Late last year my supervisor told me my contract wasn’t getting renewed this spring. I had my suspicions that this wasn’t true(turns out he was leaving and was just trying to scare me/scalp me to keep working for him at a new company) but I still looked around for a backup in case because I’ve lost a contract before. Manager tells me later that they are very happy with me here and have no plans to let me go as I am one of their most prized employees and the whole organization/other departments know it, but I’ve already found out at this point that I could get 50-100 percent more than my current pay just down the hall and other departments are actively fighting over me if I choose to leave, have already had talks with them just in case, and know they’re very interested in me starting ASAP. I decide it wouldn’t be right for me to leave without giving my Dept. a chance to make a counter offer considering the supervisor’s surprise departure, so I ask for time from the new department and explain to my boss that I can’t turn down more money but give him the chance to counter. He wholeheartedly agrees to a raise and promotion and asks me to give him time to get it approved by the top level of the org, which will be slow. I say no problem.
That was 3 months ago. I found out from a contact in administration last weekend that while he was telling me he was working on it but it was taking time, he hadn’t bothered to even start the process yet. I didn’t mention I knew, but told my manager I didn’t have any time left to wait and I was sorry but I was now actively pursuing the promotion through a different department. The raise and promotion both magically appeared within a week. He’s now telling me he worked really hard throwing his weight around to get it done faster but I know the truth, and I can tell he’s just worried I’m on the way out, and the promotion and raise are both not the level I can get at the other department. I’m frustrated by the counter offer I expected to match being significantly less, but mostly mad at myself that I trusted my boss to be as honest with me as I was with him. On a happier note, the other departments are still just as excited and I meet with them next week to finalize the move.
The only person you have to be honest and do the right thing for at work is yourself!