Il Duce was a Director. Tiberius' other direct reports are Directors. My title is Associate Director (one level down). Which is, if you've read my previous rants, the position I've been at for a while:
- despite steady increases in my job responsibility,
- despite the fact that other Associate Directors in the company have a fraction of my responsibility,
- despite the fact that other Directors in the company have less responsibility,
- despite the fact that if he had to hire externally to replace me, there's no way Tiberius could bring anyone in at my level to do this job.
I said, "That's disappointing."
He countered with, "I'm not saying it's not going to happen. I'm just saying that it's not going to happen now."
"I don't care about the future," I told him. "I don't trust this company. Nothing personal, but I've been here far too long and have too many times heard about promotions that will happen at some nebulous time in the future. It doesn't matter to me. You're either promoting me now or you're not. And you're not. There really isn't anything more to say."
He said, "I know you're disappointed..." But I cut him off.
"I know you know that I'm disappointed, but I don't think you fully understand how disappointed I am. My disappointment cup is full to the rim and threatening to spill over."
Tiberius got visibly agitated. His position went from a promotion in "three-to-six months," to "by June," to "maybe we can do this now" in the span of a few minutes.
Didn't matter to me. I don't bluff when it comes to my job. I will do my best at all times, but when I decide to leave, I'll just do so without making threats or giving ultimatums. I knew I wasn't going to start looking until the end of March at least (when the bonuses come out), but after that, if Tiberius still hadn't promoted me, I would have to decide what I was going to do.
Funny thing happened, though. Through a little management restructuring, they moved a different guy above Tiberius. Sort of created a position between Tiberius and the VP who was blocking my promotion. This new guy (we'll call him Don Corleone) and I go way back. He hired me 10 years ago. The few years that I worked for him were my favorite at this company. I have a lot of respect for him. Not that I'd ever go to him and ask for favors, but I was looking forward to working under him again (even if I was two levels below). There, in itself, was a reason to stay.
Don Corleone got moved into this role at about the same time that Tiberius was telling me that he couldn't promote me. During our meeting, when I told him how disappointed I was, he said that he'd go talk to his new boss (Don Corleone) and see what he thought about it. Within a few days, Tiberius came back to me with a completely different tune and said they were going to promote me after all. Finally.
He said that he wanted to go run it past the other IT Vice Presidents so there wouldn't be any complications – apparently the appointment of a Director, even one slipping into a vacant role, can be controversial around here – but he and Don Corleone didn't think it would be a problem. This would go into effect April 1 with the rest of the promotions.
This all happened at the beginning of March. Needless to say, that month was the happiest I'd seen in several years. Il Duce was out of my hair, and I was finally getting the recognition I deserved for years of hard work. I can't remember the last time I was that excited about my work. I got more done that month than was humanly possible. Days, nights, weekends... I threw myself into the job where I finally felt appreciated.
So what happened? Clearly this not the end of the story.
On Monday, March 17, we managers got letters from HR to distribute to our staff telling them what their new salaries are and if any promotions have been made, what they are. I got mine for my staff and distributed them. Judas got his promotion, finally, my peace offering to him. He is now an Associate Director and he still works directly for me. (Apparently, you can have direct reports who are the same level as you, contrary to what Il Duce told me so many moons ago. Makes no sense. But anyway...) Congratulations to him.
I noticed that Tiberius had not sent me my own letter. I was leaving for a trip to the U.K. on Friday, so I stopped by his office several times that week and asked if we were going to meet. He said yes, but kept brushing me off. In the end, we never did.
So I set up a conference call for him later in the following week while I was away in the U.K. office, reminding him that he had not given me my letter, that I did not know the status of my promotion, raise or bonus, and I told him that I was getting a little concerned.
When we met, finally, over the phone, he told me that he had good news and bad news.
"Okay," I said. "Give me whichever first."
The good news, he told me, was that they had decided not to fire me. No, that's not exactly what he said, but it felt that way. What he told me was that they had discussed the option of posting my position externally and letting other candidates apply, which I could do as well, and we'd see who was the best person for the job. But they decided not to do that. So that was the good news.
"So the good news is that my job is not in jeopardy?" I asked him. "Something I didn't even know was a possibility until 2 minutes ago?"
He said yes. I told him it didn't feel like good news, but he insisted that it was.
The bad news, he said, adding, "and you're not going to like this," was that they couldn't promote me. Apparently, even though Don Corleone was now his boss, and the two of them agreed that I should be promoted, and it only requires two levels of approval to promote somebody, that the same VP who blocked the promotion before (now three levels above me) stepped in and quashed it again.
(Seriously. What does this guy have against me? I would love to sit down with him and ask, but Don Corleone says that's not a good idea.)
Sadly, Tiberius and Don Corleone knew about this early on in March, that I wasn't going to get prompted, and they didn't tell me. Instead they let me have the happiest month in recent history under completely false pretenses.
Tiberius still feels that he will be able to promote me eventually. "Not at some nebulous time in the future," he said, mimicking my own words just a month prior, "but soon." All I have to do, apparently, is convince some of the other IT Vice Presidents that I'm the right guy for the job. Tiberius said we were going to meet with them soon so I can present them with my strategy for my department.
That was six weeks ago and so far no such meetings have been scheduled. Yeah, I'm not optimistic.
So why do I still work here?
Good question. Sometimes I don't know, exactly. I like the job itself and the people who work for me, but I'm quite unhappy about how I'm treated from above.
Am I ready to go looking for a new job? Yes and No. Penelope and I have only lived here for two years. The likelihood of me finding a job at my level locally is slim, so I'd be looking at a nation-wide search. We've both agreed that we'll move if we have to, even though we'd also both prefer it if we stayed, so I'm only slowly dusting off my resume and getting ready to shop it around.
But at the same time, I know in my gut that Tiberius and Don Corleone will come through for me eventually, if I am willing to wait long enough. I've been in this position twice before at this company, once before with Don Corleone himself, and patience has always paid off. And even though it was frustrating to go through, after it was done and the injustice rectified, it felt worth it.
Can I count on this a third time? Am I a fool to trust that my luck will hold, or should I stick it out a little while longer? If so, how long should I wait before I start looking elsewhere?
Complicated questions with no good answers.
I'll follow-up when I have news.
