, hell Im not even sure I'd want the role.  I get paid well enough.  I would have just liked the respect of saying "hey, you've been doing all this anyway, wanna make it permanant?"

Agreed, the only good reason I can think of for them to not offer you the position is if they got the impression that you wanted out of management entirely.

Another possibility, although I wouldn't call it a good reason, is that they may be so short on capacity for the work they're putting you back into that they'd rather have you doing that, so they didn't give you a choice. Not a good strategy for hanging onto workers in the long term.

This is a possibility, as I said I knew it was coming and a few months ago my boss mentioned it to me as the manager position for my current group may become open.  As noted I have less interest in that but even at that time I told her my interest would be conditional on the position and details at the time.  So I didnt close the door but I didnt do myself any favors.  Still when I reached out to her to ask if internal candidates would have to do the dog and pony show she only responded Yes.  I was trying to open the door for a discussion and that seemed to close it.

Im not too critical in my role, hell no one is entirely sure what my role is (myself included) this is one of the reasons I would be interested in moving to a more clearly defined role.

Maybe ask her?  Seems like you have a good enough relationship to get an honest answer. 

JThw8 said:

So today a re-org was announced, I wasn't in the dark about it, knew it was coming and had a good idea of what it meant.  She was managing local and global teams and it was too much, the anticipation was they'd want a new manager for the global team.  If that was the end of it I'd probably be ok as I dont really want responsibility for the global team.  But instead what happened is she's been moved to a director slot (well deserved) overseeing two new managers one for the local team and one for global.  She knew I was reticent to take on management of the global team so maybe thats all it is but I would have like to at least have been asked to take over the local team.  I have the background and skills, I've certainly been good enough to cover for her all this time.    

If I'm reading right... two new roles have opened up that you are well qualified for, but you aren't sure which one you want. One is higher status (and paying?), but is likely to be frustrating with the potential for burnout. The other would be an easy fit, but is lower status and still has potential to be frustrating.

...and you're annoyed that your employer didn't unilaterally decide which, if either, position would be the right fit for you?

Sounds to me like they're leaving the ball in your court for you to let them know what you think would be the right fit for you.

I never assume malice when ignorance or just corporate bureaucracy could be the answer.  Maybe there's some odd new requirement on the corporate books requiring EVERYONE to interview in the reorg.  My company has rules on the books for which rental car companies we can use, how many hours in a day we can drive, and the age and mileage of personal cars if they get used on business trips and you're in a sales/customer facing role, I have given up on trying to understand how these things came to be, and just accepted that a large corporation, going through many generations of leadership, is going to have some weirdness.  It's almost like evolution in a way...cast-off useless requirements and policies that probably served a really good purpose at some point in the past. 

If you know which job you want, go for it.  Bury the ego and take the approach of, "There may have been some confusion, but I am very excited for this opportunity and think I am well qualified to do the work".  If you get it, all this uncertainty doesn't matter and you've got what you wanted!  Good luck! :)

Aren't you getting pretty close to retirement?

It may not feel great, but it may have been a legitimate company decision to avoid automatically putting you into a leadership position that you may not want, especially if you are close to leaving the organization. They'd just have to reboot the position again. 
 

Asking you to interview may just be giving them the opportunity to take all the factors into consideration again (after you make it clear if you have an actual interest).

I agree with jfryjfry. Ask her. 

Beer Baron said:

JThw8 said:

So today a re-org was announced, I wasn't in the dark about it, knew it was coming and had a good idea of what it meant.  She was managing local and global teams and it was too much, the anticipation was they'd want a new manager for the global team.  If that was the end of it I'd probably be ok as I dont really want responsibility for the global team.  But instead what happened is she's been moved to a director slot (well deserved) overseeing two new managers one for the local team and one for global.  She knew I was reticent to take on management of the global team so maybe thats all it is but I would have like to at least have been asked to take over the local team.  I have the background and skills, I've certainly been good enough to cover for her all this time.    

If I'm reading right... two new roles have opened up that you are well qualified for, but you aren't sure which one you want. One is higher status (and paying?), but is likely to be frustrating with the potential for burnout. The other would be an easy fit, but is lower status and still has potential to be frustrating.

...and you're annoyed that your employer didn't unilaterally decide which, if either, position would be the right fit for you?

Sounds to me like they're leaving the ball in your court for you to let them know what you think would be the right fit for you.

Nope, both positions would be equal status and pay either one would be a fit but I have my preferences on which I'd be interested in.  They'd likely assume I have an interest in one over the other only because its the area in which Im currently working.    

SV reX said:

Aren't you getting pretty close to retirement?

It may not feel great, but it may have been a legitimate company decision to avoid automatically putting you into a leadership position that you may not want, especially if you are close to leaving the organization. They'd just have to reboot the position again. 
 

Asking you to interview may just be giving them the opportunity to take all the factors into consideration again (after you make it clear if you have an actual interest).

I agree with jfryjfry. Ask her. 

Still at least 12 years away from retirement which is an eternity in IT as quickly as things change so stability is not a concern from the company side.    And I'd kind of not like to spend those years doing what I do now (which is pretty much nothing but hey the pay is good) The one position will need to take on evaluating and re-creating our local Service Desk.  This has been pretty much my entire career before I came to this company.  I started out running service desks, then went into developing software for them and finally ended in developing process and procedure for them when I realized software fixes nothing without process to back it.   

As to the "ask her" and the relationship.... I asked a question to kind of open the conversation and it was shut down with a curt answer.  I may be reading too much into it but it felt like I was being dissuaded from pursuing it further.   I have mixed feelings about the relationship but I'd rather not delve too much into that.   

In reply to JThw8 :

It still sounds like there are too many perfectly valid reasons why they might want you to apply rather than just offering you one position or the other.

I think you should decide what the best fit for you is, and apply for it.